David Tolbert currently serves as the third president of the

International Center for Transitional Justice The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) was founded in 2001 as a non-profit organization dedicated to pursuing accountability for mass atrocity and human rights abuse through transitional justice mechanisms. ICTJ officially ope ...

, a global human rights organization with headquarters in New York. Previously, Tolbert worked with the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

for almost 15 years, acting as a senior legal advisor, deputy chief prosecutor and assistant secretary-general. He was the chief of the General Legal Division of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Vienna, Austria and Gaza. Then, in 2004, he was appointed Deputy Prosecutor of the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars, war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try ...

(ICTY) by

UN Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-g ...

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the found ...

. Before becoming the Deputy Prosecutor of ICTY, he had served as deputy registrar and chef de cabinet to President Gabrielle Kirk McDonald in the same institution. In July 2009, he was appointed by UN Secretary General

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (; ; born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was his country's Minister ...

as a registrar for the special tribunal prosecuting the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Tolbert worked with the

Special Tribunal for Lebanon The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), also referred to as the Lebanon Tribunal or the Hariri Tribunal, is a tribunal of international character applying Lebanese criminal law to carry out the investigation and prosecution of those responsibl ...

from August 2009 to March 2010. He has served as the Executive Director of the American Bar Association's Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA CEELI), an institution that manages rule of law development programs throughout Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Tolbert obtained his B.A. magna cum laude from

Furman University Furman University is a private liberal arts university in Greenville, South Carolina. Founded in 1826 and named for the clergyman Richard Furman, Furman University is the oldest private institution of higher learning in South Carolina. It beca ...

, his J.D. from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sys ...

and his LL. M. with distinction from the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

. He has published widely regarding international criminal justice, the ICTY and the International Criminal Court (ICC) and has represented the ICTY in the discussions leading up to the creation of the ICC. He has also taught international law and human rights at the post-graduate level in the United Kingdom and practiced law for many years in the United States.

References

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External links

David Tolbert speaks about the International Court of Justice
mdash;video published by the Politiek Cafe Foundation, The Netherlands {{DEFAULTSORT:Tolbert, David Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American officials of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia prosecutors American lawyers Furman University alumni University of North Carolina alumni Alumni of the University of Nottingham