Kimberly Prost

Kimberly Prost (born June 4, 1958) was the third Canadian Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (following Jules Deschênes and Sharon Williams) and is Head of the Legal Advisory Section within the Division of Treaty Affairs at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna. She is also, since June 2010, the "ombudsperson" to the UN Security Council's Al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee, tasked with advising the committee on requests from individuals or organisations who consider it unfair that they are subject to global sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans, as a result of "listing" by this committee.^[1]

History

Kimberly Prost graduated as a gold medalist from the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba. She joined the Canadian Federal Department of Justice in 1982 and worked for five years at the Winnipeg regional office as a federal prosecutor. In 1987, she joined the Department of Justice’s Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Unit in Ottawa, and worked as head of the Baltic team on possible prosecutions for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 1990 she took a position within the International Assistance Group which acts as Canada's central authority for international cooperation on criminal matters; and was named the Director of the organization in 1994. As Director of the IAG, she participated in the negotiation of over 40 bilateral extradition and mutual Legal Assistance treaties for Canada with other countries.

She joined the Canadian delegation for the negotiations of the Rome Stature for an International Criminal Court and she participated in the negotiation of the related Rules of Procedure and Evidence. She was on the Canadian delegation to the Ad Hoc Committee for the negotiation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. In July 2000, she joined the Commonwealth Secretariat as Head of the Criminal Law section, Deputy Director and head of the legal and constitutional affairs division where she championed a broad program to deliver assistance to member countries. She ran an intensive pan-Commonwealth program on counter-terrorism legislation and implementation of the relevant international instruments, as well as police and prosecutor training in the investigation and prosecution of terrorism and terrorist financing. She has also managed a project which brought together experts to develop model legislation for implementation of the Rome Statute.

She joined the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna as Head of the Legal Advisory Section within the Division of Treaty Affairs in March 2005. On June that same year, she was elected by the United Nations General Assembly as an ad litem judge for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. On July 3, 2006 she was sworn in as a judge of the Tribunal and is currently serving on the on a trial in the Hague.

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