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Marie-Hélène Proulx

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Instruct Marie-Hélène

Jamie Smurthwaite

Senior Criminal Clerk

Matthew Stacey

First Junior Criminal Clerk

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Marie-Hélène Proulx was called to the Quebec Bar (Canada) in 2003. She has over 20 years’ experience in international criminal law, international humanitarian law and human rights law, including as a defence counsel before the International Criminal Court. She is regularly invited to speak on issues related to international criminal law before legal professionals, students and the general public.

International Criminal Law

Marie-Hélène’s practice in International Criminal Law includes the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). While her practice in the last decade has been focussed on the representation of suspects, accused and convicted persons, she has also worked as a prosecutor and in Judges’ Chambers.

In 2022, Marie-Hélène was elected president of the International Criminal Court Bar Association (ICCBA). During her mandate, she advocated for the legal profession in various fora, in particular within the diplomatic community in The Hague. A watershed moment during her tenure was the successful adoption of legal aid reform at the ICC, resulting in improved working conditions of legal teams representing defendants and victims. She was re-elected for a second mandate, which ended in late 2024.

Since 2021, Marie-Hélène acts as co-counsel for Patrice-Édouard Ngaïssona who is awaiting judgment at the ICC. She previously was a legal consultant on appeal for the Dominic Ongwen defence team, and a co-counsel during the pre-trial phase of the Al Hassan case at the ICC.

Marie-Hélène also worked in the defence team of Hassan Habib Merhi, during in absentia trial proceedings initiated before the STL. She further represents persons convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in post-conviction matters.

Prior to her work as a defence counsel, Marie-Hélène was part of the Appeals Division of the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICTY, where she contributed to appeal proceedings related to the Srebrenica genocide (Popović et al., and Tolimir cases).

Before joining the ICTY, Marie-Hélène worked as a Legal Adviser at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, and as a Teaching Assistant in Public International Law and International Criminal Law at the University of Geneva.

Transitional Justice

Marie-Hélène regularly provides capacity-building training to legal professionals engaged in transitional justice processes. She notably provided:

-          a 20-hour training to South Sudanese defence lawyers in Juba, South Sudan. The training, organized by the Arizona State University and funded by the US State Department, aimed at reinforcing local capacities in the context of the implementation of the 2013 Peace Agreement including the creation of a Hybrid Tribunal. Marie-Hélène’s training was centred on the role of defence counsel in upholding rights of suspects and accused, how to build a defence theory of the case and defence strategy, and on the modalities and impact of victims’ participation in criminal proceedings.

a training for legal professionals involved in proceedings before Colombia’s Jurisdiction for Peace. This 2-day training, organised by the US Institute of Peace, was aimed at strengthening domestic ability to conduct adversarial cases through comparative expertise.

 

Notable Cases

Seminars

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