Role
Team Leader and Trial Lawyer at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
Bio
Alice Zago works in the fields of human rights and international criminal law. Her professional experience includes investigations and trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in various countries in Africa, Central and South America, and Asia. After specializing in international and European human rights law, in 2000 she began working for the NGO "No Peace Without Justice" as a consultant on international cooperation. She subsequently worked for the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Guatemala, investigating human rights violations, and then moved on to serve as an international law consultant for the Permanent Mission of Timor-Leste to the United Nations in New York.
In late 2004, Alice Zago was appointed an investigator at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, where she continued to hold other positions, including Team Leader, Deputy Prosecutor, and Team Leader. In 2021, she earned a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School with a thesis on transnational organized crime.
She frequently participates in academic activities, particularly those of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy, such as the annual Moot Court, a co-curricular activity in which participants participate in mock court or arbitration proceedings. She is frequently invited to teach professional training courses at institutes, universities, and NGOs, and to speak at conferences in Italy and abroad.
The first and only Italian woman to lead investigations into crimes against humanity and war crimes at the International Criminal Court and to participate in trials, Alice Zago specializes in ius in bello, the commission of large-scale international crimes, especially sexual crimes and gender-based violence and violence against minors, deportation, enforced disappearances, persecution as a crime against humanity, and modern theories of individual criminal responsibility of superiors.
Alice Zago has a thorough understanding of international criminal procedure, having represented the ICC Prosecutor's Office in various trials, appearing in court, questioning and cross-examining witnesses, including crime victims, and drafting complex legal documents.
Additionally, she has developed extensive knowledge of investigative techniques, particularly interrogation, OSINT investigations, and big data. Alice Zago also has considerable managerial experience, having coordinated multidisciplinary teams in diverse and multicultural contexts for many years.