Room 280B

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SLS Practitioner in Residence Sareta Ashraph will lead a discussion about how find your dream international law job, including applying to UN jobs, how to network effectively for international jobs, how to identify and pinpoint areas of interest in international law.

Sareta is SLS’ inaugural Global Practitioner in Residence. For much of her career, Sareta has worked to uncover the truth behind some of the worst conflicts in the world. She has investigated human rights abuses including murder, torture, and rape, and has spoken to people traumatized by what they have seen and experienced. Since April 2012, she has been the Chief Legal Analyst on the international independent Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. She is primarily responsible for the Commission’s analysis of alleged breaches of international law by Government forces, anti-Government armed groups, Kurdish armed groups, and extremist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham. She is the principal drafter of the Commission’s reports, and most recently researched and drafted the Commission’s report “They Came to Destroy: ISIS Crimes against the Yazidis, which determined that ISIS was, and is, committing the crime of genocide. She is heavily involved in efforts to advocate for a Security Council referral to the International Criminal Court, or an ad hoc tribunal.

She had the same role for a commission of inquiry on Libya during the final period of the Qaddafi regime, producing a report documenting crimes against Libyans and minorities.Perhaps her most high-profile assignment for the U.N. was being part of a team conducting investigations for the Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, which produced findings known as the Goldstone Report. She has also worked at the International Criminal Court as a legal advisor for the Office of the Public Counsel of the Defense.

A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Sareta first became energized by issues of justice in her home country, where as a teenager she advocated for women’s rights. Later, she developed an understanding of law as a tool to empower people marginalized in society and she became a defense lawyer (currently her practice isn’t active because of her international work). For several years, she lived in Sierra Leone as a member of the defense team representing Issa Sesay, a leader of the Revolutionary United Front who would be sentenced to 52 years for war crimes and crimes against humanity.