MONA ALI KHALIL (FORMER COMMISSIONER)

Ms. Mona Ali Khalil is a public international lawyer with 25 years of United Nations and other experience including as a former Senior Legal Officer in the UN Office of the Legal Counsel (UNOLC).  She is the Founder and Director of MAK LAW INTERNATIONAL -- a strategic consulting service advising governments and intergovernmental organizations in the service of “We the Peoples”. She is also an Affiliate of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict.

Between 1993 and 2005, Ms. Khalil advised the UN principal organs on issues arising under the UN Charter and public international law. She had the privilege of appearing before the International Court of Justice in a landmark advisory opinion. She also advised the Rome Conference on the adoption of the Statute of the International Criminal Court. Between 2005 and 2009, she was seconded to the International Atomic Energy Agency where she promoted international efforts to combat terrorism and the UN sanctions regimes against nuclear non-proliferation. In 2010, she returned to UNOLC where she led the peacekeeping and sanctions teams. She provided legal advice on the UN Security Council’s peace and security efforts including on the protection of civilians and criminal accountability for violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. Among other special assignments, she served as Legal Adviser to the UN Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria and the Joint UN-OPCW Mission to Eliminate the Syrian CW Programme.

She has a B.A. in Government and an M.A. in Middle East Studies from Harvard University. She also holds a Masters in Foreign Service and a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University. She is a published author and a Lecturer at the Vienna Diplomatic Academy.