About Us

Civitas Maxima is an association registered in Geneva, Switzerland (September 2012) and is recognized by both the cantonal and federal authorities as a not-for-profit organization.

Civitas Maxima has no political agenda, takes no money from individual countries and performs no advocacy unless directly connected to, and necessary for the advancement of its case files.

Advisory board:

  • Roland Adjovi

    from Benin and Togo and visiting Professor at Arcadia University, Glenside, USA. He was the Lead Counsel for Rev. Mtikila before the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and worked in the past at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and at the International Criminal Court (ICC). He is also a Member of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

  • Olympia Bekou

    from Greece is a Professor of Public International Law at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom and Head of the International Criminal Justice Unit at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.

  • Corinne Dufka

    from the United States is a senior researcher in Human Rights Watch's (HRW) Africa Division with specialized expertise in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, and Guinea, and is in charge of the organization's work in West Africa.

  • Basil Fernando

    from Sri Lanka is a lawyer, leading scholar and former officer of the United Nations. He was the Executive Director of the Asian Human Rights Commission and Asian Legal Resource Centre based in Hong Kong and presently serves as their Director of Policy and Programmes.

  • Olivier de Frouville

    from France is a Professor of Public Law at the University of Paris 2 (Panthéon-Assas), Deputy Director at the Centre of Research on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (C.R.D.H) and a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

  • George Kegoro

    Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission. Former Executive Director of the International Commission of Jurists-Kenya (ICJ-Kenya).

  • Nigel Pleming QC

    from the United Kingdom is a barrister and practices mostly in England and Wales, but also in Hong Kong, Belize and the Caribbean. He is a Deputy Judge of the High Court and a Judge of the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey.

  • Maina Kiai

    from Kenya was the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and is the Co-Director of InformAction in Kenya.

  • Nicholas Koumjian

    from the United States is the International Co-Prosecutor at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). He has worked in several other criminal tribunals throughout his career.

  • Robert Roth

    from Switzerland is Professor of national and international criminal law at the University of Geneva and the Director of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.

  • Lesley Taylor QC

    from Australia is a Barrister at the Victorian Bar in Melbourne, Australia.

  • Antonya Tioulong

    from Cambodia and France, is, since 2008, a civil party in the cases before the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia. She was the editor-in-chief of the documentation department of the French news magazine "L'Express".

  • Michael Bear Kleinman

    from the U.S. recently completed six years at Humanity United, most recently as Director of Investments, overseeing the foundation’s work in Liberia, as well as the foundation’s portfolio on technology and human rights. Previously, he worked for humanitarian organizations in Afghanistan, across East and Central Africa, and in Iraq. He is a graduate of Yale and Harvard Law School.

Executive board:

  • Ivan Agabekov
  • Alex Gonzalez Comte
  • Frédéric Jacquemoud
  • Kim Thuy Seelinger
  • Robert Troxler
  • Gaetano Zanon

Director: Alain Werner

Mr. Werner is a lawyer registered with the Geneva Bar (Switzerland) and holds an LL.M from Columbia University (New York). He has worked for the Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) in several trials including the trial in The Hague of the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor.

He also appeared at the trial of Kaing Guek Eav or Duch before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh where he acted as a lawyer for the civil parties (victims of the crimes of the Khmer Rouge). Mr. Werner also represents victims in the case against former President of Chad, Hissène Habré, in front of the Extraordinary African Chambers in Dakar, Senegal. Alain Werner also represents Liberian plaintiffs in the criminal case for war crimes in Switzerland against Alieu Kosiah.

Strategic Partners and Funders:

Label Un plus pour tous, employeur responsable 2017