Susana SáCouto directs the War Crimes Research Office of the Washington College of Law, which promotes the development and enforcement of international criminal law and international humanitarian law, and the Summer Law Program in The Hague. She is also Professorial Lecturer-in-Residence at the Washington College of Law, where she teaches courses on international criminal law (ICL) and procedure, including an experiential learning course where students work on projects in partnership with tribunals and other organizations dedicated to accountability for atrocity crimes.
SáCouto has advised and provided legal assistance on ICL issues to international, regional, and domestic courts. Her background prior to joining WCL included extensive practical experience with organizations working on human rights, gender, refugee, and international justice issues at both the domestic and international level, including Women Empowered Against Violence, Inc., the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Center for Human Rights Legal Action in Guatemala, and the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.
SáCouto has published widely on a variety of ICL issues, including a book on Gender and International Criminal Law (Oxford University Press, 2022) co-edited with Valerie Oosterveld and Indira Rosenthal, which was recently awarded the Best Book prize from the Women in International Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law. She is co-founder of the Latin American Network for Gender-based Strategic Litigation, an Advisory Council Member of the International Association of Prosecutors’ Prosecuting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Network, and former co-chair of the American Society for International Law’s Women in International Law Interest Group.
She was awarded the Women’s Law Center’s 22nd Annual Dorothy Beatty Memorial Award for significant contributions to women’s rights and honored as an inaugural member of the Gender Justice Legacy Wall by the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice for her contributions to the field of international gender justice.