Ruby Axelson is the GRC’s Project & Gender, Child & Inclusive Justice (GCIJ) Lead, which aims to advance feminist and child-sensitive approaches to international law. Ruby focuses on international litigation and project implementation in the fields of international criminal law, international humanitarian law and gender justice. Ruby has provided expert advice, support and mentorship to survivor-led and civil society organisations, national investigative and prosecutorial authorities, and judiciaries across the globe on justice and accountability for conflict-related sexual violence (‘CRSV’) including in Ukraine, the Gambia, North Korea, and Iraq.
Ruby has experience leading several multi-year projects including the MATRA-Ukraine Project “Strengthening Ukraine’s Capacity to Investigate and Prosecute International Crimes”; the ‘Support to Ukrainian OPG and CSOs to Pursue Strategic Universal Jurisdiction Project’; and the ’Child Justice Mobile Justice Team’. Ruby was appointed to the defence team of Jovica Stanišić before the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (‘IRMCT’), where she worked across the pretrial, trial and appeal stages. Prior to this she was on the defence team of Ratko Mladić at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (‘ICTY’). Ruby has a number of publications covering topics including sexual orientation as a ground of persecution as a crime against humanity, participation and reparations for victims of international crimes, and reproductive violence in Palestine. Ruby was an expert contributor to the Hague Principles on Sexual Violence.