Alain Werner

Director & Founder at Civitas Maxima

Interviewee

Alain Werner is an international lawyer admitted to the Geneva Bar, with a LL.M from Columbia University, New York (2003).

He is one of the very few lawyers in the world who represented victims in front of several international criminal courts as well as in front of a national court. He participated in some of the most important war crimes trials of the past 20 years, including 2 trials of former Heads of State trials (trial of Charles Taylor, former President of Liberia in front of the Special Court of Sierra Leone in Freetown and in The Hague, and trial of Hissène Habré, former President of Chad in front of the Extraordinary African Chambers in Dakar). Alain also represented victims in the Duch case, the first Khmer Rouge trial in Phnom Penh in front of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

In 2012 Alain set up in Geneva Civitas Maxima (CM), a network of International lawyers and investigators who represent victims of International crimes. CM’s work has contributed one way or another to 11 arrest, indictiments or trials in 6 different countries on 2 continents of persons involved with international crimes. As Director of CM, Alain represented victims in court in the first ever criminal trial in Switzerland in front of the Swiss Federal Criminal Court which led to a conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity (the Alieu Kosiah case).

In 2019 Alain was awarded by the Geneva Bar Association the Bâtonnier Michel Halpérin Prize for Excellency, and in 2020 he became an Ashoka Fellow.