Cecile Aptel started her career supporting the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the European Union's humanitarian emergency work, serving in the former Yugoslavia in 1993-94. She then joined the newly-established UN international tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, where she was notably involved in the drafting of the first international judgments on the crime of genocide and in the design of the Tribunals' completion strategies (1995-2005). She directly contributed to the establishment of the State Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina's War Crimes Chamber (2005) and of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (2006). Aptel has participated in international investigations of international crimes, gross human rights violations, and terrorism, including at the UN International Independent Investigation Commission in Lebanon, where she established and directed the legal services. She has served as a consultant for the International Center for Transitional Justice and for the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes, advising on rule of law and judicial reform in several countries. Recently, she established and led the International Center for Transitional Justice's Program on Children (2008-2010) and was awarded the 2010 Jennings Randolph Senior Fellowship by the United States Institute of Peace. Since 2008, she is the Co-Chair of the International Bar Association's War Crimes Committee. Prof. Aptel has made several appearances on the BBC and Al Jazeera English, and been quoted notably by CNN and Christian Science Monitor. Her research focuses upon international criminal law, transitional justice, and child rights. Her recent publications include: "International Criminal Justice and Child Protection" (Children and Transitional Justice Harvard University Press, 2010) "Closing the International Tribunals: Completion Strategy and Residual Issues" (New England Journal of International and Comparative Law, 2008); "Justice penal internationale: entre raison d'Etat et Etat de droit" (Revue Internationale et Strate gique, 2007), and "Innovations in the Statute of the Tribunal for Lebanon" (Journal of International Criminal Justice Oxford University Press, 2007).