Travel and Learning Award for Susan Lamb
Supporting Susan Lamb to travel to Hamburg, Germany to participate in deliberations and drafting of a new International Anti-Corruption Convention (IACC) and to keep New Zealand institutions, experts, and the wider legal profession abreast of progress.
Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Award
Susan’s plan
Susan will be using a Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Award to return to the New Institute in Hamburg, Germany in 2024, where deliberations and drafting will resume on an International Anti-Corruption Convention (IACC). This is an international mechanism designed to combat grand corruption – the abuse of public power for private gain by a nation’s leaders and officials – which causes a staggering $1.6tn in global losses annually. Grand corruption has been identified as a major barrier to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, fighting climate change, promoting democracy and human rights, establishing international peace and security, and securing a more just, rules-based global order. Developing countries bear the brunt of this abuse, but it is a global responsibility. The IACC fills a crucial enforcement gap in the international framework for combatting grand corruption, as corrupt officials often have impunity in their own countries. It is also a mechanism to recover, repatriate or repurpose these ill-gotten gains for the benefit of the victims of grand corruption. The Award enables Susan to share her expertise and learn from other experts and will equip her with new knowledge and experience that will be of value to New Zealand.
About Susan
Susan Lamb received a BA (hons) (first class) and LLB (hons) (first class) from the University of Otago and undertook doctoral research in public international law at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. She is a Crown Counsel with Crown Law’s Criminal Team. She has previously served as a justice of the criminal division of the Belize Supreme Court and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIARB). She has held various United Nations international criminal justice roles, including as an Appeals Counsel with the UN International Criminal Tribunals for Yugoslavia (UNICTY), Chef de Cabinet to the President of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR), and Chambers Senior Legal Officer to the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT) and has worked as a UN and government consultant in various rule of law, accountability and counter-terrorism roles within many other fragile and conflict-affected states. She is a rostered expert with Justice Rapid Response, which assists with investigations and prosecutions of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and serious human rights violations. She serves with other experts on an Advisory Committee advocating for the creation of a new International Anti-Corruption Court.
Grant Amount
$10,000 in 2024 to support travel
“I’m honoured to receive a Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Award, which enables me to participate in the next phase of the creation of an International Anti-Corruption Court. An effective international mechanism to combat grand corruption is sorely needed.”