Graeme Simpson

Director, Interpeace USA

Graeme Simpson is the Director of Interpeace USA and Senior Adviser to the Director-General of Interpeace, a global peace-building organization headquartered in Geneva and working in 20 conflict and immediate post-conflict zones around the world. In 2016, he was appointed by the UN Secretary General as the Lead Author on the UN Security Council-mandated “Progress Study” on Youth, Peace and Security, under UN SCR 2250 and completed this task in June 2018. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Law at Columbia University School of Law in New York City, where he teaches a seminar on transitional justice and peacebuilding.

Graeme Simpson has an LLB and a History Masters from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He was co-founder and from 1995-2005 Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), in Johannesburg, South Africa. He worked extensively on issues related to transitional justice, including work with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and on the transformation of criminal justice institutions in South Africa. He was one of the drafters of the National Crime Prevention Strategy, adopted by the South African cabinet in May 1996, as well as being a member of the drafting team for the South African White Paper on Safety and Security.

From 2005, Graeme Simpson was the Director of Country Programs at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), headquartered in New York City, and in that capacity oversaw the organization’s work on Transitional Justice in more than twenty countries globally. Thereafter, he was the Director of Thematic Programs at the ICTJ for two further years, leading work on Prosecutions, Reparations, Truth-Seeking, Security System Reform, Memorials, Gender, and a program on Peace & Justice.

Graeme Simpson serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Transitional Justice (IJTJ) published by Oxford University Press. Until 2016 he served as a member of the International Advisory Board of The International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) in Northern Ireland. Graeme Simpson has published widely in books and journals covering a wide range of issues and has been centrally involved in national and international civil society organizations for nearly 30 years. He has worked as a consultant to both governmental and non-governmental organizations in various countries.