• Advocacy
• Humanitarian Projects
• Training
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Outreach to the US & Latin America

The ICDAA Board of Directors invites you to become a member or to renew you membership for 2007. Sign Up »

The ICDAA has launched a special appeal by mobilizing existing members and recruiting new and former members and others who, over the years, have contributed to the advancement of the organization's overall objectives. Donate »

• Training Needs
• Training Principles

The curriculum is evolving based on the experience of the instructors and their professional peers who take the courses. The core focus is on four practical needs of defence lawyers:

• Learning the new hybrid body of law, different from the law of any single nation, incorporated in the 1998 Rome Statute, the 2000 ICC Rules of Procedure and Evidence and the rulings of UN international tribunals.
• Honing advocacy and pleading skills with an eye to the fact that lawyers from different countries start with different legal cultures and styles.
• Perfecting the ability to deal effectively with witnesses, notably in courtroom examination and cross examination.
• Developing team leadership and case management skills.

A key element in the course is the reality that cross-cultural teams handle many international criminal cases. Working together over several days helps to lay the foundation of trust and mutual understanding required to build those teams. They have opportunities to discuss the differences among their national legal systems, in particular the differences among the world's varied common law and civil law traditions.

The ICDAA has organized two five-day training programs in collaboration with internationally recognized lawyers, trainers and academics:

• June 2003 in The Hague, in partnership with the University of Leiden in The Netherlands, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) in the United States, and TMC Asser Institute.
• May 2004 in Montréal, in partnership with Université de Montréal in Canada , the University of Leiden , and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the International Criminal Bar.

The first courses were organized in The Hague and Montreal , where our academic partners could mobilize resources quickly. The feedback from participants was positive and there is demand for more courses in more varied locations. Our strategic aim is to recruit a leadership group of professors and experienced practitioners from a greater variety of countries and legal traditions.

The training programs are being developed under the umbrella of the Defence Watch and contribute in important ways to building the Third Pillar of international criminal justice (See About Us - Third Pillar). It is critical to our mission of ensuring that defence attorneys are able to offer a full, fair and well-organized defence before the ICC and other international tribunals (See About Us - Mission).