Graeme Simpson

  • Lecturer in Law

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 working in 20 conflict and immediate post-conflict zones around the world.

He was founder of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he served as executive director from 1995 to 2005. Simpson 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.

Simpson has served as the director of country programs at the International Center for Transitional Justice, headquartered in New York City. In that capacity, he oversaw the organization’s work on transitional justice in more than 20 countries globally. Thereafter he was the director of thematic programs at the ICTJ for two additional years, leading work on prosecutions, reparations, truth-seeking, security system reform, memorials, gender, and a program on peace and justice.

Simpson serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Transitional Justice published by Oxford University Press. He is a member of the international advisory board of the International Conflict Research Institute in Northern Ireland. Simpson has published widely in books and journals covering an array of issues and has been centrally involved in national and international civil society organizations for over 25 years. He has worked as a consultant to both governmental and nongovernmental organizations in multiple countries.

He has a LL.B. and a M.A. from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.