Dr. David Donat Cattin advises the MIGS team on global strategy and partnership development and projects related to emerging issues of international criminal law and justice, starting with efforts to strengthen the Rome Statute system centered on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the jurisdictional regime pertaining to the core crimes under International Law, namely, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
David has worked for the past three decades on the processes that led to the negotiation, adoption, universalization and domestic implementation of the Rome Statute, regarding which he authored the NGO research-paper that constituted the basis for the New Zealand proposal to include victims as participants for the first time in international criminal proceedings. His most recent contributions regard the imperative to amend the Kampala Amendments on the crime of aggression and “unlock” the ICC jurisdiction over this crime, which he has defined as a “mass-atrocity crime”.
Throughout 23 years of service in the largest network of individual Lawmakers, Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), of which David has been Secretary-General for three consecutive non-renewable statutory terms (2014-2022), he played a leading role in the national efforts to ratify the Rome Statute by 78 States and to incorporate its norms and principles in 37 National legal systems. During his tenure as SG, PGA transformed all its programs into change-making campaigns on tangible human rights priorities interconnected with democracy and the UN sustainable development goals. His opinions have been often cited in the media, and his role in civil society led him to be a team-leader in the Coalition for the ICC (CICC) and to address and chair a thematic plenary session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute and the closing panel of the Hague conference marking the 20th anniversary of the Statute’s entry into force (1 July 2022). David has been heard as expert/witness by several Legislatures of the world, including the European Parliament (3 times), the Chamber of Deputies of Italy (twice), the German Bundestag, the National Diet of Japan and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. He addressed many multilateral fora, including the Council of Europe Meeting of Legal Advisers (CAHDI), the European Union (EU) COJUR-ICC, the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP)/EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, and the Organization of American States (OAS) Committee on Legal and Political Affairs.
In parallel of his work as activist, practitioner and manager, David pursued a distinguished academic career, with publications in some of most important legal criminal law commentaries and scholarly reviews. In 2017, he co-edited the book entitled “International Law and the Protection of Humanity”, coordinating the international criminal section with writings from prominent jurists such as the late M. Cherif Bassiouni and Eric David, as well as Daniel D.N. Nsereko, Alain Pellet and Wiiliam Schabas, who all welcomed David’s invitation to write essays in honor of Judge Flavia Lattanzi (ICTY/ICTR), with whom David worked over three decades. David coordinated or contributed to seminal academic projects at the Universities of Teramo (Italy), Salzburg (Austria) – under the supervision of the late Prof. Otto Triffterer –, Gaborone (Botswana), Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina) and other venues, including in Arusha (Tanzania) during the formative years of the ICTR.
Since 2012, David is Adjunct Associate Professor of International Law at New York University (NYU) Center for Global Affairs. He is a member of the advisory councils of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression (GIPA, New York) and the International Center for Multi-Generational Legacies of Trauma (ICMGLT, New York). In 2023, David joined as research-fellow the Center for the Research of International Law and Policy (CILRAP, Florence).David Donat Cattin is an Italian national. He holds a PhD from University of Teramo, a J.D. (cum laude) from LUISS University as well as a post-doc diploma from the Center for the Study and Research of International Law of the Hague Academy of International Law.
