Mónica Feria Tinta

Feria-Tinta studied international law at the London School of Economics receiving her LL.M. with merit in 1996. She received further training at the Institut International des Droits de l'Homme in Strasbourg (1997) and at the Institute of Human Rights of the Abo Academy in Turko (Finland) under the sponsorship of the European Commission and the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2001.[4] In 2000 she was among the 24 lawyers selected worldwide to be trained by members of the International Law Commission in all areas of General International Law, taking part in the thirty-sixth session of the International Law Seminar in Geneva, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 54/111, under a United Nations Fellowship.[14] Her areas of expertise include international dispute settlement, immunities, consular law, diplomatic protection, treaty law, recognition of state and governments under international law, self-determination under international law, boundary delimitation, law of the sea, territory, investment law, transboundary harm, environmental law, human rights, use of force, laws of war, State Responsibility (inter alia State Responsibility for crimes against humanity,[15] genocide, extrajudicial executions and torture);[16] command responsibility for gross human rights violations;[17] victim rights under international law.[18]

After teaching Public International Law at the London School of Economics as a Teaching Assistant to Sir Christopher Greenwood (then Professor at LSE), Feria-Tinta spent a year as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, at the time under the Directorship of former Whewell Professor of International Law, James Crawford.[19]

As a practising lawyer Monica Feria-Tinta has advised States, state-owned entities, non self-governing peoples, governments in exile, corporate bodies, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, indigenous peoples, and individuals, in the area of public international law. She started her practising career working for international tribunals; first at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and a year later, at the International Court of Justice, gaining experience in the adjudication of complex international litigation both entailing individual international criminal responsibility and State responsibility.[20] She acted as legal advisor for a State Delegation taking part in the negotiations of the Rome Statute, at the Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court in Rome.[21] During 2018-2019 she served as Assistant Legal Adviser to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.[22]

In litigation, Feria-Tinta has appeared as counsel before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights the United Nations Human Rights Committee, UN Special Procedures, OECD Procedures, The High Court (England), and has advised parties before the International Court of Justice, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, UN CEDAW Committee, Court of Appeal (England) and Court of Appeal (Hong Kong). Expert opinions provided in different international fora have included an Amicus Curiae to the Constitutional Court of Ecuador (on the Rights of Nature), the UN Human Rights Committee, the Constitutional Court of Colombia (on the Special Jurisdiction for Peace), the Supreme Administrative Court of Colombia (Consejo de Estado), the Supreme Court of Mexico, a joint Amicus Curiae with Professor John Dugard (former Special Rapporteur on Diplomatic Protection at the ILC) for the Appeals Court of Amsterdam, in the Bouterse case, and expert comments on behalf of the Redress Trust to the Final Report of the UN Independent Expert on the Right of Reparation for Victims of Serious Violations of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Cherif Bassiouni.[20]

Her advocacy work before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights contributed to pivotal changes in the Inter-American regional system. Monica Feria-Tinta pioneered the rights of victims in the Inter-American system challenging for the first time the use of State appointed Ad hoc Judges in individual petitions before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,[23] which led to the end of a practice that had existed for nearly two decades.[24] She also advocated for the need of a Victims' Fund for legal aid before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to ensure access to justice and equality of arms for victims.[18] A Victims Legal Assistance Fund before the ICHR was finally created in 2010.[25]

She litigated the first international human rights case in the world on the protection of the rights of the child in times of war [26] and obtained the first international binding decision on gender justice in the history of adjudication of the Inter-American region, initiating the feminisation of human rights law in the Americas.[27] Feria's litigation work marked a before, and an after, in the manner in which the American Convention on Human Rights is interpreted and applied. In particular, she introduced a gender perspective in the interpretation of human rights in the Americas, which the Inter-American Court on Human Rights upheld, and has followed since. She secured the first finding of rape by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as a violation of the American Convention on Human Rights, and brought the definition of rape in the Americas in line with international law. In addition, Feria Tinta's pleadings prompted the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to hold a State accountable for violations of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women ("Convention of Belém do Pará") for the first time in eleven years, since its entry into force. Most notably, her litigation work on behalf of hundreds of prisoners led to a landmark case on prisoners' rights where the Inter-American Court ruled on a massacre taking place in a prison and on torture practices that had never been tested before an international human rights tribunal, ordering as a consequence, the prosecution of a former Head of State for crimes against humanity.[27]

Her forensic experience investigating and documenting torture in international contentious cases, was used as model to train advocates worldwide, representing victims of torture, by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims.[28]

In 2009 she was commissioned to take part on a project by UNESCO entitled "Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right: Law's Duty to the Poor" (The Philosopher's Library Series) contributing with a thorough study on litigation in Regional Human Rights Systems (European, Inter-American and African) on the justiciability of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[29]

Feria Tinta has been a speaker in International law in different fora worldwide including Lancaster House (UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office), the Human Rights Caucus of the US Congress,[30] the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, the University of Oxford (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies),[31] the United Nations (Geneva), Trinity College, Dublin (Distinguished Speakers Series), the British Institute of Comparative and International Law, Universidad de los Andes Law Faculty (Colombia), and Georgetown University Law Center. She has been a guest lecturer at Guangxi Normal University, Faculty of Law, China, University of Cambridge (LCIL Executive Course on Investment Law and Arbitration), the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens (Faculty of Law), Universidad de Chile (Faculty of law), Jindal Global Law School (India), Leiden University and at the Master Program of the Institute Universitaire Kurt Bosch-University of Fribourg, Switzerland.[32]

She has taken part in expert missions to Kenya (2020), Myanmar (2016), Guatemala (2015) and has trained South African advocates on international law (2017), Colombian lawyers on judicial processes in the context of transitional justice (2017) and members of the Honduran Bar on international arbitration (2016).

• The Inge Genefke Award (2006)
• Gruber Justice Prize (2007)
• Appointed to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's World Commission on Environmental Law, the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it (Oceans, Coasts and Coral Reefs Specialist Group and Climate Change Specialist Group) (2018)
• The Lawyer Magazine "Hot 100" 2020.[33]
• The Lawyer Awards - "Barrister of the Year" Finalist (2020).[34]
• Appointed by the government of Malaysia to the AIAC Advisory Council (2021).[35]
• Master of the Bench of Middle Temple (2021).[10]
• Panel of arbitrators for the Free Trade Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Korea (Proposed by the United Kingdom)(2022).[36]

Arbitral appointments include:-

• Presiding Arbitrator, Investment Arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty - (Chair, appointed by Arbitral Institution)

Selected Cases include:-

• Deutsche Bank AG London Branch and Receivers Appointed by the Court, Central Bank of Venezuela, and The Governor and Company of the Bank of England and The Ad Hoc Administrative Board of The Central Bank of Venezuela and the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela [2020] EWHC 1721 (The High Court, Queen’s Bench Division Commercial Court) (Advising the BCV)
• R (Charles & Dunn) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2020] EWHC 3185 (Admin) – (for the claimants) (diplomatic immunity case)
• On the Constitutionality of Federal Mining Law – before The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) of Mexico; Legal Intervention in a constitutional action brought by the Masewal people of Cuetzalan based in the Sierra Norte of the Mexican state of Puebla against Mexico’s Federal Mining Law.
• Case of Los Cedros, before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador - (Amicus Curiae) Legal Intervention on the Rights of Nature.
• Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta – Linea Negra Decree 1500 Nullity case, before the Supreme Administrative Court of Colombia – Legal Intervention focusing on international law norms directly relevant to the protection of rainforests and natural world of global importance.
• Cerrejón case before the UN Special Procedures (for claimants) (sole counsel)(concerning alleged violations of environmental harm and human rights by one of the largest open pit coal mines in the world owned by BHP, Anglo American and Glencore).
• Gençay Bastimar v Turkey, CCPR Case No. 3592/2019, before the United Nations Human Rights Committee (for the BHRC of England & Wales) – (Amicus Curiae with leave by the UN HRC)
• Torres Strait Islanders v Australia, UN Human Rights Committee (for the Torres Strait Islanders)[37]
• Montara Oil Spill case (concerning transboundary harm/Australia), UN Special Proceedings (for 13 West Timor regencies)[38]
• Advised non-self-governing peoples on the UN Charter, decolonisation, and statehood.
• Adrian Favela case (concerning enforced disappearance/Mexico), UN Special Proceedings (for the claimants)
• Advised a government on exile on its position under international law, treaty interpretation, statehood and self-determination.
• Case regarding the Constitutionality of Legislative Act No 1, 2017 which establishes the Special Jurisdiction for Peace to prosecute crimes during the internal armed conflict in Colombia, Constitutional Court of Colombia - Amicus Curiae brief on Command Responsibility and Corporate Responsibility (Article 24 and Article 16 respectively)
• Legal Consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965 (Request for Advisory Opinion), International Court of Justice (Application on behalf of seeking intervener under Article 66 (2) of the ICJ Statute)
• Gareth Henry v Jamaica, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Advising the claimant)
• Eloise Mukami Kimathi and others and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office ('The Kenyan Emergency Group Litigation'), High Court of Justice (for the defendant)
• The Enrica Lexie Incident (Italy v India), International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (advising Italy)
• Case of J v Peru, Inter-American Court of Human rights (for the claimant)
• Communication No 2034/2011 v Canada, UN Human Rights Committee (for the claimants)
• Case of Miguel Castro Castro Prison Massacre vs Peru, Inter-American Court of Human Rights (for the claimant)
• Caso of the Gomez Paquiyauri Brothers vs Peru, Inter-American Court of Human Rights (for the claimants)
• LaGrand case (Federal Republic of Germany v United States of America), International Court of Justice (advising Germany)
• Case Concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v Serbia and Montenegro), International Court of Justice (Advising the ICJ)
• Prosecutor v Timohir Blaskic, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (Advising Chamber Trial I)
• Bouterse case, Amsterdam Court of Appeals - Joint Amicus Curiae brief with Professor John Dugard, former Special Rapporteur on Diplomatic Protection at the United Nations International Law Commission