Joseph Rikhof

Occupation: Previous Senior Counsel, Manager of the Law with the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Section of the Department of Justice, Canada. Current Professor of International Criminal Law

Joseph Rikhof

Professor of International Criminal Law

Specialty:  Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially as practised at the domestic level and in the context of immigration and refugee law

Joseph Rikhof has received a BCL from the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands; a LL.B from McGill University; a Diploma in Air and Space Law from McGill University and a PhD from the Irish Center for Human Rights.

He is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Common Law of the University of Ottawa where he teaches the course International Criminal Law. He is also a faculty member of the Philippe Kirsch Institute and a member of the editorial board of the Philippe Kirsch Global Justice Journal, where he regularly posts short commentaries on recent developments in international criminal justice.

He was (until his retirement in February 2017) Senior Counsel, Manager of the Law with the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Section of the Department of Justice, Canada. He was a visiting professional with the International Criminal Court in 2005 while also serving as Special Counsel and Policy Advisor to the Modern War Crimes Section of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration between 1998 and 2002.

His expertise lies with the law related to genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially as practised at the domestic level and in the context of immigration and refugee law. He has lectured on the same topics on all continents. He has also published over 40 articles as well as the books The Criminal Refugee: The Treatment of Asylum Seekers with a Criminal Background in International and Domestic Law, and, as co-author with Robert Currie, International and Transnational Criminal Law, Second Edition.