Yousuf Syed Khan

Yousuf Syed Khan is Manager, Law and Policy at Legal Action Worldwide in Geneva. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council, and an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague. His work focuses on the use of siege warfare, attacks against objects indispensable to the survival of a civilian population, and forced displacement as a warring strategy.

Yousuf has over 15 years of legal experience dealing with complex conflict situations, with specific expertise on the contributions and practice of UN atrocity inquiries. He has served on four commissions/investigative accountability bodies established by the UN Human Rights Council, regarding situations in Syria, South Sudan, Belarus, and Ethiopia. In these capacities, he conceptualised and led the drafting of over a dozen public UN reports, including the first-ever report by a UN-mandated mechanism on starvation as a method of warfare.

He also worked in Ukraine supporting the Government to prosecute starvation crimes; on human rights with the UN in Afghanistan; led a team monitoring the post-ISIS administration of justice countrywide with the UN in Iraq; and served with the Trial Chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.