Lauren Baillie is the senior program officer on atrocity prevention at USIP. She leads a program that explores the intersections between atrocity prevention and cross-cutting criminal justice reform issues, including countering violent extremism, combatting corruption and transnational organized crime, and promoting women, peace, and security. In partnership with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, she works to develop a comprehensive curriculum on atrocity prevention for practitioners in the justice and security sectors.

Baillie joined USIP after 10 years with the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), where she served most recently as vice president and senior counsel.

During her time with PILPG, she worked extensively on accountability and transitional justice in conflict and post-conflict settings, including South Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Kosovo. Her expertise includes human rights documentation, design of responsive transitional justice mechanisms, women’s participation in peace and transitional justice processes, justice sector accountability, and strategic litigation as a tool to promote accountability. She has field experience in Libya, Kosovo, South Sudan, and Tanzania. Prior to PILPG, Baillie worked with the United States Agency for International Development and the Brookings Institution.

Baillie received her Juris Doctor from American University’s Washington College of Law, a master’s in international affairs from The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, and a bachelor’s in political science from Yale College.

Publications By Lauren

How the ICC’s Warrant for Putin Could Impact the Ukraine War

How the ICC’s Warrant for Putin Could Impact the Ukraine War

Thursday, March 23, 2023

By: Heather Ashby, Ph.D.;  Lauren Baillie;  Mary Glantz, Ph.D.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced last Friday that it had issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. According to a statement issued by the ICC, Putin and Lvova-Belova are alleged to have committed the war crimes of “unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation” beginning in at least February 24, 2022. USIP’s Lauren Baillie, Heather Ashby and Mary Glantz discuss the impacts of these warrants on Putin and on the war in Ukraine.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Justice, Security & Rule of Law

Nobel Peace Prize: Documenting Rights Abuses is Vital in Ukraine and Beyond

Nobel Peace Prize: Documenting Rights Abuses is Vital in Ukraine and Beyond

Thursday, October 13, 2022

By: Lauren Baillie;  Donald N. Jensen, Ph.D.

The award of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize to one individual and two civil society organizations — from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine — recognizes the critical role civil society documenters play in holding states accountable for human rights abuses. The laureates have brought to light the breadth of abuses committed by authoritarian regimes in Belarus and Russia and the vast harms suffered by Ukrainians as a result of the Russian invasion. They also reflect a larger global trend, where civil society organizations document crimes in order to hold perpetrators accountable, memorialize the suffering of victims, and provide critical information to families on the fates of their loved ones.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Justice, Security & Rule of Law

Four Ways to Include Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Atrocity Prevention

Four Ways to Include Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Atrocity Prevention

Thursday, September 29, 2022

By: Lauren Baillie;  Kathleen Kuehnast, Ph.D.;  Mikaylah Ladue

Conflict-related sexual violence is not only an indicator of rising atrocity risk — it can also constitute an atrocity crime itself. And while the U.S. government has implemented conflict-related sexual violence response efforts, concurrent international efforts on the issue offer a solid foundation for the United States to go beyond responding to these crimes and toward prevention.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Conflict Analysis & PreventionGenderHuman Rights

Five Ways to Make the U.S. Atrocity Prevention Strategy Work

Five Ways to Make the U.S. Atrocity Prevention Strategy Work

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

By: Lauren Baillie;  Andrea Gittleman

From Ukraine to Ethiopia to Burma and beyond, people around the world suffer mass atrocities and the immense harm these crimes inflict on victims and survivors. Yet, the United States had no articulated strategy to prevent these atrocities — until now. In July, the Biden administration announced the “U.S. Strategy to Anticipate, Prevent, and Respond to Atrocities,” marking a hopeful moment. However, hard work remains to operationalize the strategy, including in maintaining the political will to realize an effective prevention agenda.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Human RightsJustice, Security & Rule of Law

How Documentation Is Critical to Exposing China’s Abuses of the Uyghurs

How Documentation Is Critical to Exposing China’s Abuses of the Uyghurs

Thursday, July 14, 2022

By: Lauren Baillie;  Rachel Vandenbrink

This month, U.S. companies are scrambling to comply with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) that went into effect three weeks ago, ensuring they have no goods in their supply chains made through the forced labor of China’s Muslim Uyghur minority. Here we see an important example of how far efforts have come to document abuses against Uyghurs and other minorities in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Documentation efforts including journalistic reporting, investigative work by human rights researchers, and the collection and preservation of witness testimony by NGOs have each played an important role in exposing abuses and linking them to official responsibility in China, laying the foundation for countries like the United States to respond with concrete policy changes such as the UFLPA.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Human RightsJustice, Security & Rule of Law

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