Susana SáCouto directs the War Crimes Research Office of the Washington College of Law, which promotes the development and enforcement of international criminal law and international humanitarian law. She is also Professorial Lecturer-in-Residence at the Washington College of Law, where she teaches courses on international criminal law, international legal responses to conflict-based sexual and gender violence. Ms. SáCouto’s background includes extensive practical experience with organizations working on human rights issues at both the domestic and international level, including Women Empowered Against Violence, Inc., the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Center for Human Rights Legal Action in Guatemala, and the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project. She also served as co-chair of the Women’s International Law Interest Group of the American Society for International Law, and was awarded The Women’s Law Center 22nd Annual Dorothy Beatty Memorial Award for significant contributions to women’s rights. In December 2017, she was honored as part of the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice’s unveiling of the Gender Justice Legacy Wall, which celebrates judges, practitioners, academics, advocates, diplomats, survivors, witnesses, and others who have helped shape the field of international gender justice over the past 125 years.

SáCouto earned her J.D. from Northeastern University Law School and her Master’s from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University.