Gabrielle Louise McIntyre is an Australian international legal practitioner, jurist, and served as the Chairperson of the Seychelles' Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission.
She previously served as the Chef de Cabinet and Principal Legal Advisor to the President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), the successor institution to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Before that, McIntyre served as the Chef de Cabinet and Principal Legal Advisor to four successive Presidents of the ICTY: Judge Theodor Meron (two periods of two consecutive terms each), Judge Fausto Pocar, and Judge Patrick Lipton Robinson. She has also served as the acting Head of Chambers of the ICTY.
About An expert in international legal practice, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, human rights law, and administrative law, McIntyre has managed legal proceedings for Judges of the ICTY at all stages of proceedings, including pre-trial, trial, and appeal, and has extensive experience with international court practice and common and civil law procedural rules. She has represented the Presidents on the ICTY Rules Committee and devised and drafted a number of rules aimed at streamlining judicial proceedings. She has also developed policy and practice directions aimed at facilitating the efficient conduct of the judicial work of the Tribunals. McIntyre has published and lectured widely in the field of international criminal justice and participated in numerous practical judicial trainings in The Hague, the former Yugoslavia, and Sierra Leone, sharing her expertise with national judiciariesStrengthening Gender Justice through International Prosecutions – Speaker biographies She has been responsible for overseeing external relations and communications policy for both the ICTY and the Mechanism and, at the ICTY, spearheaded a wide range of initiatives aimed at facilitating a greater understanding of international criminal law and the ICTY's work and legacy, including a series of conferences held in The Hague and countries of the former Yugoslavia. In his remarks at the ICTY Global Legacy Conference in 2011, then-President Robinson attributed the conception, the implementation, and the success of the global and local legacy conferences to McIntyre. She has also contributed to a variety of expert projects and undertakings related to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
McIntyre has an honours degree (First Class) in Law from the University of Adelaide, South Australia, and a master's degree (First Class) in international law from the University of Cambridge, England. She has previously served as an associate in the Supreme Court of South Australia and as an advisor in the South Australian Attorney-General's Office. She holds a practicing certificate in the State of South Australia and is on the list of Defence Counsel for the International Criminal Court.
Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission
In 2019, McIntyre was sworn in as Chairperson of the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (The commission) in the Seychelles following her appointment by the Seychelles’ President, Danny Faure. The commission began its preparatory work in May 2019.
The commission was composed of six national Commissioners in addition to McIntyre serving as chairperson. Modeled on the South African Truth Commission, the commission was mandated to investigate individual complaints of human rights violations related to the Coup d’état of 1977. It aimed to establish the truth to create a common understanding about the past amongst the Seychellois to allow the country to move forward with a common agenda, and ensure non-repetition. The commission was given the power to grant amnesty and to recommend reparations and rehabilitation measures to reconcile the people of Seychelles.
The commission received over 500 individual complaints, McIntyre led the investigation and determination of the 371 complaints deemined admissible. Many concerned allegations of enforced disappearance, unlawful killing, torture and discrimination perpetrated by former Presidents France Albert René and James Michel, as well as senior officials in the army, state security and the police, some of whom still retained their positions within Government. Most complainants appeared before the Commission in live televised hearings recounting their experiences to the commission and the broader public of Seychelles for the first time. For some the experience was cathartic, for others it brought back trauma that had remained buried under a cloak of fear for decades.
On 31 March 2023, McIntyre handed over the Final Report of the commission to the President of Seychelles, Wavel Ramkalawan, during a ceremony at State House, despite the commission's financial constraints, capacity issues and non-cooperation by Government officials. In so doing, McIntyre underscored the success of the work of the Commission despite the obstacles, detailed in volume one of the five volume Final Report and credited the strong commitment of the National Commissioners as the cornerstone of the commission's success.
The Final Report includes 371 individual written determinations on the complaints filed, and volumes dedicated to the historical context, the commission's amnesty proceedings, reparations, and a list of recommendations to Government to guarantee non-repetition. On receipt, the President made the Final Report publicly available on the Statehouse website. The Commission strongly recommended the establishment of a successor body to ensure the proper implementation of the commission's victims led reparations policy. In August 2023, the LDS Government and US opposition party endorsed the commission's recommendations and agreed on the establishment of a successor body. To date that body remains to be established.
Judicial work During her tenure as Chef de Cabinet at the ICTY, McIntyre managed numerous appeals proceedings, providing judicial support in court and devising solutions to the full ambit of procedural issues with a view toward preparing a case for hearing and eventual judgement. In this role, she drafted, reviewed or revised almost all major judgements and decisions of the ICTY and ICTR Appeals Chambers, serving as the final quality check of all drafts to ensure their legal integrity. In addition to hundreds of interlocutory, pre-appeal, and presidential decisions — dealing with a host of procedural and substantive matters, including immunity of defence counsel, rights of self-representation, provisional release, issuance of subpoenas, admissibility of evidence, delayed disclosure, the legality principle, clarifying elements of offences, fairness of time allocations, equality of arms, remuneration of defence counsel, and contempt and false testimony — the appeal judgements rendered during her tenure include those in the ICTY cases of Zdravko Mucić et al., Radislav Krstić, Dragan Nikolić, Miroslav Deronjić, Milomir Stakić, Stanislav Galić, Vidoje Blagojević & Dragan Jokić, Fatmir Limaj et al., Enver Hadžihasanović & Amir Kubura, Pavle Strugar, Milan Martić, Ljube Boškoski & Johan Tarčulovski, Ramush Haradinaj et al., Florence Hartmann, Ante Gotovina & Mladen Markač, Momčilo Perišić, and Zdravko Tolimir, and those in the ICTR cases of Georges Rutaganda, Eliézer Niyitegeka, Elizaphan & Gérard Ntakirutimana, Laurent Semanza, Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda, André Ntagerura et al., Mikaeli Muhimana, Aloys Simba, Ferdinand Nahimana et al., Tharcisse Muvunyi, Léonidas Nshogoza, Simon Bikindi, Siméon Nchamihigo, Yussuf Munyakazi, Théoneste Bagosora & Anatole Nsengiyumva, Aloys Ntabakuze, Justin Mugenzi & Prosper Mugiraneza, Grégoire Ndahimana, Augustin Ndindiliyimana et al., Augustin Bizimungu, Édouard Karemera & Matthieu Ngirumpatse, and Ildéphonse Nizeyimana.
During her tenure as Chef de Cabinet and Principal Legal Advisor to the President of the Mechanism, McIntyre advised on and reviewed all rulings related to the pre-appeal and appeal proceedings in the Mechanism's Radovan Karadžić, Ratko Mladić, Augustin Ngirabatware, and Vojislav Šešelj cases, the review proceedings in the Ngirabatware and Laurent Semenza cases before the Mechanism, and rulings in the pre-appeal and appeal proceedings in the ICTY's Jadranko Prlić et al. case, in addition to numerous other judicial matters including those involving allegations of contempt and false testimony. As at the ICTY, she oversaw the management of the cases over which the President presided and was responsible for ensuring the legal integrity of the rulings in those cases.
In addition, as the President at both the ICTY and the Mechanism held supervisory authority over the decision-making of the administration, McIntyre was responsible for advising on and overseeing the determination of administrative decisions with respect to requests for judicial review spanning a wide range of issues including challenges to assessments of indigence, challenges to assessments of remuneration owed to defence counsel, detainee complaints concerning conditions of detention, allegations by detainees of violations of due process rights and numerous other allegations of abuse of discretion in administrative decision-making.
Before joining the Office of the President of the ICTY, McIntyre served as the legal advisor to ICTY Judge David Hunt (judge) and assisted with the management of pre-trial proceedings in the cases of Vidoje Blagojević & Dragan Jokić, Radoslav Brđanin & Momir Talić, Dragan Nikolić, Dragan Obrenović, and Stevan Todorović, providing judicial support in court and drafting many procedural and substantive decisions on procedural matters, including the form of the indictment, the scope of prosecutorial disclosure obligations, and standards to be established prior to issuance of protective measures and rights to Counsel. McIntyre also managed the trial proceedings in the cases of Milorad Krnojelac and Mitar Vasiljević, providing in-court judicial support, assisting in the management of huge volumes of evidence, conducting evidentiary assessments, and drafting the judgements, and she was also instrumental in ensuring the efficient conduct of pre-appeal proceedings in the cases of Tihomir Blaškić, Dario Kordić & Mario Čerkez, and Radislav Krstić, including advising on the disposition of motions for the admission of additional evidence on appeal and clarifying the applicable legal framework.
Further Tribunal service
During her long tenure at the ICTY and then the Mechanism, McIntyre has served as a principal legal advisor on a wide range of matters pertaining to the leadership of these institutions. She has also played a central role in advising on the establishment of the Mechanism as an institution, including in relation to the development and amendment of the Mechanism's Rules of Procedure and Evidence as well as a wide range of policies and practices. Among other things, she has been instrumental in ensuring the effective implementation of the remote judging model of the Mechanism.