There are more opportunities than ever for young lawyers to build a career in human rights, says Dermot Groome, a senior trial attorney for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
When Groome graduated from law school some 20 years ago, he never imagined he would be prosecuting heads of state for human rights abuses, he told America.gov in a phone interview from The Hague, Netherlands.
Groome, who worked as a prosecutor for six years in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, also mentors interns in The Hague and has taught at the Dickinson School of Law at Pennsylvania State University. Groome said he encourages his students "not to set boundaries in what their careers might hold for them and to pursue their interests."
A law career, he said, is "not simply getting a job at a good law firm. But in this particular field of law [human rights], there's great potential to actually have an impact on world affairs and world peace."
Groome is currently the senior trial attorney for the Milan Lukic case. Lukic, a former member of a Bosnian Serb paramilitary group, is accused of killing some 150 Bosnian Muslims during the 1992-1995 conflict.
Groome also is working on the Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic case. The two men were high-level members of the Serbian government and are accused of having aided in multiple crimes against humanity.
Given the brutality of the crimes he encounters, what keeps Groome enthusiastic about his work?
"The stories of the survivors," he said. "For every terrible thing that Milan Lukic did, there is another person who did something extraordinary, like save the lives of other people or some great act of courage or self-sacrifice, so I think they always seem to outnumber what the bad guys do."
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