David McKeever

David McKeever is an international law expert with 15 years of progressive experience, specializing in public international law, human rights law, refugee law, and counter-terrorism. His professional experience includes working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (in Sudan, Benin, Thailand, Georgia and Tanzania), the International Court of Justice (clerk to Judge Sir Kenneth Keith and Judge Sir Christopher Greenwood), and the World Bank Administrative Tribunal.

Since 2016 he has worked as Legal Officer with the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate in New York. In this role he assesses State compliance with Security Council resolutions on terrorism. He has published and taught on many areas of international law: international dispute settlement; treaty interpretation; rules of evidence; human rights; counter-terrorism; IHL; refugee law.

He holds a Masters' Degree in Forced Migration from the University of Oxford, an LL.M from the University of Cambridge, and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2010.

At the Bonavero Institute, his research will examine the role which personnel involved in UN peace operations (both civilian and military) can play in bringing about accountability for terrorist offences committed in situations of armed conflict. Specifically, the research will analyse the legal issues – substantive, procedural, and practical - which may arise, including questions relating to the collection and use at trial of ‘battlefield evidence’, and the immunities of UN officials and the inviolability of their documents.