BA, LLB, LLM (Cantab)
At °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Êapp’s 1989-1996; School Captain
Bangkok-based Kate Gibson is an international criminal lawyer and has been practising before the international criminal courts and tribunals since 2005.
Kate was School Captain in her final year at °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Êapp’s and went on to study Arts/Law. After working as a corporate lawyer in Brisbane, Kate entered the world-renowned LLM (Master of Law) program at Cambridge University in 2003. Both fascinated and horrified by conflicts and events around the world, Kate worked on a trial before the United Nations Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda in Tanzania. She spent five years living in Tanzania and representing Rwandan accused, following which she appeared as counsel in international criminal trials involving conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2018 she was appointed as a Legal Consultant to the United Nations Fact Finding Mission for Myanmar in, working to document crimes committed against the Rohingya since 2016. She has trained lawyers and judges in international criminal law and procedure in Rwanda, Libya and throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Kate said: “I loved my time at °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Êapp’s! My closest friends are still those from school. I remember laughing a lot and feeling real pride at being part of our group of seniors. I think we left school imbued with an unshakeable faith that we could do anything we wanted in life. We were probably ahead of our time in terms of expecting (and demanding) equality, never accepting that we could be limited because we were girls.”
A third generation °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Êapp’s girl, Kate’s grandmother, four aunts, three cousins and two sisters attended, and her first niece is currently enrolled at the school.
While acknowledging her work is challenging and the international courts are difficult places for women, Kate said: “However, one of my favourite things to do is to come back to Brisbane and pick up my niece from °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Êapp’s; walking around the school reminds me not only of how far we’ve come but, in large part, how and why.”
A strong proponent of the regionalisation of international justice, in 2016 Kate was appointed as a Senior Consultant (Africa) with the International Development Law Organisation in Rome. In this role she has presented trainings to counsel appearing in genocide cases before Rwandan domestic courts, as well as members of the judiciary hearing these cases. In 2017, Kate was awarded Bond University’s Alumni Award for Community Achievement and in 2020 she was awarded °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Êapp's Distinquished Past Student Award.
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