Jean Damascene Ndabirora Kalinda, is a Human Rights and International Criminal Justice specialist,teaching Law at the University of Kigali and serving as an Academic Coordinator at the School of International Training (Study Abroad Program) that brings students from American Universities to conduct research and field studies in Post Genocide Reconstruction and Transitional Justice in Rwanda. Kalinda also serves as a Justice Commissioner at IBUKA, where he has been greatly involved in various high profile advisory and lobbying work including advocacy to the UN Security Council about the work of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT).
Occasionally, Kalinda has been consulted by the Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the United Nations on different international Criminal Justice issues and has provided legal opinions to media houses as a commentator, and has successfully moderated different International gatherings discussing different topics related to International human rights and International Criminal Justice including on the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Rwanda.
Kalinda was the founding coordinator of the Human Rights Center at AJPRODHO, a Non-Governmental Organization promoting human rights in Rwanda and later coordinated the “Know Your Rights Campaign” on funding from the United States Agency for International Development(USAID). Still, at the same organization, he taught Human Rights classes to over 200 human rights advocates from different backgrounds.
Kalinda’s professional experience stands on a solid education foundation; he went to The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University where he obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M) in International Law and worked part-time as a Research and Teaching Assistant to his Professor of International Law. As a Fletcher student, he represented the school in Poland in the Model International Criminal Court moot court where he acted as a Judge. He also holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Rwanda, where he was an active student and as a result, he was selected with two others to represent the university in the famous moot court competition hosted by the International Nuremberg Principles Academy at the historical palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany for best students in International Law.
Kalinda also has a Diploma in international and Transnational organized Crimes from the Siracusa Institute for Human rights and International criminal Justice, Siracusa, Italy, and several certificates including one in Political Party Development, Public Policy, Good Governance, and Networking, Conflict Resolution by GP Nairobi, Investigation and Prosecution Techniques of Irregular Smuggling of migrants and Human Trafficking by European Union Migration Expertise.