Remembering Professor Flavia Lattanzi (4 October 1940 – 15 August 2026)

18 Ago, 2026 | Comunicati Stampa

No Peace Without Justice celebrates the life of Professor Flavia Lattanzi, one of the great jurists of international criminal law and a person whose intellectual life was inseparable from the development of the modern system of international justice.

Flavia belonged to a generation that helped transform international criminal justice from an aspiration into a body of law, institutions, and jurisprudence. She brought to that endeavour an exceptional command of international law and an uncompromising intellectual rigour, but also something equally important: a profound conviction that the law exists to serve justice.

For No Peace Without Justice, she was much more than an eminent jurist whom we were privileged to hear at our conferences. She was a colleague in a common endeavour that lasted for decades.

When NPWJ was campaigning for the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court in the 1990s, Flavia was already among the jurists helping to define what such a Court should be. She took part in our international campaign conferences in Paris, Valletta, and Rome in 1997, when the Rome Statute was still a year away.

After the adoption of the Statute, she continued to work with us on the difficult task of turning an international treaty into a functioning institution. In 2001, she was a member of the NPWJ Task Force established to promote the ratification and entry into force of the Rome Statute. She participated in our work on Italian implementing legislation and in our campaigns for the Court’s consolidation.

Her advocacy extended beyond the courtrooms of The Hague. In 2010, she joined Emma Bonino at a conference on the protection of women’s rights in New York, held on the margins of the UN General Assembly, underscoring the crucial intersection of gender justice and international law.

She remained with us as the Court itself evolved. In 2009, she took part in an NPWJ round table examining the first years of international criminal justice in practice. In 2018, on the twentieth anniversary of the Rome Statute, she returned to the Campidoglio to reflect on two decades of international criminal jurisprudence. And in May 2024, at NPWJ’s thirtieth-anniversary conference, she joined our closing session in Rome.

Across those years, Flavia never confused loyalty to the cause of international justice with uncritical loyalty to its institutions. She brought the same intellectual independence to the Court and to the movement that had helped create it. She demonstrated by example that rigour in the law and passion for justice are not competing virtues: each makes the other stronger.

Her influence reached far beyond her judgments and scholarship. As a teacher, scholar, judge, and colleague, she gave generously of her knowledge and her time. Generations of international lawyers learned from her insistence that international law must be taken seriously — not as an abstraction, but as a discipline capable of protecting human beings and confronting impunity.

We remember her with gratitude, affection, and admiration.

And we remember, too, the extraordinary privilege of having worked alongside her.

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Flavia Lattanzi and No Peace Without Justice
A shared journey for international criminal justice, 1997–2026
The archive cannot capture the whole of a relationship that lasted almost three decades. It can, however, preserve something important: the record of Flavia’s repeated engagement with No Peace Without Justice at successive stages in the development of international criminal justice.
From the campaign for the establishment of a permanent International Criminal Court, through the negotiation and implementation of the Rome Statute, to the assessment of the Court’s jurisprudence and future, Flavia was repeatedly part of the conversation.
The chronology below brings together the documented NPWJ events in which she participated that we have been able to identify in the surviving online and archival record.

19–20 June 1997 — Paris
International Campaign for the Establishment of the International Criminal Court in 1998
Paris, France
No Peace Without Justice organised an international conference in Paris as part of the campaign for a permanent International Criminal Court. Flavia Lattanzi participated alongside figures including Cherif Bassiouni and Benjamin Ferencz. The proceedings were subsequently published by No Peace Without Justice.

  • Flavia Lattanzi: Participant and speaker

  • Surviving record: Published conference proceedings

12–13 September 1997 — Valletta
International Conference for the Establishment of a Permanent International Criminal Tribunal by 1998
Foundation for International Studies, Old University Building, Valletta, Malta
Flavia took part in another major NPWJ conference devoted to the creation of a permanent international criminal tribunal. Her intervention addressed core design questions — jurisdiction, complementarity, the relationship with the Security Council, the Court’s independence, and the implementation of its future decisions. At this point, the Rome Statute did not yet exist; she was helping to think through what the institution itself should be.
  • Flavia Lattanzi: Speaker
  • Surviving record: Audio recording and transcript
  • Audio trace: Search Radio Radicale for “Flavia Lattanzi” + “Valletta 1997”
20–21 November 1997 — Rome
Conference for the Establishment of a Permanent International Tribunal by 1998
Sala Zuccari, Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome
The campaign moved to Rome. Organised by No Peace Without Justice, the conference brought together jurists, politicians, diplomats, and campaigners working towards the 1998 Diplomatic Conference. Flavia Lattanzi was among the speakers. The proceedings were published by NPWJ as Per l’istituzione del Tribunale penale permanente nel 1998.
  • Flavia Lattanzi: Speaker
  • Surviving record: Audio recording and published proceedings
  • Audio trace: Search Radio Radicale for “Flavia Lattanzi” + “Palazzo Giustiniani” + “1997”
17 November 2000 — Verona
La Corte penale internazionale
University of Verona, Faculty of Law
Two years after the adoption of the Rome Statute, NPWJ and the University of Verona organised a conference devoted to the new Court. Flavia gave one of the principal interventions, followed by further discussion. The event was chaired by NPWJ President Sergio Stanzani.
  • Flavia Lattanzi: Principal speaker
  • Surviving record: Audio recording, discussion, and interview
  • Audio trace: Search Radio Radicale for “Flavia Lattanzi” + “Verona” + “Corte penale internazionale”
31 March–1 April 2001 — Ischia
Strategy Meeting of the Task Force for the Establishment of the International Criminal Court
Lacco Ameno, Ischia
Flavia was a member of the Task Force established by NPWJ to help secure the ratification and entry into force of the Rome Statute. The meeting brought together leading jurists, diplomats, parliamentarians, and campaigners (including Hans-Peter Kaul, Roy Lee, William Schabas, Fausto Pocar, Giovanni Conso, Emma Bonino, William Pace, and Christian Wenaweser) to work on the practical strategy needed to make the Court operational.
  • Flavia Lattanzi: Task Force member and participant
  • Surviving record: Conference recordings and archival documentation
  • Audio trace: Search Radio Radicale for “Flavia Lattanzi” + “Ischia” + “Task Force”
  • Related archive: Senate Historical Archive — Emma Bonino papers
17 July 2001 — Rome
Third Anniversary of the Adoption of the Rome Statute – Objective: 60 Ratifications
Campidoglio, Rome
NPWJ marked the third anniversary with a major public event devoted to achieving the sixty ratifications required for the Court to enter into force. Flavia participated in the technical discussion on the adaptation of Italian law to the Rome Statute.
  • Flavia Lattanzi: Speaker (adaptation of Italian law)
  • Surviving record: Audio recording and discussion
  • Audio trace: Search Radio Radicale for “Flavia Lattanzi” + “Campidoglio” + “60 ratifications”
17 July 2003 — Rome
Fifth Anniversary of the Adoption of the Rome Statute
Campidoglio, Rome
Five years after the adoption of the Statute, NPWJ again brought together leading figures to assess progress. Flavia participated as a speaker.
  • Flavia Lattanzi: Speaker
  • Surviving record: Audio and archival documentation
  • Audio trace: Search Radio Radicale for “Flavia Lattanzi” + “Campidoglio” + “2003”
  • Related archive: Senate Historical Archive — Emma Bonino papers
17 July 2009 — Rome
Round Table on International Criminal Justice
Rome
NPWJ marked the anniversary of the Rome Statute with a round table examining international criminal justice in practice. Flavia gave a substantial intervention. The discussion included Sergio Stanzani, Emma Bonino, Giovanni Maria Flick, Umberto Vattani, Silvana Arbia, Salvatore Zappalà, Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, and others. The recording preserves her contribution and the subsequent exchange, illustrating the intellectual independence she brought to the movement.
  • Flavia Lattanzi: Speaker
  • Surviving record: Video and audio recording
  • Audio trace: Search Radio Radicale for “Flavia Lattanzi” + “Round Table” + “17 July 2009”
24 September 2010 — New York
Women’s Rights: Where We Are and Where We Are Headed
Italian Cultural Institute, New York
Held on the margins of the 65th UN General Assembly, the event saw Flavia join Emma Bonino to discuss the protection of women’s rights in conflict zones and the role of the international criminal tribunals in prosecuting gender-based violence.
  • Flavia Lattanzi: Panelist
  • Surviving record: Conference report and programme
18 July 2018 — Rome
Conference on the Twentieth Anniversary of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
Sala della Protomoteca, Campidoglio, Rome
Organised jointly by the International Association of Penal Law – Italian Group, No Peace Without Justice, and Parliamentarians for Global Action, the conference was held in the historic setting associated with the opening of the Rome Statute for signature. Flavia, by then a former ad litem judge of both the ICTR and the ICTY, gave a major intervention on the evolution of international criminal law.
  • Flavia Lattanzi: Principal speaker
  • Surviving record: Video recording and PDF programme
  • Audio trace: Search Radio Radicale for “Flavia Lattanzi” + “Campidoglio” + “18 luglio 2018”
18 May 2024 — Rome
Strengthening the Legal and Political Environments for Accountability and the Rule of Law
Sala Protomoteca, Campidoglio, Rome
At NPWJ’s thirtieth-anniversary conference, Flavia joined the closing session as Professor Emeritus of International Law at Roma Tre and former ad litem judge of the ICTY and ICTR.

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