Andras Vamos-Goldman was born and raised in Hungary until the age of 11 in the 1950s and 1960s. His parents were both Holocaust survivors, with much of his family having perished in concentration camps. Emigrating to Canada in 1968 was not, however, the "Eureka" moment. Growing up in the economically impoverished Atlantic region, Andras learned that like all cats at night, all systems are "grey". Dogmatic ideology, sloganism, jingoism are refuges of scoundrels, and Andras was more comfortable in a world measured by deeds and accomplishments rather than positions and titles. He had always been drawn to international affairs, and after Law School, joined the Canadian diplomatic service, with assignments at the UN in New York, East Africa, the legal bureau in Ottawa, and Washington, D.C. While the work was varied and interesting Andras felt that he was not doing what he really wanted, what he really believed in. He eventually left to go to the private sector and corporate law. Then in 1996 he saw that negotiations were beginning on a permanent international criminal court, and he knew immediately that international justice was his calling.
Andras did everything he could to get involved, and in 1997 managed to be appointed political coordinator of the Canadian mission to the UN in New York, at the time the Rome Statue was being negotiated. This allowed him a rare insight into global realpolitik, on issues such as Iraq, Kosovo and Sierra Leone, and working day to day in an environment populated by people like Richard Holbrook, Sergei Lavrov, Jeremy Greenstock, Selso Amorim, Danilo Turk and of course, Kofi Annan. In this job and subsequently as legal advisor, Andras was able to make his mark for the first time as an entrepreneur in coming up with the "management committee" solution that enabled the Sierra Leone Special Court (created under only voluntary contributions) to come into existence in spite of resistance from the UN and Members States. Andras became the first chair of the Management Committee, which allowed Member States a closer scrutiny of how money intended for the court was spent. This is why this court ended up costing a fraction of what the ICTY/R cost. He also played a part in setting up the ICC as an institution, representing the Chair of the PrepCom and negotiating with the Netherlands.
A stint with former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy as his law and policy advisor at the Liu Institute at the University of British Colombia gave Andras a platform to continue to look into how to improve the delivery of international justice. In the "Vancouver Dialogues" Andras helped look at gaps, and how to plug them. It was at one of these meetings that the ideas for JRR emerged. Andras was one of the people who helped generate the notion that without expert, trained, impartial and timely investigation, accountability process will not be credible, and justice will not be done. Among these people he was the only who stuck all the way with the development of this idea from a topic at meetings, to the topic of meetings of its own, to intergovernmental meetings, conferences, planning sessions, and promotion, promotion, promotion. Andras headed a team that was responsible for JRRs feasibility study in 2005, and while he had a number of jobs at the same time, the goal was always to try to make it operational.
The opportunity came in 2009, and starting from scratch, JRR has grown exponentially. Currently it has 73 participating states and some 30 organizations, it has held 24 training courses that have given JRR a roster of experts above 400, from 87 countries, with 40% global South and 53% women. JRR has had 34 successful missions, and is now the surge capacity providers of timely international justice expertise to the ICC, OHCHR, UN Women, UNDPA etc. JRR is also helping States directly, and is coming up with new ways to assist (trilateral cooperation, complementarity project) as well as new areas of work (asset recovery). JRR is making a difference in rendering international justice more effective, and Andras is confident that his knowledge, experience, dedication, creativity, together with the energy of his team, can help achieve a lot more.