Lyma Nguyen

Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions – 6 years

As a Federal Prosecutor, Lyma had conduct of a range of indictable and summary matters including transnational crimes (illegal foreign fisheries, crimes at sea, aviation offences, illegal importations and drug offences, Migration Act offences, and take evidence proceedings in Mutual Assistance matters), human exploitation offences (human trafficking, slavery, child sex exploitation) and corporations offences.

Federal Attorney-General’s Department (2008/2009) – As a government Legal Officer, Lyma worked in both Criminal Justice Division, in the area of international transfer of prisoners, dealing with prisoner case work and bilateral treaties, and in Civil Justice Division (Human Rights Branch), scrutinising bills and providing legal and policy advice on domestic human rights and anti- discrimination matters, leading up to the federal National Consultation on Human Rights.

Department of Immigration and Citizenship

Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Qld), 

Drew & Napier LLP – an international clerkship in the litigation department of leading Singaporean law firm.

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

Lyma is one of 45 nominated Australian women lawyers whose oral history is recorded in the national archives in the “Trailblazing Women Lawyers Project”, particularly for her work as International Civil Party Counsel at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (‘ECCC’ or Khmer Rouge Tribunal).

In the ECCC jurisdiction, Lyma successfully appealed Civil Party admissibility decisions before the Pre-Trial Chamber and appeared as Counsel in pre-trial and trial proceedings, including at the examination of Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch, convicted in Case 001), the Closing Statements in Case 002 and evidence proceedings in the trial segment involving the genocide of the ethnic Vietnamese minority victims who she represents.

Lawyers Beyond Borders 

In 2010, she took an assignment as International Criminal Law Advisor with Lawyers Beyond Borders under AVI where she provided advice to national lawyers from Legal Aid of Cambodia on its work with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and its labour and human trafficking project.

Criminal defence and prosecution in all courts for all indictable, simple and regulatory offences, including corporation crimes and transnational criminal law; International criminal and human rights law; Immigration, Refugee and Statelessness; Commissions and Boards of Inquiries, Coronial Inquiries; Domestic human rights and anti-discrimination (including work health related matters); Administrative law and judicial reviews of administrative decisions, Extradition, Mutual Assistance and International Transfer of Prisoners; Maritime Law; Contracts; Police disciplinary matters; Victims of Crime Compensation; Personal Violence Orders; Mental Health Review Tribunal; Professional Disciplinary matters; Appellate matters before NT CAT and Supreme Court.

• Masters in Law (specialising in International Law), Australian National University
• Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, College of Law
• Bachelor of Laws, University of Queensland
• Bachelor of Arts (Double Major in Philosophy and Peace and Conflict Studies), University of Queensland

Lyma is one of 45 nominated Australian women lawyers whose oral history is recorded in the national archives in the “Trailblazing Women Lawyers Project”, particularly for her work as International Civil Party Counsel at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (‘ECCC’ or Khmer Rouge Tribunal). Since 2009, Lyma has provided pro bono legal services for over 100 victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, including foreign nationals, members of the Cambodian diaspora world-wide, as well as ethnic minority victims in the Tribunal’s historical genocide case.

In 2010, she took an assignment as International Criminal Law Advisor with Lawyers Beyond Borders under AVI where she provided advice to national lawyers from Legal Aid of Cambodia on its work with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and its labour and human trafficking project. In the ECCC jurisdiction, Lyma successfully appealed Civil Party admissibility decisions before the Pre-Trial Chamber and appeared as Counsel in pre-trial and trial proceedings, including at the examination of Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch, convicted in Case 001), the Closing Statements in Case 002 and evidence proceedings in the trial segment involving the genocide of the ethnic Vietnamese minority victims she represents.

In 2013, she received the Prime Minister’s Executive Endeavour Award in recognition of her work in at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. One year later, Lyma was awarded the prestigious Churchill Fellowship with the aim to build expertise in the practice of international criminal justice by examining the operation of international courts and preparing victim representation in the genocide trial before the ECCC. At a specialised training course in ‘Advocacy and Litigation before International Courts and Tribunals’ organized by the Universiteit Leiden, The Hague, she was awarded the Best Advocate Award.

Since 2012, Lyma has been enlisted as a Law and Justice Civilian Expert on the register of the Australian Civilian Corps under the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, for rapid deployment to fragile or post-conflict situations. In this capacity, she has provided advice as a subject matter civilian expert in detention, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration.

Lyma has worked in Cambodia, Singapore, Nigeria and East Timor, and has French and Vietnamese language skills.

She has guest-lectured at universities globally and presented extensively on genocide and victims representation in international courts, including at the Legal Eagles Criminal Law Conference (Luang Prabang, Laos, 2016 and Hoi An, Vietnam, 2015), the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL) Conference, Canberra (2014); and CLANT Conference (Bali, 2013).

For more information about Lyma’s international practice, see www.civilparties.org.

French, Vietnamese

Philosophy, physics and metaphysics, critical thinking and debate, music, playing guitar, watching films, reading for leisure (when time allows), poetry, making jewellery, inventing things, creating artwork.