Dr. Niki Siampakou is a researcher at T.M.C. Asser Instituut, specialising in international criminal law, counter-terrorism, and transitional justice, with a particular focus on victims’ rights. She is part of the research strand 'In the public interest: accountability of the state and the prosecution of crimes'. She coordinates the Advanced Summer Programme on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and the Rule of Law, as well as the Training Courses in International and Transnational Criminal Law.
Niki has several years of experience in conducting research, providing evidence-based policy advice, counselling international institutions on international criminal law, international human rights law, and transitional justice. Prior to her current position, she was a joint research fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) and T.M.C. Asser Instituut working on appropriate legal responses to violent extremism and terrorism, focusing on international and national criminal justice and human rights considerations.
From 2021 to 2023, Niki led research and training projects on transitional justice at the IFJD-Institut Louis Joinet in France and participated in two field missions to the Central African Republic. Earlier, she was a contractual researcher (doctorante contractuelle) at Aix Marseille University.
Niki holds a PhD in international criminal law (2020) and a master’s degree in public international law (2016) from Aix Marseille University and a bachelor’s degree in law from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2014) which included an Erasmus exchange at Lisbon School of Law of Universidade Católica Portuguesa (2013). She has been a visiting scholar at New York University (JSD Program, 2018-2019) and the University of Amsterdam (ACIL, 2017-2018). She also interned with the Victims Participation and Reparations Section of the International Criminal Court and the Greek Ministry of Justice. She speaks English, French, Spanish, Greek, and Dutch.
Her monograph, The Promise of Reparations for Victims at the International Criminal Court (forthcoming, Asser Press), offers a critical analysis of the ICC’s reparations mandate.
Publications
N. Siampakou, The Promise of Reparations for Victims at the International Criminal Court (T.M.C. Asser Press/Springer) [Forthcoming]
N. Siampakou, 'Sri Lanka’s counterterrorism reform falls short', East Asia Forum, 30 March 2026.
N. Siampakou, 'L’UNESCO et le Fonds au profit des victimes de la Cour pénale internationale' in C. Beaucillon and G. Goffaux Callebaut (eds), Le patrimoine culturel en péril - État des lieux & solutions (2026) L' Harmattan, pp. 227–243.
N. Siampakou, 'La pratique de la réparation devant la Cour pénale internationale', Revue belge de droit international (2025) pp. 111-136.
N. Siampakou, 'The Use of Transnational Repression in the Name of Security: Implications and Concerns', ICCT Policy Brief, 26 August 2025.
N. Siampakou, 'Adopting Alternative Approaches to Countering Terrorism: The Transitional Justice Paradigm' in R. van Ark, T. Gherbaoui, and J. P. Sexton (eds.), Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism in the Public Interest (T.M.C. Asser Press/Springer) [Forthcoming]. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5319194
M. Herbach and N. Siampakou, 'Faith and Fury: Rising Anti-Blasphemy Extremism in Europe and its Legal Implications' ICCT Analysis, 13 November 2024.
N. Siampakou, 'Transitional Justice and Terrorism: The Case of Sri Lanka', ICCT Policy Brief, 13 September 2024.
A. Dénouveaux and Siampakou N., 'Victim’s Involvement in P/CVE: Examples of Public Policies and Programmes in Prison and in Educational Systems', Radicalisation Awareness Network (European Commission), 15 April 2024.
N. Siampakou, 'Victims of Terrorism and Reparation: Applying the 2005 UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation', ICCT Policy Brief, 21 December 2023.
N. Siampakou, 'Time for a victim-centric approach in prosecuting sexual and gender-based violence committed by terrorists', ICCT Analysis, 21 August 2023.
N. Siampakou, 'Book Review : Christine Schwöbel-Patel: Marketing Global Justice: The political economy of international criminal law (Cambridge University Press 2021)', Annuaire français de relations internationales (2022), pp. 907-911.
J.P. Massias and N. Siampakou, 'Scotland : Transitional Justice to Deal with Economic Violence', Justiceinfo.net, 7 February 2022.
N. Siampakou and G. Ferrara (eds.), State Compliance with International Human Rights Law: State-of-the-art, Improvement and Challenges, Quebec Journal of International Law, Special Issue, June 2021.
G. Ferrara and N. Siampakou, 'Introduction', Quebec Journal of International Law, Special Issue, June 2021, p. 1–9.
N. Siampakou, 'The Al Mahdi Reparations Order: Reparations for the Destruction of Cultural Heritage', L’Observateur des Nations Unies, Vol. 43:2 (2017), pp. 191-199.
