Graeme Simpson is the Principal Representative of Interpeace (NY) and Senior Peacebuilding Adviser at Interpeace, a global peacebuilding organization headquartered in Geneva and working in multiple conflict and immediate post-conflict zones around the world. Previously Graeme Simpson held the positions of Interpeace Director of Policy and Learning, and then Director of Interpeace USA.

In September 2016, Graeme was appointed by the UN Secretary General as the Independent Lead Author on the UN Security Council-mandated “Progress Study” on Youth, Peace and Security, under UN SCR 2250 (presented to the Security Council in April 2018 and to the UNGA in September 2018).

He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Law at Columbia University School of Law in New York City, where he has taught a seminar on transitional justice and peacebuilding for the past 17 years, and was appointed as a visiting Professor at the African Leadership Center at Kings College in London (2021-2023).

Graeme Simpson has an LLB and an MA in History from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He was co-founder (1989) and from 1995-2005 Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), in Johannesburg, South Africa. During this time he also served as Civilian Adviser to the Minister of Safety and Security in the first Mandela cabinet, and in that capacity was one of the primary authors of the South African National Crime Prevention Strategy (May 1996).

From 2005-2007, Graeme Simpson was the Director of Country Programs at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), headquartered in New York City, and in that capacity oversaw the organization’s work on Transitional Justice in more than fifteen countries globally. Thereafter, he was the Director of Thematic Programs at the ICTJ for two further years (till November 2009), leading work on Prosecutions, Reparations, Truth-Seeking, Security System Reform, Memorials, Gender Justice, and a program on Peace & Justice.

Graeme Simpson serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Transitional Justice (IJTJ) published by Oxford University Press. Simpson was also co-editor of a Special Issue of the International Journal on Transitional Justice (IJTJ) on Youth and Transitional Justice (March 2022). He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Peacebuilding Research and Education Program (PREP) at New York University; for four years to May 2023, sat on the International Advisory Committee of the Knowledge Management Platform for Security and the Rule of Law (KPSRL) based in The Hague, the Netherlands; is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Institute at Columbia University School of Law; is on the Advisory Board of Impact Peace, at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, University of San Diego; and is a member of the Advisory Board of CDA, Boston. Until 2016 he served as a member of the International Advisory Board of The International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) at Ulster University, Northern Ireland.

Graeme Simpson has published widely in books and journals covering a wide range of issues and has been centrally involved in national and international civil society organizations for more than 30 years. He has worked as a consultant to both governmental and non-governmental organizations in various countries, as well as to various UN Agencies and Entities.