Elisabeth Baumgartner graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Fribourg, is admitted to the Bar in Zurich since 2002 and holds a Master in International Humanitarian Law of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. After having practiced as a lawyer in Zurich, she joined the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and worked in Colombia and Ethiopia. She then worked as a researcher at the University of Lucerne and as a lawyer for the Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) in freetown. She is currently teaching international criminal law at the University of Lucerne, where she also writes her PhD thesis in international criminal law.