About Chris Mahony
Born 1981. Chris Mahony is a New Zealand rugby union player.
Chris Mahony (born 19 June 1981 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a former rugby union player for the Auckland Air New Zealand Cup team, playing fullback centre or wing. He played for Oxford University where he has completed a Masters in African Studies and a DPhil in Politics.
Education Mahony holds Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) and of Laws (LL.B.) degrees from the University of Otago, and a Masterâs in African Studies (M.Sc.) and a D.Phil. in Politics from the University of Oxford.
He was admitted to the bar of the High Court of New Zealand in 2006 where he appeared for the Crown in criminal and refugee matters.
Career Mahony played for Auckland
In 2003, Mahony drafted recommendations on governance and corruption for the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In 2008, he directed the Witness Evaluation Legacy Project at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He taught international human rights and international criminal law while completing his doctorate at the University of Oxford. From 2012-2013, he was the deputy director of the New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law, Policy and Practice at Auckland University, Faculty of Law.
From 2015 to 2018, Mahony worked for the United Nations Development Programme on Strategic Policy, Conflict Prevention, and Transitional Justice. In 2017, he taught law at Peking University.
Personal life In 2017, Mahony was present at the Charlottesville, Virginia, car attack of a crowd of protesters. He was walking down the road together with Brennan Gilmore when the car was seen at the top of the hill before it came down. Mahony chased the car and alerted the police of the incident.
Publications BOOKS
Morten Bergsmo, Mark Klamberg, Kjersti Lohne, and Chris Mahony (eds), Power in International Criminal Justice, Florence: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2020 (884 pp.). The Justice Sector Afterthought: Witness Protection in Africa, Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2010. Cited by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence Kirsten Ainley, Rebekkah Freidman and Chris Mahony (eds). Evaluating Transitional Justice: Accountability and Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2015. Reviewed here and here. Cited by the joint UN-World Bank Report on Conflict prevention. Mary Crock, Farida Fozdar and Chris Mahony (guest eds), A âslippery fishâ: The differential application of human rights obligations to the settlement of refugees in the âGroup of Fiveâ States (Special Edition of) International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, (2017) (1).
BOOK CHAPTERS
Development and National Prosecutions: Addressing Power and Exclusion for Sustainable Peace and Development in Bergsmo et al (eds) Power in International Criminal Justice, Florence: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2020 (649-868 pp.) (co-author with Djordje Djordjevic). Make the ICC Relevant: Aiding, Abetting, and Accessorizing as Aggravating Factors in Preliminary Examination, in Morten Bergsmo and Carsten Stahn (editors), Quality Control in Preliminary Examination: Volume 2, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, Brussels, 2018 A Case Selection Independence Framework for Tracing Historical Interestsâ Manifestation in International Criminal Justice, in Bergsmo and Wui Ling (eds) âThe Historical Origins of International Criminal Lawâ Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2015. Cited by the joint UN-World Bank Report on Conflict prevention. If youâre not at the table, youâre on the menu: Complementarity and Self-Interest in Domestic Processes for Core International Crimes in Bergsmo (eds) âMilitary Self Interest in Accountability for Core International Crimesâ, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2015 Transitional Justice in Sierra Leone: Theory, History and Evaluation in Kirsten Ainley, Rebekka Freidman and Chris Mahony (eds). âEvaluating Transitional Justice: Accountability and Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Sierra Leoneâ, New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2015 (co-author with Ainley and Friedman) A Political Tool? The Politics of Case Selection at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Kirsten Ainley, Rebekka Freidman and Chris Mahony (eds). âEvaluating Transitional Justice: Accountability and Peacebuilding in Post- Conflict Sierra Leoneâ, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 The Truth about the Truth: Insider Reflections on the TRC in Kirsten Ainley, Rebekka Freidman and Chris Mahony (eds). âEvaluating Transitional Justice: Accountability and Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Sierra Leoneâ, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 (co-author with Yasmin Sooka). Cited by the joint UN-World Bank Report on Conflict prevention. The Potential and Politics of Transitional Justice: Interactions between the Global and the Local in Evaluations of Success in Kirsten Ainley, Rebekka Freidman and Chris Mahony (eds). âEvaluating Transitional Justice: Accountability and Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Sierra Leoneâ, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 (co- author with Ainley and Friedman) Witness Sensitive Practices in International Fact-Finding Outside Criminal Justice: Lessons for Nepal in Morten Bergsmo (ed) Quality Control in Fact-Finding, Florence: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2013 (225-274). Reviewed in the European Journal of International Law. Cited by UN Special Rapporteurâs report to the Human Rights Council and by the joint UN-World Bank Report on Conflict prevention. Prioritising International Sex Crimes before the Special Court for Sierra Leone: Another Instrument of Political Manipulation? in Bergsmo (Eds) âInternational Sex Crimes as a Criminal Justice Themeâ, Oslo: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2012. (p59-80). Reviews available here and here
JOURNAL ARTICLES AND ACADEMIC PAPERS
Weighting Justice Reform Costs and Benefits Using Machine Learning and Modern Data Science. Policy Research Working Papers; 10449. © World Bank, Washington, DC. 2023, http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39832 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.â (co-author) âA method and app for measuring the heterogeneous costs and benefits of justice processesâ, Front. Psychol., 16 May 2023, Sec. Forensic and Legal Psychology, Volume 14 â 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1094303 (co-author) âThe Relationship Between Influential Actorsâ Language and Violence: A Kenyan Case Study Using Artificial Intelligenceâ, Background Paper, LSE-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, International Growth Centre, 2019 (co-author). âConflict Prevention and Guarantees of Non-Recurrenceâ, Background paper to the United Nations-World Bank Flagship Study on Development and Conflict Prevention (co-author) (forthcoming 2017). âInternational Criminal Justice Case Selection Independence: An ICJ barometerâ Brussels: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, FICHL Policy Brief Series No. 58 (2016). âThe Justice Pivot: US International Criminal Law Influence from outside the ICCâ, Georgetown Journal of International Law, 2015, 46(4). âSierra Leone: The Justice v. Reconciliation Archetype?â Brussels: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, FICHL Policy Brief Series No. 33 (2015). Chris Mahony, Jay Marlowe, Natalie Baird and Louise Humpage, âAspirational yet precarious: New Zealand refugee settlement policyâs compliance with international human rights obligationsâ, in Mary Crock, Farida Fozdar and Chris Mahony (guest eds), A âslippery fishâ: The differential application of human rights obligations to the settlement of refugees in the âGroup of Fiveâ States (Special Edition of) International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, (2017) (1). Mary Crock, Farida Fozdar and Chris Mahony, âIntroductionâ, in Mary Crock, Farida Fozdar and Chris Mahony, (guest editors) A âslippery fishâ: The differential application of human rights obligations to the settlement of refugees in the âGroup of Fiveâ States (Special Edition of) International Journal of Migration and Border Studies (2017) (1). Where Politics Borders Law: The Malawi-Tanzania Boundary Dispute, New Zealand Centre for Human Rights, Africa Working Paper Series, February 2014 (co-author) Review of âRescuing a Fragile State: Sierra Leone 2002â2008â edited by L. Gberie Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009.â Journal of Modern African Studies, 50 (3) 2012. (review) Addressing Corruption in Post Conflict Sierra Leone, Governance Review, CGG, June 2006.
POLICY BRIEFS, POLICY REPORTS, BOOK REVIEWS
âFrom Justice for the Past to Peace and Inclusion for the Future: A Development Approach to Transitional Justiceâ, UNDP, 2020 (co-author). âAI can help trace language to violenceâ, World Bank Blog, 2021 (co-author). âMachine learning in Uganda brings the power of risk financing to strengthen refugee and host community resilienceâ Nasikaliza Blog, The World Bank, 2021 (co-author). âTransitional Justice, the Rule of Law, and Conflict Recurrenceâ Development for Peace Blog, The World Bank, 2018 (co-author). âUnited Nations; World Bank. 2017. Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict. Washington, DC: World Bank (contributing author). Towards the transformative: 3rd Generation Rule of Law Reform to manage political risk, United Nations Development Program, forthcoming. âInternational Criminal Justice Case Selection Independence: An ICJ barometerâ Brussels: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, FICHL Policy Brief Series No. 58 (2016). âSierra Leone: The Justice v. Reconciliation Archetype?â Brussels: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, FICHL Policy Brief Series No. 33 (2015). Where Politics Borders Law: The Malawi-Tanzania Boundary Dispute, New Zealand Centre for Human Rights, Africa Working Paper Series, February 2014 (co-author). Chris Mahony, Meghan Bolwell, Hannah Clark and Lee-Lon Wong, Comparative Analysis of International Refugee Resettlement International Law Obligations and Policy, A report on the WUN conference held at the University of Auckland, December 2013. Ainley, Kirsten, Datzberger, Simone, Friedman, Rebekka and Mahony, Chris (eds.) (2013) Ten years on: transitional justice in post conflict Sierra Leone: report and analysis of a conference held at Goodenough College, London. In: International Relations Public Conference: Ten Years On: Sierra Leoneâs Post-Conflict Transition, 11 December 2012, Goodenough College, London, UK. Review of âRescuing a Fragile State: Sierra Leone 2002â2008â edited by L. Gberie Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009.â Journal of Modern African Studies, 50 (3) 2012. (review) Outreach Strategy for War Crimes Division of High Court of Uganda, OTJR, 2009 (co-author) Recommendations on Governance in âWitness to Truth: Report of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commissionâ, Volume 2, Accra: Graphic Packaging Ltd 2004 The Historical Antecedents to the Conflict in âWitness to Truth: Report of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commissionâ, Volume 3A, Accra: Graphic Packaging Ltd 2004 (co-author)
Donât just read it â
keep it.
Full-length biographies made to live with: read them, listen on the way to work, watch them tonight.
- E-book
- Audio
- Video
Instant download · yours to keep · every purchase keeps this site free
Important facts
People in Chris Mahony's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Chris Mahony's
Frequently asked questions
Who is Chris Mahony?
New Zealand rugby union player
When was Chris Mahony born?
Chris Mahony was born on 19 June 1981 in Auckland.
What is Chris Mahony's occupation?
Chris Mahony is a rugby union player.
What nationality is Chris Mahony?
Chris Mahony is New Zealand.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Chris Mahony. https://biography.guide/chris-mahony/
MLA: "Chris Mahony." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/chris-mahony/.
Chicago: "Chris Mahony." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/chris-mahony/.
Data last updated: 2026-09-20 · Spot an error? Report a correction.
Page generated 2026-09-27 05:20 UTC