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.

In September 2016, Simpson 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 UNSCR 2250 (presented to the UNSC in April 2018 and to the UNGA in September 2018).

He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Law at the Columbia University School of Law in New York City, where he has taught a seminar on transitional justice and peacebuilding for the past 20 years.

Graeme Simpson holds an LLB and an MA in History from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He was co-founder (1989) of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) in Johannesburg, South Africa, and served as the Executive Director from 1995 to 2005. 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).

Simpson worked for five years at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) as the Director of Country Programs and thereafter of Thematic Programs, overseeing the organization’s work on Transitional Justice in more than 15 countries globally. He serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Transitional Justice (IJTJ) published by Oxford University Press, and co-edited a Special Issue of the Journal on Youth and Transitional Justice. He has published widely and taught at various universities around the world, and sits on the boards or advisory structures of several national and international civil society organizations. In 2023 and 2024, he also represented Interpeace as co-chair (with the UN PBSO) of the CSO–UN Dialogue on Peace and Security.