Sabine Nölke holds a BA., MA and LL.B., from the University of Western Ontario; an LLM in Public International Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science; and an LL.D. (h.c.) from the University of Western. She joined Global Affairs Canada in 1992, specializing in international peace and security, human rights, terrorism, humanitarian law and international and transnational criminal law. Her last Ottawa assignment was as Director-General of the Non-Proliferation & Security Threat Reduction Bureau, where she was responsible for Canada’s disarmament and non-proliferation policy, the WMD Threat Reduction Program and Canada’s counterterrorism and anti-crime capacity building programs. She served abroad at the High Commission of Canada in London; with the Canadian delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna, where she focused on the former Soviet Union space; and finally, as Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, as well as the international tribunals and institutions in The Hague (2015-2019). Prior to her retirement in 2021, she took on temporary assignments as Acting High Commissioner in Ghana (2019) and as Chargée d’affaires in Ireland (2020).
In the course of her career, Ms Nölke acted, inter alia, as co-counsel for Canada before the International Court of Justice (case on Legality of the Use of Force, 1999-2004); as sous-Sherpa to the Prime Minister on the Nuclear Security Summit Process; as co-Chair of the Sahel Working Group of the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum; as co-Chair of the Working Group on the Future of the OPCW; and as Chair of the Committee on the Election of the Prosecutor of the ICC.