David Tolbert currently serves as the third president of the International Center for Transitional Justice, a global human rights organization with headquarters in New York.
Previously, Tolbert worked with the United Nations for almost 15 years, acting as a senior legal advisor, deputy chief prosecutor and assistant secretary-general.
He was the chief of the General Legal Division of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Vienna, Austria and Gaza.
Then, in 2004, he was appointed Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
In July 2009, he was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as a registrar for the special tribunal prosecuting the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.