Center Faculty/Staff News
John Cerone, Executive Director of the War Crimes Research Office at American University's Washington College of Law (WCL), authored Legal Constraints on the International Community's Responses to Gross Violations of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Kosovo, East Timor, & Chechnya, which was published in the September 2001 issue of Human Rights Review. In November 2001, Mr. Cerone participated in a conference entitled "Verdad, Justicia y Reparacion: Corte Penal Internacional," ("Truth, Justice, and Reparation: the International Criminal Court"), at which he gave a presentation on "Innovations in International Criminal Law: The Jurisprudence of the UN Criminal Tribunals and the Legal and Political Foundation of the International Criminal Court." The conference was convened by the vice president of the Republic of Colombia, and 400 diplomats, government officials (executive, legislative, judicial), academics, students, and NGO representatives attended the conference. In December 2001, Mr. Cerone was interviewed by The Legal Notebook about terrorism and the law. He was also interviewed by BBC World TV News and BBC World Service Radio about the status of those detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In January, Mr. Cerone spoke at the London Conference on "Unilateral and Multilateral Responses to Genocide." Recently, he published an article about trafficking in persons in International Peacekeeping.
Robert K. Goldman, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Center), currently serves as a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and as a member of the Board of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica. In November 2001, Professor Goldman joined other WCL faculty on a panel discussing President Bush's executive order to try suspected terrorists in U.S. military courts. C-SPAN, Canadian Broadcasting, NHK Japanese Television, the Boston Globe, VOA, the American Bar Association, and The Legal Notebook covered the panel discussion. Additionally, Minnesota Public Radio, Spanish BBC, BBC, and Spanish CNN interviewed Professor Goldman on the subject of terrorism. Australian Broadcasting, the Boston Globe, the Brazilian publication O Globo, and Slate.com interviewed Professor Goldman on issues concerning the law of war, the international criminal court, and President Bush's executive order to try suspected terrorists in U.S. military courts. In November, Professor Goldman was also featured in a Los Angeles Times story about the prospect of prosecuting Osama bin Laden in the event of his capture. In December, Professor Goldman was interviewed by Knight Ridder Publications and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as by Sam Donaldson for ABC Newsjournal and Pete Williams for NBC Nightly News, regarding the American Taliban fighter, John Walker.
Claudio Grossman, Dean, Co-Director of the Center, and former president and member of the IACHR, was nominated to receive the 2002 Inter-American Press Association Chapultepec Award for protecting freedom of the press and freedom of expression. The award is expected to be presented in the spring of 2002. In November, Dean Grossman presented arguments in the reparations phase of the Bámaca Velásquez case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica. Also in November, Dean Grossman delivered the keynote address, entitled "Human Rights Protections for the Mentally Ill: Contributions of the Organization of American States," at the Mental Health in the Americas: Partnering for Progress Conference. On November 5, Dean Grossman participated in a question and answer forum with a weekly newsletter, entitled Latin American Advisor, regarding the human rights situation in Mexico under the leadership of President Vicente Fox, and on November 11, O Globo interviewed Dean Grossman regarding the post-September 11 world order. In December, Dean Grossman visited Colombia for one week in his capacity as President of the IACHR, and during his visit, he was interviewed by Univision, a Spanish-language news outlet, regarding the tense political situation facing Colombia. In January, Dean Grossman joined Professor Diane Orentlicher in attending a symposium at the University of Haifa on "Human Rights Violations in Latin American and the Universalization of Human Rights: Moral and Legal Concerns." Recently, Dean Grossman authored a book entitled The International Dimensions of Human Rights: A Guide for its Application in Domestic Law.
Claudia Martin, Visiting Associate Professor, Co-Director of the Center's Digest Project and Co-Director of the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, co-authored The International Dimensions of Human Rights: A Guide for its Application in Domestic Law, a human rights case book recently published by the Inter-American Development Bank. In addition, she has been appointed as a reporter on Inter-American Human Rights Law for the Netherlands Human Rights Quarterly, a publication of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights.
Diane Orentlicher, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center, presented a paper entitled "New Players in the Implementation and Enforcement of International Humanitarian Law: The Role of Domestic Courts and Judges at the US Institute of Peace," in November 2001. In December, Professor Orentlicher participated in a panel, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, entitled "Justice After September 11: Are there Lessons To Be Learned from Bosnia and Rwanda?" In January, Professor Orentlicher joined Dean Grossman in participating at a symposium held at the University of Haifa on "Human Rights Violations in Latin American and the Universalization of Human Rights: Moral and Legal Concerns," where she presented her paper, "Constructing a Common Law of Humanity: The Jurisprudence of National and International War Crimes Trials."
Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón, Visiting Professor, Co-Director of the Center's Digest Project, Co-Director of the Academy, and Director of the Human Rights Legal Education-Partnership projects in Ecuador and Colombia, was interviewed by BBC World and the national broadcast of Public Radio International (PRI) about Bush's executive order allowing the United States to try suspected terrorists in military courts, and conflicts arising out of the tendency of the United States to criticize other countries for setting up similar systems. In November, Professor Rodríguez-Pinzón was also interviewed by the Mission of the Swedish NGO Foundation for Human Rights on impunity in Colombia. During this interview, he discussed the current human rights situation of Colombia with the Director of the Legal Defense and Assistance Project in Nigeria, a professor of the Universidad Católica Santa María La Antigua in Panama, the Director of Auditoria Democrática Andina in Ecuador, and Rose-Marie Asker of the Swedish NGO Foundation for Human Rights. In December, Professor Rodríguez-Pinzón made several presentations about the Academy and the Academic Human Rights Networks to, among others, prosecutors and public defenders in Colombia. In December, Professor Rodríguez-Pinzón was also interviewed on the meaning of human rights for "Defensoría del Pueblo," a radio program of the Colombian Human Rights Ombudsman. Additionally, in January 2002 he lectured about human rights legal education at the "Universidad Internacional SEK" of Ecuador. Also in January, El Comercio, an Ecuadoran newspaper, interviewed Professor Rodríguez-Pinzón about the current international legal status of the prisoners being held by the U.S. in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Herman Schwartz, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center, was interviewed by French 2 TV and MSNBC regarding President Bush's executive decree, ordering that suspected terrorists be tried in military tribunals. In late November, Professor Schwartz joined other WCL faculty to discuss President Bush's executive order to try suspected terrorists in U.S. military courts. C-SPAN, Canadian Broadcasting, NHK Japanese Television, the Boston Globe, VOA, the American Bar Association, and the Legal Notebook covered the panel discussion. In December, Professor Schwartz was a guest on WMAL Radio's Charlie Warren Show, where he discussed John Ashcroft's testimony regarding the trial of suspected terrorists. Professor Schwartz published an article in The Nation, entitled "Tribunal Injustice," and another article in Insight On the News, entitled "Symposium: Secret Tribunals Will Ignore Due Process." Also, Christian Science Monitor, WUSA, CBS 9, and the BBC interviewed Professor Schwartz regarding American Taliban fighter, John Walker.
Richard Wilson, Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Center, Director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic (IHRLC), and Director of the WCL Clinical Program spoke about "Clinical Legal Education in Latin America: The Chilean Example," and facilitated a group discussion at the Fourth Annual Colloquium on Clinical Legal Education in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, held in Riga, Latvia. In November, Professor Wilson spoke about "The Contradictions of Institutional Public Defense in an Adversary Process," at the First Inter-American Meeting of Public Defender Offices, held in Santiago, Chile. He also gave a presentation entitled, "Torture: Giving Legal Meaning to the Unspeakable," at the George Mason University Chapter of Amnesty International. In December, Professor Wilson attended the biennial conference of the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE) in Durban, South Africa. After attending the conference, he traveled to Arusha, Tanzania, the site of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and provided legal advice regarding the structures for providing defense services to indigent defendants before the court, as well as the role of defense counsel in the two ad hoc international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Professor Wilson's research is funded through WCL's War Crimes Research Office.
The proper citation for this article in the Human Rights Brief Volume 9, Issue 2, beginning at page 34 is: 9 No. 2 Hum. Rts. Brief 34 (2002).
