(in alphabetical order)
Elizabeth Abi-Mershed
Elizabeth Abi-Mershed is a Principal Human Rights Specialist for the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). As an attorney with the IACHR Secretariat,
she analyzes incoming petitions, manages a docket of pending cases, drafts case
reports, coordinates on site visits and drafts corresponding country reports,
and participates in the litigation of cases before the Inter-American Court
of Human Rights. Her practice also includes providing technical support to the
IACHR's rapporteurship on the rights of women, and participating in initiatives
concerning standard-setting and implementation, such as the recent reform of
the IACHR's Rules of Procedure. In relation to her work on gender issues, she
recently published "The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: Prospects
for the Inter-American Human Rights System to Protect and Promote the Human
Rights of Women," in Women and International Human Rights Law (Transnational
Publishers; Kelly Askin and Dorean Koenig eds. 2000). She received her JD from
the Washington College of Law, and holds an LL.M. in International and Comparative
Law from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Gudmundur Alfredsson
Gudmundur Alfredsson has a law degree from the University of Iceland (1975), an M.C.J.-degree from New York University School of Law (1976) and an S.J.D. from Harvard Law School (1982). He worked at the UN Secretariat for 12 years, with the Office of Legal Affairs in New York (1983-85) and the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva (1985-95). He is now Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (www.rwi.lu.se) and Professor at the Law Faculty of Lund University (1995-). He was a member of the UN Working Group of Government Experts on the Right to Development 1996-97. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, the editor of several books and the author of over one hundred articles on a variety of human rights and international law issues.
Kelly Askin
BS, JD, PhD (law). Director, International Criminal Justice Institute, Washington, DC, Senior Legal Advisor, International Justice, Open Society Justice Initiative; J. Skelly Wright Fellow and Visiting Lecturer, Yale Law School. Dr. Askin has taught and served as a visiting fellow to Harvard University and Notre Dame Law School. She has also served as a legal advisor to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Trial and Appeals Chamber) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Appeals Chamber), and as the Acting Executive Director of the War Crimes Research Office, Washington College of Law. Books include War Crimes Against Women, Prosecution in International War Crimes Tribunals (1997) and the 4 volume treatise on Women and International Human Rights Law (1999-2003, co-edited).
M. Cherif Bassiouni
Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni is president of DePaul's International Human Rights Institute and also president of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences in Siracusa, Italy. In addition, he is president of the International Association of Penal Law. Since 1975, he has served as a consultant to the United Nations on many occasions. In 1992, he was appointed a member, and later a chairman, of the U.N. Commission to Investigate International Humanitarian Law Violations in the Former Yugoslavia. The author and editor of over 50 books, and the author of over 200 law review articles on U.S., international and comparative criminal law, Professor Bassiouni's most recent books are International Terrorism: Multilateral Conventions 1937-2001 (2001), Crimes Against Humanity In International Law (2d rev. ed. 1999), and International Criminal Law (2d rev. ed. 1999). Professor Bassiouni earned a J.D. from Indiana University School of Law in 1964 and an LL.M in international and maritime law from John Marshall Law School in 1966. He received an S.J.D. in international criminal law from George Washington University in 1973, and he has studied law at Dijon University, the University of Geneva and the University of Cairo. He was awarded the LL.D. degrees honoris causa in 2001 from The National University of Ireland, Galway; in 1997 from The University of Niagara, New York; in 1988 from the University of Pau, France; and in 1981 from the University of Torino, Italy. In 2001, the State of Illinois awarded him the Order of Lincoln, the highest civilian medal awarded by the state. In 1999 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his lifelong work for the International Criminal Court.
Reed Brody
Reed Brody is Special Counsel for Prosecutions of Human Rights Watch. He coordinates the effort which led to the indictment in Senegal of the former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré. He directed HRW's participation in the landmark case of Augusto Pinochet and wrote the HRW booklet The Pinochet Precedent: How Victims can Pursue Human Rights Criminals Abroad. He teaches a class at Columbia Law School on accountability for atrocities and is co-author of The Pinochet Papers: The Case of Augusto Pinochet in Britain and Spain (Kluwer, 2000). From 1998-2002 he was HRW Advocacy Director. He led the HRW delegation to the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban. Previously, he led United Nations teams investigating massacres in the Democratic Republic of Congo and observing human rights in El Salvador, and coordinated an international legal team prosecuting human rights crimes in Haiti. He was Director of the International Human Rights Law Group and Executive Secretary of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). He is principal author of the ICJ book Tibet: Human Rights and the Rule of Law (1997) and author of Contra Terror in Nicaragua (South End Press, 1985). He is a frequent TV and radio commentator and his articles have appeared in the International Herald Tribune, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, le Monde, El País, the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Independent, the Miami Herald, the Boston Globe, le Monde diplomatique, The Economist, the Independent, the Asian Wall Street Journal, the American Journal of International Law, Jeune Afrique and the Nation.
Sandra Coliver
Sandra Coliver is the Executive Director of the Center for Justice & Accountability. She has worked in the human rights field since she held a Ford Foundation fellowship with Amnesty International USA in 1979. After receiving her law degree from Boalt Hall (University of California, Berkeley, 1981), she clerked for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and worked in private practice for several years, specializing in criminal, constitutional and international law. She then served as the Law Program Director of Article 19, the International Center Against Censorship, based in London (1990-96); human rights expert for the UN mission in Bosnia (1996); Legal Advisor to the International Crisis Group, an advocacy think tank chaired by former Senator George Mitchell (1997-98); and Senior Rule of Law Advisor to IFES, an NGO dedicated to promoting fair elections and accountable governments (1999-2001). She has taught courses at WCL, Boalt Hall and other Bay Area law schools on human rights, humanitarian law, international law and women's rights. She has managed or participated in human rights and rule of law programs in Russia, the Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe, Mongolia, Morocco, Southeast Asia, Southern Africa and Rwanda. She chaired the International Committee of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International USA and now chairs committees of the ABA and San Francisco Bar Association.
Tom Farer
Dean Farer, the former President of the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights, has taught law at Columbia, Rutgers, Harvard, Tulane and American University
and International Relations at Princeton, Johns Hopkins and American University
and was President of the University of New Mexico. He has been a senior fellow
of the Carnegie Endowment and the Council on Foreign Relations, an official
of the Defense and State Departments, the legal consultant to the UN intervention
force in Somalia (1993), advisor and trainer for the Somali National Police
(1963-64), and consultant in the drafting of Uganda's Constitution. He is on
the editorial boards of the American Journal of International Law and the Human
Rights Quarterly. He an is Honorary Professor of Peking University. Publisher
of 11 books and monographs and over a hundred articles and book chapters, his
shorter works have appeared in such journals as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy,
Human Rights Quarterly and the New York and London Review of Books, and the
Harvard and Columbia Law Reviews. His hobbies are skiing (prudently), tennis
(aggressively), hiking and biking."
Robert K. Goldman
Robert K. Goldman is Professor
of Law, Louis C. James Scholar, and Co-Director of American University, Washington
College of Law Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. His scholarship
focuses primarily on international human rights and humanitarian law. For nearly
30 years, he has followed the development of these still-emerging branches of
law, addressing cutting-edge issues as they have appeared. Beginning with his
1972 article, The Protection of Human Rights in the Americas: Past, Present,
and Future, his scholarly publications have covered such issues as the right
to a fair trial, the problem of impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations,
and the law governing armed conflicts. Professor Goldman was elected to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS in 1996 and to
a second four-year term in 1999. He is a recent past president of that body.
The IACHR is a seven-member body which hears and decides complaints alleging
violations of the American Convention on Human Rights and other human rights
instruments in the Americas, conducts on-site visits to OAS member states, drafts
treaties, and engages in academic and other promotional activities.
Claudio Grossman
Claudio Grossman is Professor
of Law and Dean of American University, Washington College of Law and the Raymond
Geraldson Scholar of International and Humanitarian Law. He is the author of
numerous publications regarding international law and human rights. In addition,
Dean Grossman has served as the General Rapporteur of the Inter-American Bar
Association, and is currently a member of the Council of the Inter-American
Institute of Human Rights. In 1993, Dean Grossman was elected to the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States. In
1996, he was elected President for a one-year term. Dean Grossman is currently
First Vice President of the IACHR and the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of
Indigenous Populations. Dean Grossman has received numerous awards for his work
with human rights and international law, including the René Cassin Award from
B'nai B'rith International in Chile and the Harry LeRoy Jones Award from the
Washington Foreign Law Society. In October 2000, Dean Grossman was named Outstanding
Dean of the Year by the National Association of Public Interest Law.
Christoffel Hendrik
Heyns
Christoffel Hendrik Heyns is currently Professor of Human Rights and Director of the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. PhD, University of the Witwatersrand 1992; LLM, Yale 1987; MA (Philosophy) (cum laude); BA (Hons) (Philosophy) (cum laude) 1982; LLB, 1981; BLC, 1979 University of Pretoria. His most notable human rights activities include Co-leader of UN treaty bodies study, in co-operation with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 1998-2000 (impact study of 20 countries around the world); Consultant on human rights in Africa, OAU, 1999; South African representative on the Committee on Human Rights Law and Practice of the International Law Association; Member of the Standing Committee on International Standards of the South African Human Rights Commission; Member of the South African delegation at the September 1995 "Meeting of Experts"; Member of Task Group at the Multi-Party Negotiation Process, at Kempton Park, on the repeal of discriminatory legislation, November 1993; Initiator and organizer of the All-African Human Rights Moot Court Competition (Zimbabwe 1992, Zambia 1993, Swaziland 1994, Pretoria 1995, Oujda, Morocco, 1996, Kampala, Uganda 1997, Maputo, Mozambique 1998, Abidjan, Ivory Coast 1999, Ghana 2000, Pretoria 2001, Cairo 2002); Initiated the African regional Master's programme (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa); Initiated the Southern African Student Volunteers. Books include Human Rights Law in Africa Series (published by Kluwer, Netherlands) first volume: 1996; second volume: 1997, third volume 1998, fourth volume 1999. Co-editor of the African Human Rights Law Journal.
David Kinley
David Kinley is currently Professor of International Law, and founding Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University in Melbourne. He earned his Doctorate in human rights and constitutional law from Cambridge University, UK in 1990. He has taught at the Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney, the University of Tasmania, and Cambridge University. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Universities of Edinburgh, Hong Kong and New South Wales and has been the Australian representative on the European Union Visitor's Program. He was awarded a Senior Fulbright Scholarship in 2003. Dr. Kinley has been a consultant and adviser for the Constitution Unit in the UK, the Australian Law Reform Commission, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Ford Foundation, AusAID, and the World Bank. He is author/editor of four books including: Human Rights in Australian Law (Federation Press; 1998) and Human Rights Explained (a book-length internet publication). He is also author of some 50 works on a range of legal matters, but especially on human rights law. Most recently he has written a book entitled Commercial Law and Human Rights (Ashgate/Dartmouth; 2002). He is currently working on a major Australian Research Council project (2002-4) on corporations and human rights and another project on corporate social responsibility and global governance funded by the Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements.
Claudia Martin
Claudia Martin is a Visiting Associate
Professor at American University, Washington College of Law teaching international
law and international protection of human rights. A lawyer from Argentina, she
also holds an LLM degree from WCL. She is Co-Director of the Academy on Human
Rights and International Humanitarian Law and of the Inter-American Human Rights
Digest Project. She is the co-author (with Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón and Tomas
Ojea Quintana) of La Dimensión Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, Guía para
la Aplicación de Normas Internacionales en el Derecho Interno (The International
Dimension of Human Rights, a Guide for its Application in Domestic Law), a human
rights case book published by the Inter-American Development Bank (1999). Professor
Martin has also co-authored (with Claudio Grossman, Robert K. Goldman, and Diego
Rodríguez-Pinzón,) the Repertorio de Jurisprudencia del Sistema Interamericano
de Derechos Humanos, La Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (The Inter-American
Human Rights Digest, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights), 1998. She also
organizes conferences and training sessions on the Inter-American Human Rights
System for lawyers, judges, and human rights professors. Her many appointments
include serving as consultant to the OAS, IADB, and USAID/MS.
Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón
Diego Rodriguez-Pinzón (J.D., LL.M., S.J.D.) is a Visiting Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director of three projects - the Academy, the Inter-American Human Rights Digest and the Inter-American Human Rights Partnership Project - at American University, Washington College of Law. He is the co-author (with Claudia Martin and Tomas Ojea Quintana) of the human rights casebook bestseller, La Dimensión Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, Guía para la Aplicación de Normas Internacionales en el Derecho Interno published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB, 1999). He has also coauthored (with Claudio Grossman, Robert K. Goldman and Claudia Martin) the casebook The International Dimesion of Human Rights: A Guide for Application in Domestic Law (IADB 2001) and the Repertorio de Jurisprudencia del Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos, La Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (Vol. I and Vol. II, 1998). His recent articles include The 'Victim' Requirement, The Fourth Instance Formula and the Notion of 'Person' in the Individual Complaint Procedure of the Inter-American Human Rights System (2001); and Presumption of Veracity, Nonappearance, and Default in the Individual Complaint Procedure of the Inter-American System on Human Rights (1998). He is a correspondent for the British periodical Butterworths Human Rights Cases. He has served as international legal consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the Organization of American States (OAS), among other institutions. He was also staff attorney at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Officer for Latin America at the International Human Rights Law Group.
Brian Tittemore
Brian D. Tittemore is a Human Rights Attorney with the Secretariat of the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr. Tittemore practiced
as a barrister and solicitor with the Civil Litigation Branch of the Canadian
Department of Justice in Ottawa. He also held positions as Acting Executive
Director and Senior Research Associate with the War Crimes Research Office in
Washington D.C., and has lectured and published in the fields of international
humanitarian law, international human rights law and civil litigation. Mr. Tittemore
holds a B.Comm. and LL.B. from the University of Saskatchewan and an LL.M. in
International Legal Studies from the American University in Washington, D.C.,
and is a member of the Law Society of Saskatchewan and the Law Society of Upper
Canada.
Richard Wilson
Richard J. Wilson is a Professor
of Law and founding director of the International
Human Rights Law Clinic at American University Washington College of Law where
he has taught since 1989. He was the director of the law schools summer study
program in Chile in 1995 and 1996. He has been a Visiting Lecturer in law at
Daito Bunka University in Tokyo, Japan and at the Catholic University in Lima,
Peru, and was a Fulbright Scholar in the Republic of Colombia. He is a co-author
of textbooks on international human rights law and practice, and on international
criminal law and procedure. His scholarly interests focus on public interest
law, legal services and access to justice for the poor, as well as the global
movement toward the adoption of clinical legal education methods and principles
throughout the world. He has lived or consulted in several Latin American countries
and has lectured or consulted in the United States, Eastern and Western Europe,
and Asia. He served as Legal Advisor to the Consulate of the Republic of Colombia
in Washington during 1998. Professor Wilson has presented three cases at the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica. Professor Wilson
taught at CUNY Law School in New York City from 1985-1989. He was director of
the Defender Division at the National Legal Aid and Defender Association in
Washington from 1980-85.
Leo Zwaak
Leo Zwaak is a Senior Researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights
(SIM) and University Lecturer, Utrecht University. Professor Zwaak is currently
involved in two projects: the Digest of Strasbourg Case-Law Relating to the
European Convention on Human Rights and the Council of Europe and Gross and
Systematic Violations of Human Rights in Europe: the Case of Turkey. The Digest
project (in cooperation with Council of Europe, Directorate of Human Rights;
Professor P. van Dijk, co-editor) is designed to meet the needs of all those
who are required to be, or have an interest in becoming, familiar with the case-law
of the organs of the European Convention on Human Rights. The present project
is an up-date of a six-volume publication on the case-law of the European Commission
and Court of Human Rights, covering the period from 1955 to 1996. The Digest
is regularly updated. The second project addresses the question of whether the
mechanisms under the European Convention on Human Rights will be effective in
case of gross and systematic violations of human rights. The case of Turkey
shows that the present mechanism lacks effectiveness when dealing with gross
violations. Professor Zwaak received his LLM from Utrecht University.
Contributing Faculty
(in alphabetical order)
Daniel Bradlow
Daniel D. Bradlow is Professor
of Law and Director of the International Legal Studies Program at American University
Washington College of Law (WCL), Washington, D.C. where he specializes in international
economic law. His current scholarship focuses on the international financial
institutions, the international legal aspects of sustainable and equitable development,
and the legal aspects of debt and financial management. He was a Consultant
to the World Dams Commission and is currently a Senior Special Fellow in the
Legal Aspects of Debt and Financial Management Programme of United National
Institute on Training and Research (UNITAR). He also serves as an advisor to
the Rethinking Bretton Woods Project and to a project on the Global Financial
Architecture. In 1995-6 he was a Senior Special Fellow of UNITAR. In 1996 he
was a Visiting Professor at the Community Law Centre at the University of the
Western Cape, South Africa. He has lectured in many countries in Africa, Asia
and Latin America on international financial law and international business
law issues. He has edited books and published articles on international financial
law, the international financial institutions, foreign investment, the World
Bank Inspection Panel, the changing responsibilities of the World Bank and the
IMF in the management of the global economy and new perspectives on sustainable
development. Professor Bradlow holds degrees from the University of Witwatersrand
in South Africa, and Northeastern University and Georgetown University in the
United States and is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bars.
Diane Orentlicher
Diane F. Orentlicher, is Professor
of Law, Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and
Director of the Crimes Research Office at American University, Washington College
of Law. She is currently a Visiting Scholar in the Program in Law and Public
Affairs at Princeton University. Professor Orentlichers scholarship has focused
on issues of accountability for human rights crimes, the transition to democracy
by states, corporate responsibility in a transnational context, and the relationship
between ethnic identity and political participation. She has published extensively
on obligations of states under international law to provide an effective response
to gross violations of human rights. Her recent publications include: Human
Rights, University Casebook Series; Foundation Press, 1999 (ed. with L. Henkin,
G. Neuman and D. Leebron); a monograph for the United States Holocaust Memorial
Council, entitled Genocide and Crimes against Humanity: The Legal Regime (1998);
a chapter in Ethnic Identity and International Law called "Citizenship and National
Identity" (1998); and "Responsibilities of States Participating in Multilateral
Operations with Respect to Persons Indicted for War Crimes," in Nouvelles Etudes
Penales, reprinted in Making Justice Work: The Report of the Century Foundation/Twentieth
Century Fund Task Force on Apprehending Indicted War Criminals (1998). Professor
Orentlicher has provided legal analysis in support of several major prosecutions
of human rights violations. She was an expert witness in a class-action suit
against former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in a U.S. Federal Court.
Herman Schwartz
Herman Schwartz is Professor of
Law at American University, Washington College of Law. Widely renowned scholar
of constitutional law and civil rights, a field in which he has over 40 years
of experience, Professor Schwartz has written extensively on civil rights and
constitutional issues and has taken these traditionally "domestic" law subjects
into the international arena. Professor Schwartz has produced numerous studies
and reports on prison conditions in various countries for human rights NGOs:
Report on Prison Conditions in Israel in 1985 for the Lawyers Committee for
Human Rights; in the U.S.S.R., for Helsinki Watch in 1991; and Reports on Prison
Conditions in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Turkey, and Brazil, for Human Rights Watch
in 198991. Professor Schwartz has put his constitutional expertise to pragmatic
use. Beginning in 1989, at the time of the Velvet Revolution, Professor Schwartz
joined distinguished lawyers, judges, scholars, and government officials in
developing constitutional documents for, and promoting human rights in, the
new governments of Russia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Mongolia, Armenia, Georgia, and
Ukraine. His recently released book, The Struggle for Constitutional Justice
in Post-Communist Europe (U. Chicago Press 2000) chronicles and analyzes his
experiences.
Ann Shalleck
Ann Shalleck is a Professor at
American University, Washington College of Law where she started and directs
the Women and the Law Program and directs the Clinical Program. As part of the
Women and the Law Program, Professor Shalleck teaches the Women & the Law Clinic,
organizes an annual workshop on Women's Rights and the Law School Curriculum,
established the first LLM specialization in Gender Studies in January 1998,
which focuses on both United States domestic law and international and comparative
law, and started a program on Women and International Law in November 1994.
The Women and International Law Program has an ongoing project on Integrating
Gender into Legal Education and Legal Theory, which has included the creation
of two year fellowships, one in the LLM specialization at the Washington College
of Law and a second as a regional fellow at a Latin America law school teaching
and researching in the area of gender and the law. The project has also sponsored
a Pan American Conference on Transforming Women's Legal Status: Overcoming Barriers
in Legal Doctrine and Legal Education, pre- and post- conference publications
associated with the conference, and produced the first textbook on Women and
the Law written by Latin American scholars for use in Latin American law schools.
Professor Shalleck lectures widely about gender and the law, women and international
law, clinical education, and family law. She has written in the areas of clinical
law, family law and feminist theory. She is a member of the Board of Governors
of the Society of American Law Teachers and has served on the District of Columbia
Task Force on Gender Bias in the Courts, as well as the Advisory Committee on
Implementation of the Task Force Report. She is a 1971 graduate of Bryn Mawr
College and received her JD from Harvard Law School in 1978.
