M. Cherif Bassiouni

Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni (born in 1937 in Cairo, Egypt) is a Muslim international United Nations war crimes expert, often called "the Father of International Criminal Law".

He is a Distinguished Research Professor of Law Emeritus at DePaul University College of Law in Chicago (since 1964), and President Emeritus of the University's International Human Rights Law Institute (1990–2006; 2007–09). He is also President of the Istituto Superiore Internazionale di Scienze Criminali (International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences) (ISISC) in Siracusa, Italy (since 1988), he was also Dean of ISISC (1976–1988). He was the Secretary General of the International Association of Penal Law (Internationale Association De Droit Penal) (IADP) from 1974–1989, and was President of the IADP from 1989–2004, and is currently the Association's Honorary President.

He has been a non-resident Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Cairo since 1996, and was a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC in 1972. He was also a Visiting Professor of Law at New York University Law School in 1971, and was a Fulbright-Hays Professor of International Criminal Law at the University of Freiburg, Germany in 1970. In addition, he is a frequent lecturer at universities in the US and abroad.

He is also admitted to the practice of law in Illinois, Washington, DC, the United States Supreme Court, and the Second, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits and the United States Court of Military Appeals. He is also admitted to practice before the Egyptian Supreme Court. Bassiouni has handled many international cases on extradition and international cooperation in criminal matters, and coordinated major litigation involving multiple parties, including states, on matters involving international law.

In 2007 he was awarded the Hague Prize for International Law for his "distinguished contribution in the field of international law". The winner of the Hague Prize is given the honour of selecting the fundamental principal of law on which the Hague Colloquium will be organized.^[1][1][2] Recently, Cherif has spoken out in support of the Gaza Flotilla.^[3]

He also made an appearance in the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002), produced by Unity Productions Foundation.

Career

United Nations positions

Professor Bassiouni has held numerous appointments with the UN, such as Independent Expert for the Commission on Human Rights on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan from 2004–2006, and Independent Expert for the Commission on Human Rights on The Rights to Restitution, Compensation and Rehabilitation for Victims of Grave Violations of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms from 1998–2000. He was also the Chairman of the Drafting Committee for the Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court in 1998, and the Vice-Chairman of the General Assembly's Ad Hoc and Preparatory Committees on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1995 and from 1996–98. In 2010, he stated his belief that the ICC will fail.^[4] He was also a member, then the Chairman, of the Security Council's Commission to Investigate Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Former Yugoslavia (1993), and the Commission's Special Rapporteur on Gathering and Analysis of the Facts from 1992–1993. He was Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the 1985 United Nations Treaty on Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power (1985), the Consultant to the Sixth and Seventh UN Congress on Crime Prevention from 1980–1985, Consultant to the Committee on Southern African Commission on Human Rights from 1980–1981 (as Consultant to the Committee on Southern African Commission on Human Rights, Professor Bassiouni prepared a Draft Statute for the Creation of an International Criminal Court to prosecute apartheid). Additionally, he served as the Co-chairman of the Committee of Experts to draft the convention on the Prevention and Suppression of Torture in 1977, and was the Honorary Vice-President to the Fifth Congress on Crime Prevention in 1975.

US Government Consultations

In addition to his many positions in the UN, Professor Bassiouni has also served as the Consultant to the US Department of State and Justice on projects relating to international traffic in drugs (1973) and international control of terrorism (1975 and 1978–79). He was also the consultant to the Department of State regarding the US hostages in Iran from 1979-1980.

Awards and honours

In 1999 Professor Bassiouni was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the field of international criminal justice and for his contribution to the creation of the International Criminal Court. He did not win as Médecins Sans Frontières received the award in 1999.

In 2007 he was awarded the Hague Award for International Law for his "distinguished contribution in the field of international law".^[1] He was awarded a colloquium in his honour: The Third Hague Prize Colloquium. This colloquium was organized by the T.M.C. Asser Instituut and the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law.^[2]
He has also received the Via Sapientiae Award (DePaul University) in 2009, the Beccaria Medal from the International Society for Social Defence in 2009, the Silvia Sandano Award of the University of Rome in 2008. In addition to his many awards, Professor Bassiouni also holds a number of Honorary degrees such as the Doctor of Humane Letters, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, US (2009); Doctor of Law honoris causa, National University of Ireland, Galway (LLD) (2001); Doctor of Law honoris causa, Niagara University (LLD) (1997); Doctor of Law honoris causa (Docteur d'Etat en Droit), University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour, France (1986); Doctor of Law honoris causa (Dottore in Giurisprudenza), University of Torino, Italy (1981). Additionally, Professor Bassiouni holds the following Law degrees: LLB University of Cairo, JD Indiana University, LLM John Marshall Law School, and SJD George Washington University. Furthermore, he studied law at University of Burgundy, France, and at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

He has received the following medals:

• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (Commander), Federal Republic of Germany (2003)
• Order of Merit of the Republic, Italy, (Commendatore) (1976)
• Legion d’Honneur (Officier), Republic of France (2003)
• Order of Lincoln of Illinois, United States of America (2001)
• Grand Cross Order of Merit of the Austrian Republic^{[clarification needed]} (Commander) (1990)
• Order of Scientific Merit (First Class), Arab Republic of Egypt (1984)
• Order of Merit (Grand’Ufficiale), Republic of Italy (1977)
• Order of Military Valor (First Class), Arab Republic of Egypt (1956)
• Order of Merit of the Republic, Italy (Cavaliere di Gran Croce) (2006)
• Ordre des Palmes Académiques, Republic of France (2006)

He has also received numerous academic and civic awards, including:

• The Special Award of the Council of Europe (1990)
• The Defender of Democracy Award, Parliamentarians for Global Action (1998)
• The Adlai Stevenson Award of the United Nations Association (1993)
• The Saint Vincent DePaul Humanitarian Award (2000)
• The Dominican University Bradford-O’Neill Medallion for Social Justice (2011)

Publications

Bassiouni is the author of 32 and editor of 47 books, and the author of 241 articles on a wide range of legal issues, including International Criminal Law, Comparative Criminal Law, Human Rights, and US Criminal Law. His publications have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, English, Persian, French, Georgian, German, Hungarian, Italian, Russian and Spanish. Some of these publications have been cited by the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). They have also been cited by the United States Supreme Court, United States Appellate and Federal District Courts, as well as by various State Supreme Courts.

Controversies

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

While many felt that Bassiouni would become the first prosecutor of the ICTY, failure to secure the prosecutor position was blocked by the United Kingdom and has been attributed in part to a perception that he would "move too quickly to charge Serb and possibly Croatian leaders with war crimes".^[5] A representative to the Security council was reported saying that Bassiouni was "a fanatic who had too much information". In the initial vote count in the Security Council, Bassiouni was supported by seven countries, the United States being one of them, and was opposed by seven countries with one abstention.^[6]

Lawsuits

Mr. Bassiouni sued the FBI, which heard oral arguments in 2005. The case centered around a speech given in 2001. Mr. Bassiouni argued that the FBI had an incomplete record regarding what was stated at the speech. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of the FBI.^[7]

See also

• ICTY
• International Criminal Court
• International criminal law

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} The Associated Press: US law professor Bassiouni wins second Hague Prize, 28 June 2007. Accessed 4 July 2007.
2. ^ ^{a b} The Hague Colloquium: Asser.nl Third Hague Colloquium organized in honour of Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni
3. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRUPMZvFd0c
4. ^ http://www.insidejustice.com/law/index.php/intl/2010/03/31/cherif_bassiouni_international_criminal
5. ^ Americanbarfoundation.org
6. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=3pifoLauqcQC&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&source=bl&ots=3FpTQjk-7m&sig=Rzfm_WjarDbtpN-oZdgMtyqMHWI&hl=en&ei=1JHpS8atEI2COLvx8IkL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CCoQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false
7. ^ OpenJurist.org

External links

• International Human Rights Law Institute
• Instituto Superiore Internazionale di Scienze Criminali

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