DePaul University College of Law's International Human Rights Law Institute (IHRLI) and 26 of the world's leading non-governmental organizations are co-sponsoring a conference in Italy Sept. 17 to 21 to develop international guidelines for limiting impunity for international crimes and serious human rights violations.

More than 120 international human rights and criminal law experts from 35 countries will meet at the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences (ISISC) in Siracusa, Italy, to develop guidelines against impunity that will be submitted to the United Nations for approval. ISISC is one of the world's leading academic centers on international and comparative criminal law and is affiliated with the United Nations.

Internationally-known human rights expert M. Cherif Bassiouni, a DePaul law professor and president of the IHRLI and ISISC, said that one of the goals of this extraordinary gathering of experts is to develop an international system to make people who perpetrate international crimes accountable and to put an end to the practice of impunity.

"Ever since World War II, there have been some 200 conflicts in the world, both internal and international," Bassiouni said.

"An estimated 170 million people have been killed by these conflicts--twice the number killed in both World Wars combined

Most of these casualties occurred as part of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, which the world has repeatedly condemned. But what happened at the end of these conflicts? Those who committed the crimes got away with it. This is impunity, and it must stop," he said.

Bassiouni, who will chair the conference, was chairman of the U.N. Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 (1992) to Investigate Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the former Yugoslavia, and presently serves as vice chairman of the U.N. Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of a Permanent International Criminal Court. He has been working on the establishment of such a court for 25 years.

Conference participants will discuss eight major papers that came out of a Washington conference convened in March by IHRLI in cooperation with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. The papers will be published in the fall edition of the Duke University journal, "Law and Contemporary Problems."

Among the issues to be discussed at the Siracusa conference:

* The post-WW II experiences with international criminal prosecution.

* The failure to prosecute or otherwise hold accountable perpetrators of international crimes and serious violations of human rights in recent conflicts

* International guidelines that can be used by negotiators to deny impunity for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture, and other serious violations of fundamental human rights

* Guidelines for diplomats to restore peace without furthering the gap between warring sides and pardoning international criminals

* Mechanisms for finding and recording the truth involving such crimes

* A system of political sanctions that remove the leadership in government agencies that allowed the wrongdoing

* International victim compensation systems.

The participants at the Siracusa conference will include high-level representatives of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, of U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright and of former President Jimmy Carter. H.E. A.N.R. Robinson, president of Trinidad and Tobago; H.E. Lamberto Dini, minister of foreign affairs of Italy; H.E. Faustin Ntezilyayo, minister of justice of Rwanda; Hon. Ato Dawit Yohannes, speaker of the House of Peoples' Representatives of Ethiopia, are also scheduled to attend.

Also participating will be officials from Argentina, Cambodia, Chile, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Rwanda, South Africa and Yugoslavia. The president of the U.N.'s Rwanda Tribunal and presiding judge of the Yugoslavia Tribunal, as well as the deputy prosecutors for both tribunals, will address the conference. In addition, the ministers of justice and Rwanda and Ethiopia, as well as the latter's chief prosecutor, will speak of their experiences with prosecutions.

The vice chairman of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission will discuss that country's experience and its novel approach. Experts from the El Salvador Truth Commission, Argentina's investigation and prosecution of the "dirty war," and Guatemala's newly established Truth Commission, will also share their experiences.

DePaul Law Professor Stephen Landsman and IHRLI Executive Director Douglass Cassel will make presentations at the conference. Ambassador John Kordek, DePaul's director of international and government Programs, will chair a panel.

Note to editors: For more information about the conference, "Reining in Impunity for International Crimes and Serious Violations of Fundamental Human Rights," call Tabita Sherfinski (312) 362-5922.