M. Cherif Bassiouni, a DePaul University College of Law professor who in June and July chaired the United Nations committee which was charged with fashioning a treaty to establish a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC), will discuss the court and how it was formed at noon Sept. 15. The lecture will be held at the DePaul University College of Law, 25 E. Jackson Blvd. in Room 805 of the Lewis Center.

The ICC will be a standing court with jurisdiction over the most serious international crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by individuals. The court would not supersede national courts but would instead act complementary to them.

The Diplomatic Conference met in Rome, Italy, for five weeks of intensive work and negotiations to hammer out the final details of the treaty. As chairman of the Drafting Committee of the United Nations Diplomatic Conference, Bassiouni worked arduously with an assembly committee throughout the conference to write the document and assure its uniformity in six working languages of the United Nations. On July 17, the treaty was adopted by a vote of 120 to seven, with 21 abstentions.

Twenty-six states have already signed the document. The United States has not yet signed. Sixty states must ratify the treaty for it to take effect. According to Bassiouni, this should take place by the end of the millennium and will usher a new era of international criminal justice that will bring an end to impunity for major international crimes and serious violations of fundamental human rights.

Bassiouni, who has been a law professor at DePaul for more than 30 years, is recognized internationally for his work on human rights issues. In 1993, he chaired the U.N. Commission investigating international humanitarian law violations in the former Yugoslavia. That work led to the establishment of the Ad Hoc Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

In 1995, he was elected vice chairman of the U.N. General Assembly committee laying the groundwork for the ICC’s establishment. In 1977, he co-chaired the committee that drafted the U.N. Convention Against Torture. The president of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences in Siracusa, Italy, and the prestigious International Association of Penal Law in France, Bassiouni also is a world renowned scholar who has authored and edited 41 books and 201 law review articles.

"The establishment of an ICC was indeed an extraordinary accomplishment," said Bassiouni. "It was a privilege and a pleasure to have been part of it after 35 years of academic work. The establishment of the ICC symbolizes and embodies certain fundamental values and expectations shared by all peoples of the world, and therefore it is a triumph for all peoples of the world."

Bassiouni’s lecture is free and open to the public. Call Tabita Sherfinski at 312/362-5922 for more information.