M. Cherif Bassiouni, a DePaul College of Law professor, longtime advocate of international peace and justice and president of DePaul’s Interntional Human Rights Law Institute, has been nominated for the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize. It is the first time in DePaul University’s 100-year history that a member of its faculty has been nominated for this distinguished honor. The International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council of the United Nations (ISPAC), which said Bassiouni was the "single most driving force behind the global decision to establish the International Criminal Court," nominated Bassiouni.

Bassiouni and the Association Internationale de Droit Pénal, of which he is the president, were recommended for the honor. The association is a worldwide, scholarly international criminal justice organization with more than 3,000 members in 99 countries. According to the ISPAC, under Bassiouni’s direction the association worked tirelessly to bring worldwide attention to the need for establishing the International Criminal Court.

The International Criminal Court 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. Seventy-five states have signed the Convention to create the court but they still have to go through the national parliamentary process of ratification. The treaty will take effect after 60 states have ratified it, which is expected by the end of the year 2000.

Bassiouni has been a law professor at DePaul for more than 35 years and is one of the world’s leading authorities on international criminal law and human rights. He most recently chaired the Drafting Committee of the United Nations Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court. In 1995, he was elected chairman of the U.N. General Assembly committee laying the groundwork for the international court’s establishment.

In 1993 and 1994, Bassiouni 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. Prior to that, in 1977, he co-chaired the committee that drafted the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

"DePaul has benefited from Professor Bassiouni’s splendid teaching, scholarship and leadership for over three decades," said Teree E. Foster, dean of the College of Law. "During his eventful career, he has earned a reputation as one of the world’s most outstanding and acclaimed figures in the field of human rights. It is most fitting that a man of his accomplishments and dedication be recognized with a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize."

The president of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences in Siracusa, Italy, Bassiouni is a world-renowned scholar who has authored and edited 41 books and 201 law review articles.

Bassiouni is one of about 118 individuals and organizations nominated this year for the coveted Nobel Peace Prize. Pope John Paul II, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President Bill Clinton, The Salvation Army, Doctors Without Borders and NATO all have been named candidates for the award according to recent reports. The winner of the award will be announced in October.