GHOSTS OF THE PAST: ATROCITY CRIMES, DIPLOMACY, AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

David Scheffer, Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law and Director, Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University School of Law

During the atrocities that enveloped the Balkans twenty years ago, the United States led in creating a war crimes tribunal to render justice. The Clinton Administration asserted its leadership again in building tribunals to investigate atrocity crimes in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia. This international gamble to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes culminated in the establishment of the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC). All of these courts continue to adjudicate cases, but the future lies with the ICC as it expands its jurisdiction. Although it played a key role in negotiating the Rome Statute, the ICC’s treaty, the United States has not joined the Court. What challenges confront the ICC as it seeks the participation and cooperation of nation states, especially the United States? Will a powerful international justice system emerge in the years ahead? Join The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and David Scheffer as he discusses his experiences at the intersection of conflict, domestic politics, and diplomacy, and shares an insider’s perspective on the building of five war crimes tribunals and America’s destiny with international justice.

David Scheffer is the Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law and director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law. Scheffer was the first U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, from 1997 to 2001, and was a leading architect of the modern war crimes tribunals. He led the U.S. delegation in United Nations (UN) talks establishing the ICC. Scheffer also headed the Atrocities Prevention Inter-Agency Working Group. During the first term of the Clinton administration, he was senior adviser and counsel to the U.S. Representative to the UN, Dr. Madeleine Albright, and served on the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council. He is one of Foreign Policy’s “Top Global Thinkers of 2011.”

His new book, All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crime Tribunals, will be available for purchase and signing following the program.