CHERIF BASSIOUNI (EGYPT) ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF DRAFTING COMMITTEE
Press Release
BIO/3169
L/2874
CHERIF BASSIOUNI (EGYPT) ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF DRAFTING COMMITTEE
19980615 Biographical Note Cherif Bassiouni (Egypt), President of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences, Siracusa, Italy, was elected today as Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court.Mr. Bassiouni, who was a Vice-Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the Conference, brings to the task a rich experience in the field of codification of international legal instruments. He has been professor of law at DePaul University in the United States since 1964, and in 1988 was appointed President of the Institute in Siracusa. He is author and editor of 42 books on United States criminal law, international and comparative criminal law and human rights. Some of his publications have been cited by the International Court of Justice and by the United States Supreme Court.
In 1996, Mr. Bassiouni was elected Vice-Chairman of the General Assembly body preparing the ground for the establishment of the criminal court. He had earlier, in 1995, served in a similar position on the Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee on the Establishment of the International Criminal Court. In 1993, he was appointed Chairman of the United Nations Commission of Experts established pursuant to Security Council resolution 780 (1992) to investigate violations of international humanitarian law in the former Yugoslavia, and between 1992 and 1993, he was the Commission's Special Rapporteur on gathering and analysis of the facts.
In 1985, Mr. Bassiouni was a consultant to the Seventh United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (Milan, Italy, 1985), for which he chaired two preparatory meetings of experts in 1983-1984, and to the Sixth Crime Congress (Venezuela, 1980), where he presented a draft international criminal code. He was also a consultant to the Fifth Crime Congress (Geneva, 1975), where he was elected honorary Vice-President of the Congress. He also chaired a preparatory meeting for the Eighth Crime Congress (Havana, Cuba), which prepared a draft statute for an international criminal tribunal.
In addition, he was a consultant to the United Nations Division of Human Rights in 1980-1981 and prepared for it a draft statute for the creation of an international criminal court. In 1978, he was co-chairman of the Committee of
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Experts which prepared the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Suppression of Torture, and chaired the Committee of Experts which prepared the United Nations draft convention on the prevention and suppression of unlawful human experimentation.
Mr. Bassiouni has served as a consultant to the United States Departments of State and Justice on projects relating to international traffic in drugs (1973) and international control of terrorism (1975 and 1978-1979). He was a consultant to the Department of State on the defense of the United States hostages in Iran (1979-1980).
Active in several scholarly and professional organizations, Mr. Bassiouni was elected President of the International Association of Penal Law in 1989, after serving as its Secretary-General from 1974 to 1988. He was chairman of the international law section of the Illinois State Bar Association for several years, and chaired several committees of the Chicago Bar and American Bar Associations.
Mr. Bassiouni holds a J.D. degree from Indiana University; an LL.M. from John Marshall Law School and a S.J.D. degree from George Washington University, all in the United States. He also studied at Dijon University in France, the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and the University of Cairo, Egypt. In addition, he is a recipient of a number of honorary doctorate degrees in law.
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