Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic criminal acts which are committed by or on behalf of a de facto authority,usually by or on behalf of a state,that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes,crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the context of wars,and they apply to widespread practices rather than acts which are committed by individuals. Although crimes against humanity apply to acts which are committed by or on behalf of authorities,they do not need to be part of an official policy,and they only need to be tolerated by authorities. The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place during the Nuremberg trials. Initially considered for legal use,widely in international law,following the Holocaust,a global standard of human rights was articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Political groups or states that violate or incite violations of human rights norms,as they are listed in the Declaration,are expressions of the political pathologies which are associated with crimes against humanity.
Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni was an Egyptian-American emeritus professor of law at DePaul University,where he taught from 1964 to 2012. He served in numerous United Nations positions and served as the consultant to the US Department of State and Justice on many projects. He was a founding member of the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University which was established in 1990. He served as president from 1990 to 1997 and then as president emeritus. Bassiouni is often referred to by the media as "the Godfather of International Criminal Law" and a "war crimes expert". As such,he served on the Steering Committee for The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative,which was launched to study the need for a comprehensive convention on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity,and draft a proposed treaty. He spearheaded the drafting of the proposed convention,which as of 2014 is being debated at the International Law Commission.
Ricardo Joaquín Alfaro Jované served as 16th President of Panama from January 16,1931 to June 5,1932. He belonged to the Liberal Party.
David Michael Crane is an American lawyer who was the Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) from April 2002 until July 15,2005. During his tenure,he indicted,among others,the then-President of Liberia,Charles Taylor. Crane was replaced as chief prosecutor by his deputy Desmond de Silva. On April 26,2012,the SCSL,sitting in The Hague,convicted Taylor on various charges. Crane served as Professor of Practice at Syracuse University College of Law from 2006 until 2018.
Serge Brammertz is a Belgian prosecutor,academic and jurist. He serves as the chief prosecutor for the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) since 2016. He also served as the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) from 2008 until its closure in 2017.
Juan E. Méndez is an Argentine lawyer,former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel,Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,and human rights activist known for his work on behalf of political prisoners.
In the practice of international law,command responsibility is the legal doctrine of hierarchical accountability for war crimes,whereby a commanding officer (military) and a superior officer (civil) is legally responsible for the war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed by his subordinates;thus,a commanding officer always is accountable for the acts of commission and the acts of omission of his soldiers.
Christopher John Robert Dugard,known as John Dugard,is a South African professor of international law. His main academic specializations are in Roman-Dutch law,public international law,jurisprudence,human rights,criminal procedure and international criminal law. He has served on the International Law Commission,the primary UN institution for the development of international law,and has been active in reporting on human-rights violations by Israel in the Palestinian territories.
Christine,Baroness Van den Wyngaert is a Belgian jurist and judge. She served as international and comparative criminal law expert from 2009 to 2018 as a judge on the International Criminal Court. She served in the Trial Division Chamber. On 8 July 2013,Van den Wyngaert was ennobled by King Albert II of Belgium as a baroness for her services as a judge. From 2003 to 2005 she was a Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,and from 2000 to 2002 an ad hoc judge on the International Court of Justice.
Hassan Bubacar Jallow is a Gambian judge who has served as Chief Justice of the Gambia since February 2017. He was the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) from 2003 to 2016,and Prosecutor of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) from 2012 to 2016,both at the rank of United Nations Under Secretary-General. He served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General from 1984 to 1994 under President Dawda Jawara.
Luis Moreno Ocampo is an Argentine lawyer who served as the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from 2003 to 2012. Previously,he played a major role in Argentina's democratic transition (1983–1991).
Jean Spiropoulos,or originally Ioannis Georgiou Spyropoulos was a Greek expert in international law.
Dire Tladi is a professor of international law at the Department of Public Law and the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa at the University of Pretoria. He is also extraordinary professor at the Public Law Department of the University of Stellenbosch. He has served as the Principal State Law Adviser for International Law for the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation and Legal Counsellor to the South Africa Mission to the United Nations.
Silvia Alejandra Fernández de Gurmendi is an Argentine lawyer,diplomat and judge. She has been a judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 20 January 2010 and was the first woman President of the ICC from March 2015 to March 2018. She was elected to the presidency for a three-year term and served until March 2018. In 2020 she was elected to serve as President of the Assembly of States Parties to Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court for the twentieth to twenty-second sessions (2021-2023).
Leila Nadya Sadat is the James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law at Washington University School of Law and the former Director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute. She has served as Special Advisor on Crimes Against Humanity to Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of the International Criminal Court since December 12,2012. Sadat is the Director of The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative,a multi-year project to study the problem of crimes against humanity and draft a comprehensive convention addressing their punishment and prevention. She has spearheaded the international effort to establish this new global convention. In 2012 Sadat was elected to membership in the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations,and in 2018 was elected as the President of the American Branch of the International Law Association for a two-year term in October 2018.
The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law,established in 2000 as the Institute for Global Legal Studies,serves as a center for instruction and research in international and comparative law.
The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative is a rule of law research and advocacy project of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute. Started in 2008 by Professor Leila Nadya Sadat,the Initiative has as its goals the study of the need for a comprehensive international convention on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity,the analysis of the necessary elements of such a convention,and the drafting of a proposed treaty. To date,the Initiative has held several experts' meetings and conferences,published a Proposed Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity,and resulted in the publication of an edited volume,Forging a Convention for Crimes Against Humanity,by Cambridge University Press. The draft treaty is now available in seven languages. The UN International Law Commission produced its own,similar,set of Draft Articles on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity,and a proposed treaty is now being debated by governments around the world.
Sean David Murphy is an American international law scholar currently serving as the Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law at the George Washington University Law School in Washington,D.C.,where he has been teaching since 1998. His primary areas of scholarly research are public international law,foreign affairs and the Constitution of the United States,international organizations,international dispute settlement,and law of the sea. Murphy served for ten years on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law and is a former president of the American Society of International Law. In 2016,the United Nations General Assembly re-elected Murphy to serve as a Member of the U.N. International Law Commission (ILC). He was named by the ILC as Special Rapporteur for Crimes Against Humanity,a topic on which he has lectured widely.
Bongani Christopher Majola is an advocate of the High Court of South Africa,an academic,human rights scholar,and the previous Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He currently serves as the chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission.
Roberto Córdova was a Mexican jurist,international judge,and diplomat. Córdova served as a judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) between 1955 and 1964. He was the second Mexican to serve as an ICJ judge,following Isidro Fabela.
