The School of Law’s Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute has completed the first two phases of a two-year project to study the international law regarding crimes against humanity and to draft a multilateral treaty condemning and prohibiting such crimes.
In conjunction with this project called the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative, the institute has appointed six fellows who will be both performing research on the commission of atrocities from 1900-2009 and working on the draft treaty.
The fellows are law students McCall Carter, Erika Detjen, Kathryn Minton, Sarah Placzek and Margaret Wichmann and recent WUSTL graduate Stephanie Anne Nickerson (BA ’09).
“We could not do this very important project without the wonderful help that our fellows are providing,” said Leila Sadat, J.D., the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law and director of the Harris Institute. “They are doing research, proofreading, editing and actively participating in every phase of the project.”
Sadat convened the initiative’s steering committee in spring 2008, bringing together some of the top jurists, scholars and practitioners in the area of international criminal law.
In April 2009, a distinguished group of international law experts from around the world gathered at the law school to begin work on the treaty — the Specialized Convention on Crimes Against Humanity.
This past summer, an expanded group of experts gathered at The Hague for the Intersessional Experts’ Meeting of the initiative. The participants addressed key aspects of the draft convention and built on the substantial progress of earlier meetings.
“The setting at The Hague facilitated the participation of leading judges and practitioners, including those from the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,” Sadat said.
“The initiative’s steering committee benefitted greatly from their counsel during our meeting at The Hague,” Sadat said.
In August, a small group of experts met in St. Louis to revise the draft convention. The treaty is now being translated into French and sent to other international experts for comment. The initiative will host an international conference in spring 2010 at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., to complete the final phase of the project.
Conference participants will discuss the final draft of the treaty as well as the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity. Cambridge University Press will publish the papers commissioned by the initiative, a full draft of the treaty and an accompanying commentary.
The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative is made possible by a generous grant from Steven Cash Nickerson, J.D., and the U.S. Institute of Peace.