The Human Rights Day Commemorative Lecture - 10 December 2013

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 10 December as Human Rights Day in 1950 to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the General Assembly on 10 December 1948. The UDHR was drafted as ‘a common standard of achievement for all peoples and nations’ and was the first universal statement that all human beings have certain inherent rights that are inalienable.

As part of the commemorative day, the Human Rights for Future Generations (HRFG) programme invited Professor Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni to deliver a lecture on the challenges to promote accountability for violations of human rights in conflicts around the world. Professor Bassiouni will discuss the Siracusa Guidelines for International, Regional and National Fact-Finding Bodies. These guidelines, developed from inputs by more than 80 experts, seek to provide a framework to ensure clarity and consistency throughout the processes of creating, investigating, and reporting for these bodies that are an essential component of international, regional and national investigative processes. Setting the standards and procedures that should be applied in this context can contribute immensely to the process of international criminal justice.

Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni is Emeritus Distinguished Research Professor of Law at DePaul University and has previously served as the Chair of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry for Libya (2011-2012); Chair of the Drafting Committee, Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of the International Criminal Court (1998) and Chair of the United Nations Commission of Experts to Investigate Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Former Yugoslavia (1993-1994).

Tuesday, 10 December 2013 – 5.30pm The Cube, Oxford Law Faculty of Law, St Cross Building, Oxford OX1 3UL