William Anthony Schabas,
OC (born 19 November 1950) is a Canadian academic specialising in international
criminal
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...
and human rights law. He is professor of international law at
Middlesex University
Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated MDX) is a public research university in Hendon, northwest London, England. The name of the university is taken from its location within the historic county boundaries ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, professor of international human law and human rights at
Leiden University
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...
in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, and an internationally respected expert on
human rights law
International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law are primarily made up of treaties, ag ...
,
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
and the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
. Schabas has been described as "the world expert on the law of genocide and international law."
He has written over 18 monographs and 200 articles.
In 2009 he was elected President of the
International Association of Genocide Scholars
The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) is an international non-partisan organization that seeks to further research and teaching about the nature, causes, and consequences of genocide, including the Armenian genocide, the Holoca ...
. He is an Officer of the
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
and a Member of the
Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned socie ...
, as well as holding a position on the board of directors of the International Institute for Criminal Investigation and René Cassin, a non-government organisation that presents a Jewish voice on human rights.
[William Schabas, CV.]
Middlesex University
Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated MDX) is a public research university in Hendon, northwest London, England. The name of the university is taken from its location within the historic county boundaries ...
Schabas has authored more than 350 academic journal articles. He has also delivered lectures or conference papers in more than fifty countries. His writings have been cited in judgments, decisions and opinions of: International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Special Court for Sierra Leone, European Court of Human Rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Supreme Court of Canada, United States Supreme Court, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, High Court of Tanzania and Supreme Court of Israel.
Schabas also sits on the advisory board of the ''
Israel Law Review
The ''Israel Law Review'' is the oldest Israeli law journal published in English. In ''Great American Lawyers, an Encyclopaedia'', it is referred to as being among "the most prestigious of scholarly journals". The journal focuses on Israeli law a ...
'', the ''Journal of International Criminal'' Justice and is editor-in-chief of ''Criminal Law Forum'', the quarterly journal of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law. He is a member of the board of trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights. Schabas served as one of seven commissioners on the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and as one of six commissioners on the Iran Tribunal Truth Commission from 18 to 22 June 2012.
In 2014, Schabas was appointed the head of a UN Committee investigating the role of Israel in the
2014 Israel–Gaza conflict
The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge ( he, מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן, translit=Miv'tza Tzuk Eitan, ),
was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territories, Pale ...
. The appointment was criticized by Canada's Foreign Minister,
John Baird, and the Geneva-based advocacy NGO
UN Watch
UN Watch is a Geneva-based non-governmental organization whose stated mission is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter". It is an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic a ...
, on the basis of allegations that Schabas was anti-Israel, a charge he denied.
In February 2015 he resigned after an Israeli complaint
that he provided legal advice to the
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...
in 2012. Schabas had been hired as a consultant to provide a legal analysis regarding the Palestinian bid for non-member observer status at the United Nations.
Schabas stated that he was resigning to stop the controversy from overshadowing the work of the Gaza inquiry, whose results were due in March.
Avigdor Lieberman
Avigdor Lieberman (, ; russian: Эве́т Льво́вич Ли́берман, Evet Lvovich Liberman, ; born 5 June 1958) is a Soviet-born Israeli politician serving as Minister of Finance since 2021, having previously served twice as Deputy ...
hailed his resignation as an 'achievement for Israeli diplomacy'.
[Herb Keinon]
"Schabas takes parting shot at 'masters of ridiculous statements' Netanyahu, Liberman ,"
''Jerusalem Post
''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...
'', 3 February 2015.
In late 2019, Schabas defended the nation of
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
at the
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...
in The Hague against charges of genocide towards its
Rohingya population, brought by the republic of
Gambia
The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...
.
Early life and education
Schabas was born in Cleveland, Ohio, with strong roots in an
Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
Jewish background, though his family name, which is a variation of the
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
word for "Sabbath" ("Shabbos" in Yiddish, derived from "Shabbat" in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
), has been interpreted as perhaps suggesting also a
Sephardic
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...
connection.
[Nathan Guttman]
"8 Things You Didn't Know About The U.N. War Crimes Commission,"
''The Forward
''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ' ...
'' 15 August 2015. His mother, Ann (née Fairley), was born in Canada and served as dean of the Faculty of Library and Information Sciences at the University of Toronto. His father,
Ezra Schabas
Ezra Schabas, (April 24, 1924 – October 12, 2020) was a Canadian musician, educator and author. He was active in Canada's musical life beginning in 1952, when he emigrated from Cleveland with his family. During his time in Canada, he was a lead ...
, is an American-born Canadian musician and author.
His maternal grandparents were
Barker Fairley
Barker Fairley, (May 21, 1887 – October 11, 1986) was a British-Canadian painter, and scholar who made a significant contribution to the study of German literature, particularly for the work of Goethe, and was an early champion and friend ...
, an English-born painter and scholar, and
Margaret Fairley, a writer and educator also born in England. His paternal grandparents came from
Galicia,
and relatives on his father's side were murdered in the Holocaust.
["Former Head of Inquiry Into Gaza War Says He Faced Pressure and Threats"](_blank)
by Marlise Simons, ''The New York Times'', 11 FEB. 2015
Schabas moved with his family to Toronto in 1952 and received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
, and LL.B., LL.M. and LL.D. degrees from the
Université de Montréal
The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-de ...
. He has also been awarded honorary doctorates by
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...
,
Halifax,
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...
,
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
and
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
,
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
.
According to
UN Watch
UN Watch is a Geneva-based non-governmental organization whose stated mission is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter". It is an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic a ...
, when Schabas was a PhD student in history at the University of Toronto in 1974, and a leader in the
SDS group, he was the subject of a university investigation for allegedly violating human rights and freedoms by physically obstructing a visiting Harvard professor from speaking on campus. Schabas was suspended from the university for four years, later reduced to two.
Career
From 1991 to 2000 he was a professor of human rights law and criminal law at the
Université du Québec à Montréal
The Université du Québec à Montréal (English: University of Quebec in Montreal), also known as UQAM, is a French-language public university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the Université du Québe ...
(UQÀM), and he chaired the Department of Legal Studies from 1994 to 1998. He has taught as a visiting or adjunct professor at several other institutions, including McGill University, Queen's University Belfast, LUISS University in Rome, Cardoza Law School, Panthéon-Assas University and the National University of Rwanda.
Schabas moved to Ireland in 2000, serving as the director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland, Galway, until 2011. That year he moved to London to take up a chair in international law at Middlesex University, London. He is the recipient of the Vespasian V. Pellat Medal for International Criminal Justice of the Association international de droit penal and the gold medal in the Social Sciences of the Royal Irish Academy. Schabas was called to the Quebec bar in 1985 and practised law in Montreal for many years. He has also practised at the international level, appearing before the
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...
, the Grand Chamber of the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
and the
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals ...
. Schabas was invited by the
Special Court for Sierra Leone
The Special Court for Sierra Leone, or the "Special Court" (SCSL), also called the Sierra Leone Tribunal, was a judicial body set up by the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations to "prosecute persons who bear the greatest responsibil ...
to serve as an ''
amicus curiae
An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...
''.
Schabas has participated on several human rights fact-finding missions on behalf of international non-governmental organisations, such as
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
and the
International Federation of Human Rights
The International Federation for Human Rights (french: Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme; FIDH) is a non-governmental federation for human rights organizations. Founded in 1922, FIDH is the third oldest international h ...
, to such countries as
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
,
Burundi
Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili language, Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French language, French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the ...
,
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. The 1993 mission to Rwanda, of which he was a member, alerted the international community to the danger of
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
in that country.
In 2011, Schabas attended a conference in
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
with the
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
-based
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.
The movement originated in the aftermath o ...
Center for Human Rights and Cultural Diversity
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
* Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
where he was a keynote speaker. It was reported that the center has close ties with former Iranian president President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدینژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956), . He attended the conference together with US film producer Sandra Schulberg in order to present a documentary film about the Nuremberg Trial to Iranians, which was welcomed by the audience, and spoke to them about the Holocaust and Nazi atrocities.
[Non-aligned Movement Center for Human Rights and Cultural Diversity]
' Non-aligned Movement Center for Human Rights and Cultural Diversity Annual Report 2011,'
amiran February 2012 Schabas states that he went as an academic, and is opposed to academic boycotts of Israel and Iran.
In December 2019, the
Republic of The Gambia
The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...
filed charges of genocide against
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
. Led by justice minister
Abubacarr Tambadou and with the support of the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
The word is derived from ...
,
the former international criminal lawyer alleged that a genocide against the
Rohingya people
The Rohingya people () are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar (previously known as Burma). Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an ...
took place in Myanmar between 2016 and 2017. William Schabas, who in 2010 had collaborated on a report detailing systematic attacks against the Rohingya and concluding that they met the international threshold of crimes against humanity, stood in defense of the Asian nation, leading to criticism.
Legal and political positions
Overview
An interview with Schabas in the journal ''
Intellectum'' offers a concise overview of his opinions on Israeli operations in Gaza, the Goldstone Report, racism in Europe, the death penalty, genocide, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone, the International Criminal Court and its arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir of Sudan, and international criminal law in general.
Death penalty
Schabas has been very active in the movement for
worldwide abolition of capital punishment. His book ''The Abolition of the Death Penalty in International Law'' and his other writings on the subject have been referred to in judgments by national and international tribunals, including the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the United States Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Schabas regularly lectures on capital punishment in China and the United States. In 2009 he was a consultant to the United Nations responsible for preparing the Secretary General's five-yearly report on the status of capital punishment. Schabas is the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Academic Network Against the Death Penalty and for a Universal Moratorium on Capital Punishment, and Advisor to the International Centre for Death Penalty Research at
Beijing Normal University
Beijing Normal University (BNU, ), colloquially known as Beishida (), is a public research university located in Beijing, China, with a strong emphasis on humanities and sciences. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China ...
.
Genocide
For Schabas, the definition of what constituted the crime of genocide historically, unlike other laws governing international crimes, did not change for nearly 5 decades after its original formulation, though scholars beyond the legal discipline were critical of narrowness of the definition. Reviewing the evolving legal debate, Schabas notes a tendency to merge the notion of genocide with the related concept of
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
. In his own view, these should be kept distinct, with the former restricted to the definition originally framed in the Geneva Conventions, while the latter is sufficiently broad to prosecute all other cases of mass murder in ethnic and religious conflicts.
[William Schabas]
"Genocide in International Law: A Discussion with William Schabas,"
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hi ...
4 March 2004.
Schabas argues that the legal term "genocide" is a loaded one that should not be used to describe every atrocity involving mass killings. He argues that, in the strict legal sense, the only true "genocides" in recent history were the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
, the
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
and
Gypsy
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
, and the
Rwandan genocide
The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...
. In his book ''Genocide in International Law: The Crime of Crimes'' (Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed., 2009) he supports the view that Stalin's atrocities in the Ukraine, the killings of
Slav
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
and Soviet citizens under the Nazi occupation, and the
Holodomor
The Holodomor ( uk, Голодомо́р, Holodomor, ; derived from uk, морити голодом, lit=to kill by starvation, translit=moryty holodom, label=none), also known as the Terror-Famine or the Great Famine, was a man-made famin ...
were not, legally, genocide. In his book he summarizes the legal opinions regarding the status of the atrocities committed in Bosnia, deeming them
ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...
and not
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
, stating that "Ethnic cleansing is also a warning sign of genocide to come. Genocide is the last resort of the frustrated ethnic cleanser." Schabas also criticises the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
for recognising ethnic cleansing as genocide.
In March 1993, Schabas co-authored the ''Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Violations in Rwanda''.
In a later book, ''War Crimes and Human Rights'' (Cambridge University Press, 2008), Schabas states that the killings by the
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...
in Cambodia during the late 1970s lacked "the ethnic dimension that is part of the essence of the crime
f genocide" Schabas took the same position in 2001 in his article "Cambodia: Was it Really Genocide?" Further, while he strongly condemns the atrocities in
Darfur
Darfur ( ; ar, دار فور, Dār Fūr, lit=Realm of the Fur) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju ( ar, دار داجو, Dār Dājū, links=no) while ruled by the Daju, ...
in ''War Crimes and Human Rights'', Schabas says that they should not be labelled genocide because "the
summary execution
A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...
" of non-Arabs in Darfur "does not establish
genocidal intent
Genocidal intent is the ''mens rea'' for the crime of genocide. "Intent to destroy" is one of the elements of the crime of genocide according to the 1948 Genocide Convention. There are some analytic differences between the concept of intent under n ...
." In ''War Crimes and Human Rights'' he also criticises the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for finding a
joint criminal enterprise
Joint criminal enterprise (JCE) is a legal doctrine used during war crimes tribunals to allow the prosecution of members of a group for the actions of the group. This doctrine considers each member of an organized group individually responsibl ...
to commit genocide in
Srebrenica
Srebrenica ( sr-cyrl, Сребреница, ) is a town and municipality located in the easternmost part of Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a small mountain town, with its main industry being Salt mine, salt mining a ...
.
In 10 to 12 December 2019, Schabas represented the Myanmar government, protecting Myanmar genocide with his expertise in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing in Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. His appearance before the ICJ defending Burmese Government accused of committing genocide on Rohingya Muslim minority drew criticism and condemnation from individuals and organizations involved in human rights protection. Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, stated: "William Schabas is basically selling out the Rohingya for some Myanmar gov’t $$$. Really the worst sort of behavior, how totally immoral and two-faced".
Stephen J Rapp, a former United States war crimes ambassador who works at the Holocaust museum, who contended saying it as, "We have heard this morning from my friend Bill Schabas, I was just with him 10 days ago. I prosecuted genocide, we obtained convictions for this crime. He is wrong about the law: this was a genocide."
Schabas stated: "Both sides have a
right to have competent representation. If people don’t understand that, that’s not my problem."
Middle East conflict
Statements
In 2011, the same year Schabas attended the Center for Human Rights and Cultural Diversity conference in
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
in Tehran, he said in a speech that he believes Israeli prime minister
Benyamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...
should be "in the dock of an international court." He also wrote in a law journal article that the Israeli prime minister could be regarded as "the single individual most likely to threaten the survival of Israel."
In 2012, in regard to the Iranian nuclear program, Schabas wrote that Iran "very arguably has a claim to require
nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...
s for defensive purposes".
Regarding
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
, Schabas said "If we look at the poor people of Gaza ... all they want is a state – and they get punished for insisting upon this, and for supporting a political party in their own determination and their own assessment that seems to be representing that aspiration."
During his speech at the
Russell Tribunal
The Russell Tribunal, also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal, Russell–Sartre Tribunal, or Stockholm Tribunal, was a private People's Tribunal organised in 1966 by Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and Nobel Prize winner, and ...
in 2013, Schabas said that it is his "profound belief, the international law can be used to demonstrate and underscore the violations committed by the state of Israel, and moreover can be used to hold accountable individuals who have perpetrated international crimes against the people of Palestine." Asked about various possible tools for prosecuting Israel, Schabas said: "I would have been inclined to talk about crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression, all of which I think can be shown have been perpetrated at various times during the history of the state of Israel. These are all crimes that have become increasingly robust in their definition in recent decades and for which we now have international institutions capable of prosecuting the crimes ... With a bit of luck and by twisting things and maneuvering we can get them before the courts"
Schabas has accused Israel of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression committed "on the territory of Palestine since 2002", while acknowledging that "much of
iseffort" is focused on bringing about the prosecution of Israelis at the ICC.
2014 UN Gaza inquiry
The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on 23 July 2014 calling on establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate all alleged violations of international humanitarian laws carried out by Israel during the
2014 Israel–Gaza conflict
The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge ( he, מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן, translit=Miv'tza Tzuk Eitan, ),
was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territories, Pale ...
. Schabas was appointed the head of a three-member commission, together with
Amal Clooney
Amal Clooney (; ar, أمل علم الدين; born 3 February 1978) is a Lebanese and British barrister.
Her clients include Filipino and American journalist Maria Ressa; former President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed; Julian Assange, the ...
(Lebanon) who declined the nomination, and
Doudou Diène
Doudou Diène (born 1941) is a Senegalese jurist. He was United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance from 2002–2008.
Education
Diène holds a law degree fro ...
(Senegal). US judge
McGowan Davis joined the committee as 3rd member.
Schabas's appointment was criticized by Canada's Foreign Minister,
John Baird, and the Geneva-based advocacy NGO
UN Watch
UN Watch is a Geneva-based non-governmental organization whose stated mission is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter". It is an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic a ...
.
They noted that Schabas, remarking on what he sees as the political bias in the choice of cases to prosecute made by the International Criminal Court, had asked: "Why are we going after the President of Sudan for Darfur and not the President of Israel for Gaza?"
[:'I believe that pretending the prosecution of Sudan is not political is a mistake too. Of course it is political. Why are we going after the president of Sudan for Darfur and not the president of Israel for Gaza? Because of politics.'][Yitzhak Benhorin]
'Head of UN Gaza inquiry commission called to try Netanyahu at ICC,'
net
Net or net may refer to:
Mathematics and physics
* Net (mathematics), a filter-like topological generalization of a sequence
* Net, a linear system of divisors of dimension 2
* Net (polyhedron), an arrangement of polygons that can be folded up ...
12 August 2014 Schabas dismissed Baird's accusation as absurd, noting that he, Schabas, was on the editorial board of the ''
Israel Law Review
The ''Israel Law Review'' is the oldest Israeli law journal published in English. In ''Great American Lawyers, an Encyclopaedia'', it is referred to as being among "the most prestigious of scholarly journals". The journal focuses on Israeli law a ...
''. In reply to UN Watch's demand he recuse himself on the grounds that he had once criticized Benjamin Netanyahu, Schabas countered:'"Like everybody inside and outside Israel, I disagree with people. Is everyone in Israel who has an opinion about (Benjamin) Netanyahu anti-Israel?".'
Schabas said at the time that there was some merit in comments by critics that Israel was being singled out by the UN for human rights violations, but added that double standards and bias in the UN works both ways, at times to Israel's advantage, citing the fact that the United States almost invariably vetoes resolutions critical of Israel in the
Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and ...
. In short, he concluded:
Let's just say that it's a plausible complaint that maybe Israel has gotten a lot of attention at the Human Rights Council but at the same time it has perhaps had a lot of inattention at the Security Council, so the double standards work in both directions for Israel.
The Israeli government condemned the appointment of Schabas, and Israel's Ambassador to the UN,
Ron Prosor
Ron Prosor ( he, רון פרושאור; born 11 October 1958) is an Israeli diplomat, writer, and columnist. He is the Head of thAbba Eban Institute for International Diplomacyin IDC Herzliya Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy. On ...
, said in an interview "Forming an investigatory committee headed by Schabas is like inviting ISIS to organize religious tolerance week at the UN." Schabas replied that he does not hate Israel and that he will put his prior positions aside, adding: "Even if Spiderman was heading the probe, they
sraelwould've attacked him."
In February 2015 Schabas resigned after an Israeli complaint
that he had billed the
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...
for $US1,300 in 2012 for legal advice he gave them at their request, a precedent which might constitute evidence of a
conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
with his position as head of the investigative committee. He stated that he did not want the controversy to overshadow the work of the Gaza inquiry. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the UNHRC to shelve its report: "After the resignation of the committee chairman, who was biased against Israel, the report must not be published".
Avidor Liberman attributed Schabas's resignation to Israel's diplomatic work, stating that: "appointing Schabas to investigate Israel was like appointing Cain to investigate Abel."
In reply, Schabas said the Prime Minister was entitled to spin the matter any way he liked, and that both he and Avigdor Liberman were "masters of extravagant and ridiculous statements."
According to Israeli commentator
Gideon Levy
Gideon Levy ( he, גדעון לוי; born 2 June 1953) is an Israeli journalist and author. Levy writes opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper ''Haaretz'' that often focus on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. ...
, Schabas had fallen victim to investigative character assassination.
In an interview with the BBC Schabas admitted that "there is a distortion in the amount of attention given against Israel, and the number of resolutions directed against Israel" but defended the claim by saying Israel gets a "soft ride in the Security Council hearings."
Publications
Schabas has written or edited twenty-one books dealing in whole or in part with international human rights law, including:
*
*''The Abolition of the Death Penalty in International Law'' (Cambridge University Press, 3d ed., 2003)
*
*''The U.N. International Criminal Tribunals: The Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006)
*''An Introduction to the International Criminal Court'' (Cambridge University Press, 6th ed. 2020)
*''War Crimes and Human Rights: Essays on the Death Penalty, Justice and Accountability'' (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
*''Genocide in International Law: The Crime of Crimes'' (Cambridge University Press, 2d ed., 2009)
*''The International Criminal Court: A Commentary on the Rome Statute'' (Oxford University Press, 2010)
*''The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: the travaux préparatoires'' (Cambridge University Press, 2013) (three volumes)
*''International Human Rights Law and the Canadian Charter'' (Carswell, 2nd ed. 1996)
*''International Human Rights Law and Canadian Law: Legal Commitment, Implementation and the Charter'' (Carswell, 3rd ed. 2007).
*''Unimaginable Atrocities: Justice, Politics and Rights at the War Crimes Tribunals'' (Oxford University Press, 2012)
He has also published more than three hundred articles in academic journals, primarily in the fields of international human rights law and international criminal law.
[Schabas, ''supra'' note 1]
References
External links
Introductory noteby William Schabas on the
in th
Historic Archives of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law* Lecture by William Schabas o
in th
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schabas, William
1950 births
Living people
Canadian legal scholars
Academics of Middlesex University
Leiden University faculty
People associated with the University of Galway
International law scholars
Officers of the Order of Canada
University of Toronto alumni
Université de Montréal alumni
Université du Québec faculty
Human rights lawyers
Lawyers from Cleveland
Canadian people of English descent
Canadian people of Jewish descent
Université de Montréal Faculty of Law alumni