Donna Arzt (December 9, 1954 – November 15, 2008) was an American legal scholar.

Education

Arzt earned a B.A. degree at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...

, a J.D. degree at Harvard Law School, and an LL.M. degree at

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

. From 1988 until her death she was Professor of Law in the

Syracuse University College of Law Syracuse University College of Law (SUCOL) is a Juris Doctor degree-granting law school of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. It is one of only four law schools in upstate New York. Syracuse was accredited by the American Bar Association ...

, and Dean's Distinguished Research Scholar. She died November 15, 2008, after a long illness.

Career

Before teaching at Syracuse, Arzt practiced public interest law in Boston and was an assistant attorney general for the Commonwealth of

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

specializing in civil rights and regulation of charitable solicitation. Arzt published numerous articles on

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

in the Soviet Union and the Middle East. She served as a consultant to the Association for Civil Rights in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

, and the U.N. Special

Rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

on population transfer. Arzt was an activist in the movement to free Soviet Jewry. In 1977 she founded the Soviet Jewry Legal Advocacy Center (SJLAC) and added Larry Lerner as an officer. S:LAC later joined the

Union of Councils for Soviet Jews Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union (UCSJ) is a non-governmental organization that reports on the human rights conditions in countries throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia, exposing hate crimes and assisting communities in ...

. In that role, Arzt documented the USSR's violation of its own and international law. She also prepared many legal briefs on behalf of

Refuseniks Refusenik (russian: отказник, otkaznik, ; alternatively spelt refusnik) was an unofficial term for individuals—typically, but not exclusively, Soviet Jews—who were denied permission to emigrate, primarily to Israel, by the authori ...

and Prisoners of Zion. These legal briefs were signed by US Senators and given to the Soviets via US Congressmen as well as to the families of the Refuseniks and POZ's, who often could not obtain legal representation. She served as director of the Center for Global Law and Practice at the Syracuse University College of Law. Arzt founded and directed the Lockerbie Trial Families Project, which informed the families of the 270 victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, about developments in the Lockerbie criminal trial as the trial took place in a Scottish courtroom in the Netherlands.Web site provides information, support to families of Pan Am 103 victims, Monday, May 1, 2000, Wendy S. Loughlin Arzt also founded and directed the

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

Project in which faculty and students at the College of Law assisted the Office of the Prosecutor of 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 ...

, established by the United Nations and the country's government at the end of the decade-long

Sierra Leone Civil War The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberian dictator Char ...

Honors and awards

Arzt received the Michael J. Tryson Memorial Award for Excellence and Leadership in the field of human rights law.

Books

* ''Refugees into Citizens: Palestinians and the End of the Arab-Israeli Conflict''. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1997

References

External links

Guide to the Records of Union of Councils for Soviet Jews
at the

American Jewish Historical Society The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation an ...

, New York.
Guide to the Soviet Jewry Legal Advocacy Center Records, a part of the Records of the Action for Soviet Jewry, I-487
at the

, New York. {{DEFAULTSORT:Arzt, Donna Brandeis University alumni American legal scholars Harvard Law School alumni Columbia Law School alumni 2008 deaths 1954 births Place of birth missing Syracuse University faculty