M. Cherif Bassiouni

In 1972, Cherif Bassiouni was one of the founders of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences (ISISC) located in Siracusa, Italy, where he served as Dean from 1972-1989 and then as President to date. He also served as the Secretary General of the International Association of Penal Law (L’Association Internationale de Droit Penal), Paris, France, from 1974-1989 and as President for three five-year terms from 1989-2004 when he was elected Honorary President.

Cherif Bassiouni was a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. in 1972; Visiting Professor of Law, New York University Law School in 1971; Fulbright-Hays Professor of International Criminal Law, University of Freiburg, Germany in 1970; non-resident Professor of Criminal Law at University of Cairo from 1996-2006. He also lectured at various universities in the United States and abroad. He was a member of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute's International Council.

Cherif Bassiouni authored 27 books, edited 45 books, and authored 265 articles on International Criminal Law, Comparative Criminal Law, Human Rights, and U.S. Criminal Law that have been published in various law journals and books. Additionally, he wrote 14 Monographs on such subjects as history, politics, and religion. Some of these publications have been cited by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the European Court of Human Rights, and the highest courts of: Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa (Supreme Court and Constitutional Court) and United Kingdom (House of Lords, Court of Appeals, High Court and Divisional Court of England & Wales, and Scottish High Court of the Judiciary), and New Zealand. In the United States, his works have been repeatedly cited by the United States Supreme Court, U.S. Circuit and District courts, as well as various State Supreme Courts. Several of his books and articles have been written in and translated into: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Bassiouni was appointed to the following United Nations positions: Chair and then member of the Commission of Inquiry for Libya (2011-2012); Independent Expert on Human Rights for Afghanistan (2004-2006); Independent Expert on the Rights to Restitution, Compensation, and Rehabilitation for Victims of Grave Violations of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1998-2000); Chair, Drafting Committee of the Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (1998); Vice-Chair of the General Assembly's Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (1996-1998); Vice-Chair of the General Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (1995); Chair of the Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security Council 780 (1992) to Investigate Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Former Yugoslavia (1993-1994) and the Commission's Special Rapporteur on Gathering and Analysis of the Facts (1992-1993); Consultant to the Sixth and Seventh United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention (1980 and 1985); Consultant to the Committee on Southern African of the Commission on Human Rights (1980-1981); Co-chair of the Independent Committee of Experts Drafting the Convention on the Prevention and Suppression of Torture (1978); and Honorary Vice-President at the Fifth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention (1975).

He also served as chair of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry which was established in 2011.

Bassiouni held numerous appointments with the UN, such as Independent Expert for the Commission on Human Rights on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan from 2004–2006, and Independent Expert for the Commission on Human Rights on The Rights to Restitution, Compensation and Rehabilitation for Victims of Grave Violations of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms from 1998–2000. He was also the Chairman of the Drafting Committee for the Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court in 1998, and the Vice-Chairman of the General Assembly's Ad Hoc and Preparatory Committees on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1995 and from 1996–98. In 2010, he stated his belief that the ICC will fail.[5] He was also a member, then the Chairman, of the Security Council's Commission to Investigate Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Former Yugoslavia (1993), and the Commission's Special Rapporteur on Gathering and Analysis of the Facts from 1992–1993. He was Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the 1985 United Nations Treaty on Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power (1985), the Consultant to the Sixth and Seventh UN Congress on Crime Prevention from 1980–1985, Consultant to the Committee on Southern African Commission on Human Rights from 1980–1981 (as Consultant to the Committee on Southern African Commission on Human Rights, Professor Bassiouni prepared a Draft Statute for the Creation of an International Criminal Court to prosecute apartheid). Additionally, he served as the Co-chairman of the Committee of Experts to draft the convention on the Prevention and Suppression of Torture in 1977, and was the Honorary Vice-President to the Fifth Congress on Crime Prevention in 1975.

In addition to his many positions in the UN, Bassiouni served as the consultant to the US Department of State and Justice on projects relating to international traffic in drugs (1973) and international control of terrorism (1975 and 1978–79). He was also the consultant to the Department of State regarding the US hostages in Iran from 1979-1980.[3]

While many felt that Bassiouni would become the first prosecutor of the ICTY, failure to secure the prosecutor position was blocked by the United Kingdom and has been attributed in part to a perception that he would "move too quickly to charge Serb and possibly Croatian leaders with war crimes".[14] Many politicians feared that allowing Bassiouni to be a prosecutor of the ICTY would be a conflict of interest because many communities that were ethnically cleansed by Serb paramilitary forces were Bosnian Muslim villages, and because Bassiouni himself is a Muslim, born in the Middle East. One representative to the Security Council was reported saying that Bassiouni was "a fanatic who had too much information". In the initial vote count in the Security Council, Bassiouni was supported by seven countries, the United States being one of them, and was opposed by seven countries with one abstention.[15]

Bassiouni sued the FBI (No. 04-3888),[16] which heard oral arguments in 2005. The case centered around information collected and maintained by the FBI about Bassiouni; in March 2001, upon receiving documents as a result of a request protected by the Freedom of Information Act, Bassiouni attempted to amend the documents, which – according to Bassiouni – wrongfully linked him with Palestine liberation forces and other paramilitary organizations. In a letter to the United States Department of Justice in 2002,[17] Bassiouni argued that information retained by the FBI violated subsection (e)(7) of the Privacy Act of 1974, which states: "Each agency that maintains a system of records shall maintain no record describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless expressly authorized by statute or by the individual about whom the record is maintained or unless pertinent to and within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity." 5 U.S.C. § 552a(e)(7).[18] The FBI denied Bassiouni's request to amend records in his name, and Bassiouni appealed the decision with the United States Department of Justice; however, the US DOJ affirmed the decision, stating that the records were exempt from the Privacy Act of 1974 pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552a(j)(2). Bassiouni appealed the DOJ's decision but the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of the FBI.[19]

Bassiouni was appointed head of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), known locally as the Bassiouni Commission, at the time of its establishment, 29 June 2011, by the King of Bahrain. On 9 August 2011, Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, criticized Bassiouni in an open letter for statements he (Bassiouni) made in an 8 August 2011 interview with Reuters. In the interview, Bassiouni praised the cooperation that the BICI has received from the Interior Ministry and states that there was never a policy of excessive use of force.