M. Cherif Bassiouni

M. Cherif Bassiouni, full name Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni, lived from 1937 to 2017 and was an Egyptian American law professor whom the media often called the Godfather of International Criminal Law. He taught at DePaul University from 1964 to 2012, founded its International Human Rights Law Institute in 1990 and served as its president until 1997. He chaired the United Nations Commission of Experts investigating violations in the former Yugoslavia from 1992 to 1994, served as an independent expert on human rights for Afghanistan from 2004 to 2006, chaired the Commission of Inquiry for Libya from 2011 to 2012, and chaired the drafting committee for the 1998 diplomatic conference that established the International Criminal Court. He wrote dozens of books on international criminal law, human rights and comparative criminal law and died of cancer in Chicago.