3/21/01--Boston College Law School and the Owen M. Kupferschmid Holocaust and Human Rights Project (HHRP)are pleased to announce the Third Annual Kupferschmid Memorial Lecture, presented by Sir Nigel Rodley. The lecture, "United Nations' Efforts to Combat Torture," is part of a day of events scheduled by the HHRP, and will occur on March 27 at 4:30 p.m. in the BCLS East Wing.

The day's activities also include a lunch panel discussion co-sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League of Boston. The presentation, titled, "Does the World Need an International Criminal Court?" will take place from 12:00-2:00 p.m. at the law offices of Holland & Knight in Boston.

Sir Nigel Rodley is a Professor of Law at the University of Essex and is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. He obtained an LLB from the University of Leeds (1963), an LLM from Columbia University (1965), an LLM from New York University (1970) and a PhD from the University of Essex (1993). Subsequent to his graduation from Columbia, he was appointed an Assistant Professor of Law at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. In 1968-69 he served as an Associate Economic Affairs Officer at United Nations Headquarters in New York, working on legal and institutional aspects of international economic co-operation. From 1969 to 1972, he was Visiting Lecturer in Political Science at the Graduate Faculty of the New School of Social Research (New York City) and, from 1970 to 1972, was also a Research Fellow at the New York University Center for International Studies.

Returning to the United Kingdom in 1973, he became the first Legal Adviser of the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, where he remained until 1990. He also taught Public International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1973 to 1990. A year's leave (1983) as an Academic Visitor in the Law Department of the LSE permitted him to write The Treatment of Prisoners under International Law (Clarendon Press/UNESCO 1987). In 1990, he was appointed Reader in Law at the University of Essex and Professor of Law in 1994. He was Dean of the School of Law from 1992-1995.

In March 1993, he was designated Special Rapporteur on Torture by the UN Commission on Human Rights. In September 2000, he was elected as the UK member of the Human Rights Committee established under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (2001 - 2004). He was awarded a KBE in the 1998/1999 New Year's Honours List and an honorary LLD from Dalhousie University in May 2000. Before writing Treatment of Prisoners, the second edition of which was published in 1999, he had co-edited International Law in the Western Hemisphere (with C N Ronning, Nijhoff 1974) and co-authored Enhancing Global Human Rights (with J I Dominguez, B Wood and R A Falk; McGraw Hill 1979). Most recently he edited To Loose the Bands of Wickedness - International Intervention in Defence of Human Rights (Brassey's 1992) and co-edited International Responses to Traumatic Stress (with Y Danieli and L Weisaeth; Baywood/UN 1995). His teaching and research interests include Public International Law and Human Rights.

The lunch panel discussion at the Boston law offices of Holland & Knight, L.L.P, "Does the World Need an International Criminal Court?" will be moderated by Professor Ruti Teitel, Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law, New York Law School. It will feature the following speakers: Richard Dicker, Esquire, Director, Human Rights Watch for an International Criminal Court; Professor Alfred Rubin, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; and Allan A. Ryan, Jr., Esquire, Former Director, Office of Special Investigations, United States Department of Justice. Faculty and students of the B.C. community will be provided lunch and transportation to the discussion.

The HHRP is a student-run organization that develops and encourages scholarship on the Holocaust as well as current human rights related issues in American, foreign and international law. Started by Boston College Law School students in 1984, including Owen M. Kupferschmid, HHRP is composed of law students, professors, administrators and scholars dedicated to the critical analysis of efforts to promote justice and human rights.

The Owen M. Kupferschmid Memorial lecture will occur at 4:30 p.m. in room 115B in the BCLS East Wing. Cocktails and a buffet dinner will follow in Barat House. For more information on the lecture and other events on March 27, please email Christine at leonarcb@bc.edu.