May 2010 Human Rights Expert Receives Medal for International Criminal Justice

NUI Galway's Professor William Schabas has been awarded the Vaspasian V. Pella Medal for International Criminal Justice by the Association internationale de droit penal. The award, which is named after the Romanian jurist who drafted the first statute of an international criminal court, is given by the Association to a single individual once every ten years. The medal has been awarded three times, the first two laureates being Benjamin Ferencz, who was one of the prosecutors at Nuremberg, and Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni, who is now that honorary president of the Association. The recipient of the medal is designated by the previous laureate. Professor Bassiouni presented the medal to Professor Schabas at a ceremony in Siracusa, Italy on 24 May 2010, held at the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences. The Association internationale de droit pénale is the leading learned society in the field of criminal law, tracing its origins to the nineteenth century. William Schabas has held the chair in human rights law at NUI Galway since 2000. He is also director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights. His most recent book, The International Criminal Court, was published by Oxford University Press earlier this year. ENDS