Open gallery
By Kathy Zhang C’17
On February 26, the Toll Public Interest Center hosted a dinner and lecture by the Honorary Fellow-in-Residence as part of their annual week-long celebration of public interest. This year marks TPIC’s 25th Anniversary, and the evening’s speaker, Reed Brody, delivered a lecture titled “The Quest for Justice, an International Litigator’s Perspective from Augusto Pinochet to Hissène Habré…to George Bush?”
As Counsel and Spokesperson for Human Rights Watch, Brody is deeply involved in international litigation regarding “crimes against humanity.” He has worked in various high-profile cases, including those of Hissène Habré, Augusto Pinochet, and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. In addition, he has authored four Human Rights Watch reports on U.S. treatment of prisoners in the “war on terror,” and his work has been featured in various prominent news outlets.
Brody began his lecture with an overview of international justice and its developments since the mid-twentieth century. “Unfortunately when you look back on [the twentieth century], it was bookended by genocides,” he said. “The Nuremberg trials after World War II held out this promise of “never again,” that the worst perpetrators of atrocities would be brought to justice, and that really didn’t pan out for the longest time.”
According to Brody, the Cold War had led to a “collective failure to build on the precedent of Nuremberg,” and it wasn’t until after the genocides in Yugoslavia and Rwanda that the International Criminal Court was established and that international human rights were brought back in the picture.
Brody then moved on to discuss his experiences working in the Pinochet case. “I was at a retreat at Human Rights Watch when somebody came in and said, ‘Augusto Pinochet has been arrested in London!’” recounted Brody. “This was big. This was everything we’ve been thinking about since Nuremberg, and we had to do something about it.”
While Pinochet was never convicted for any of his crimes, his indictment and arrest on an international warrant set precedents for the principle of universal jurisdiction, which Brody describes as “the international law answer to the spectacle of tyrants and torturers who cover themselves with immunity at home.”
Speaking on the case’s legal successes, Brody remarked that “this wasn’t a wake-up call for dictators so much as it was an inspiration for human rights activists.” He added, “There was this moment of real effervescence [following the Pinochet case].”
Brody spent the rest of his lecture focusing on his work as lead counsel in the case against Chad’s exiled former dictator Hissène Habré. “Habré, who was alleged to have committed 40,000 killings [in Chad], was living in Senegal, and that made the case very interesting to us,” said Brody. For Brody, it was another golden opportunity for the principles of universal jurisdiction to overcome the shelter that diplomatic immunity offered past and present dictators.
After wrapping up his recount of his work with the Habré case, he ended his lecture noting that the trial date for Hissène Habré is set for May 2015.
Tweets from this event:
It’s Public Interest Week @PennLaw, and this evening’s lecture will be delivered by Honorary Fellow-In-Residence Reed Brody.
— Kathy Zhang (@kathyzwrites) February 24, 2015
Beautiful set up for a formal dinner and lecture this evening @PennLaw #PublicInterestWeek pic.twitter.com/Fq45j83mTo
— Kathy Zhang (@kathyzwrites) February 24, 2015
Today’s speaker Reed Brody is Counsel and Spokesperson for Human Rights Watch.His work has appeared in various international news outlets.
— Kathy Zhang (@kathyzwrites) February 24, 2015
Brody begins with a recount of the arrest of Augusto Pinochet. former dictator of Chile, and the implications for international justice.
— Kathy Zhang (@kathyzwrites) February 24, 2015
“Here was this Chilean dictator arrested in London on the warrant of a Spanish judge for crimes committed in Chile.” - Reed Brody
— Kathy Zhang (@kathyzwrites) February 25, 2015
“Here was this Chilean dictator arrested in London on the warrant of a Spanish judge for crimes committed in Chile.” - Reed Brody
— Kathy Zhang (@kathyzwrites) February 25, 2015
Even the very nature and circumstance of Pinochet’s arrest demanded certain international (versus domestic) political/structural responses.
— Kathy Zhang (@kathyzwrites) February 25, 2015
“[The success of the Pinochet case] wasn’t so much a wake-up call for dictators so much as it was a motivator for human rights activists.”
— Kathy Zhang (@kathyzwrites) February 25, 2015
Reed Brody moves on to a PowerPoint presentation regarding his experience working on the case against Chadian dictator Hissène Habré.
— Kathy Zhang (@kathyzwrites) February 25, 2015
“We have decided as a civilization that criminal sanctions are our way of saying that this has crossed the line and is not happening again.”
— Kathy Zhang (@kathyzwrites) February 25, 2015
“If the United States tortures and tries to justify it…it puts the whole human rights system in jeopardy.” Reed Brody #PublicInterestWeek
— Kathy Zhang (@kathyzwrites) February 25, 2015
Many thanks to @ReedBrody for a spectacular dinner lecture on international litigation for #PublicInterestWeek @PennLaw
— Kathy Zhang (@kathyzwrites) February 25, 2015