Friday, February 20, 2009


Hon. Louise Arbour to Lecture on Peace and Justice March 23

WATCH THE VIDEO OF LOUISE ARBOUR'S LECTURE

The Honorable Louise Arbour, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, will deliver the 2008-2009 Judge Jon O. Newman Lecture on Global Justice on March 23, 2009, at Yale Law School. The lecture is titled “Peace and Justice:  A Framework for Peaceful Co-existence.” It will be held at 4:30 p.m. in Room 127. A reception will follow in the Alumni Reading Room.

Louise Arbour was recently named president and CEO of International Crisis Group, an independent, non-partisan organization committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict worldwide. She served as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2004 to 2008, and before that, was a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. In 1996, she was appointed by the U.N. Security Council as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. 

She previously served as Associate Professor and later Associate Dean at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Toronto. She became a member of the bench in 1987, first at the Supreme Court of Ontario (High Court of Justice) and later at the Court of Appeal for Ontario. In 1995, she was appointed Commissioner to conduct an inquiry into the Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario.

Arbour graduated from College Regina Assumpta, Montreal, and completed an LL.L with distinction from the Faculty of Law, University of Montreal. She has received honorary doctorates from some thirty universities and numerous medals and awards.

She was recently made Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and Companion of the Order of Canada.

The Newman Lecture is supported in part by the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund at Yale Law School.