William A. Schabas

William A. Schabas (Canada) is Professor of International Law at Middlesex University in London, Professor of International Criminal Law and Human Rights at Leiden University and Emeritus Professor of Human Rights at the National University of Ireland Galway. Schabas is also Honorary Chairman of the Irish Centre for Human Rights. He has been invited as a visiting scholar to the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po) and cooperates as a door tenant with the London law firm 9 Bedford Row.

Schabas holds BA and MA degrees in history from the University of Toronto. He holds LLB, LLM and LLD degrees from the University of Montreal and honorary doctorates in law from several universities. He is the author of numerous works on international law and human rights, including The Abolition of the Death Penalty in International Law (2003), Genocide in International Law (2009), Unimaginable Atrocities – Justice, Politics and Rights at the War Crimes Tribunals (2012) and The Trial of the Kaiser (2018). Schabas has worked extensively on the crime of genocide and is committed to preserving the legacy of Raphael Lemkin through his research.

From 2002 to 2004, Schabas was one of three international members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Sierra Leone. In 2014, he was appointed chairman of a UN commission to investigate the Gaza war. Schabas advised the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on the issue of the death penalty.