Professor Cherif Bassiouni is the president of DePaul's International Human Rights Law Institute, the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences in Siracusa, and the International Association of Penal Law in Paris.
In 1992, he was appointed a member, and later chairman, of the U.N. Commission to Investigate Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the former Yugoslavia. From 1995-1998, he was elected vice chairman of the U.N. General Assembly's Committee for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, and in 1998, he was elected chairman of the Drafting Committee of the U.N. Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court.
In 1999, he was appointed by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights as special rapporteur on the right to restitution, compensation, and rehabilitation for victims of gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Professor Bassiouni is the author and editor of 63 books and 210 law review articles. He has received numerous honours, including the Illinois Order of Lincoln (2001) and the Order of Merit of the Austrian Republic (1990) and the Italian Republic (1979). Egypt has awarded him the Order of Scientific Merit (1984) and the Order of Military Valor (1956). In 1999, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his lifelong work to establish an International Criminal Court.