This lecture is co-sponsored by the UCLA Burkle Center, UCLA School of Law's International Human Rights Law Program, and International Criminal Court Alliance.

Thursday, May 6, 2010
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Royce Hall, Room 162
Los Angeles, CA 90095

About the Speaker: Stephen Rapp, ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, U.S. Department of State, was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate when he assumed his current position in September 2009. Prior to his appointment, he served as prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, leading the prosecutions of former Liberian President Charles Taylor and others alleged to bear the greatest responsibility for the atrocities committed during the civil war in Sierra Leone. During his tenure, his office achieved the first convictions in history for sexual slavery and forced marriage as crimes against humanity, and for attacks on peacekeepers and for recruitment and use of child soldiers as violations of international humanitarian law.

From 2001 to 2007, Ambassador Rapp served as senior trial attorney and chief of prosecutions at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, personally heading the trial team that achieved convictions of the principals of RTLM radio and Kangura newspaper-the first in history for leaders of the mass media for the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide.

Ambassador Rapp was United States Attorney in the Northern District of Iowa from 1993 to 2001, where his office won historic convictions under the firearms provision of the Violence Against Women Act and the serious violent offender provision of the 1994 Crime Act. Prior to his tenure as U.S. Attorney, he worked as an attorney in private practice and served as staff director of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency and as an elected member of the Iowa Legislature.

Stephen Rapp will also deliver the Commencement address at the UCLA School of Law's 59th Commencement. The Commencement ceremony will take place on Friday, May 7, 2010 on the UCLA campus, Dickson Court North, at 3:30 p.m.

Sponsor(s): Burkle Center for International Relations, UCLA School of Law's International Human Rights Law Program, International Criminal Court Alliance.