January 24, 2012 — David Scheffer, who served for four years as the first U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, will visit the University of Virginia School of Law to discuss contemporary issues in war crimes and provide a historical overview of war crimes tribunals.

Scheffer, a law professor and director of the Center for International Human Rights at the Northwestern University School of Law, will speak Feb. 3 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Withers-Brown Hall, room 104, at the Law School.

As ambassador from 1997 to 2001, Scheffer led American initiatives on war crimes tribunals, including the establishment of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Court and the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Scheffer also led U.S. negotiators in talks at the United Nations to establish the International Criminal Court.

Scheffer is author of the 2011 book, "All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals." Following his talk, Scheffer will sign copies of his book, which will be available for purchase.

The book's publisher, Princeton University Press, describes the book as "an insider's account of the international gamble to prosecute those responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and to redress some of the bloodiest human rights atrocities in our time."

Scheffer's talk is sponsored by the Law School's Human Rights Law Program, the J.B. Moore Society of International Law, the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences, and the Page-Barbour Initiative on Forced Migration.