Fausto Pocar

Fausto Pocar is an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). He served as the President of the International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia from November 2005 until November 16, 2008. He had previously worked as Vice President between March 2003 and November 2005. Judge Pocar has been a judge at the ICJ since February 1, 2000. Judge Pocar served, first as a Judge in the Trial Chamber, where he judged the first case of rape as a crime against humanity, and later in the Court of Appeals of the Court, until the closing of the Court in December 2017. As Judge of the Appeals Chamber, he was also a judge of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha (Tanzania) until the Court closed in December 2015.

Judge Pocar is Professor Emeritus of International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Milan, where he has also served as Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, as well as Vice-Chancellor. He has a doctorate from the University of Anversa and the Kennedy University of Buenos Aires. He is the author of numerous publications on International Law, including Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Private International Law, and European Law. He has lectured at the Hague Academy of International Law and is a member and treasurer of the Institut de Droit Internacional, as well as a member of various other international law associations. Since 2012, he is also the President of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in Sanremo, Italy.

Judge Pocar has extensive experience in activities at the United Nations (UN), particularly in the field of Human rights and humanitarian law. He has served for 16 years (1984-2000) as a member of the Human Rights Committee under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights and has been its President (1991-92) and Rapporteur (1989-90). Also, Professor Pocar was appointed Special Representative for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Chechnya and the Russian Federation during the 1995-1996 conflict. He has also directed the informal working group that drafted, within the Human Rights Commission, the Declaration on the law of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities, which was adopted in 1992 by the General Assembly. He has been, for a decade, the Italian delegate before Legal Subcommittee of the Committee for the Legal Use of Outer Space.

Currently Teaching

Impunidad y Justicia Internacional (LAW-870-002)

Areas of Specialization

• International Human Rights/Humanitarian Laws
• International Courts on Human Rights