Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
Encyclopedia
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (born 31 May 1947 in Havana
, Cuba
) is an American
lawyer
, writer
, historian
, a leading expert in the field of human rights
, as well as a former high-ranking United Nations
official. He is currently a professor of international law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations
, and was formerly a senior lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Secretary of the Human Rights Committee
, and the Chief of Petitions. He practised law in New York as an associate in the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
from 1970 to 1974, specializing on corporate law, and is also a retired member of the Florida Bar.
De Zayas has written and lectured extensively on human rights
, including the jurisprudence of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the Armenian Genocide
, the Holocaust the US-run detention centers at Guantanamo Bay
, "ethnic cleansing
" in the former Yugoslavia
, the expulsion of Eastern European Germans after the Second World War
, the invasion of Cyprus
by Turkey
in 1974, the rights of minorities,, indigenous peoples He is an advocate of "the right to homeland" as a universal human right, of the human right to peace., and has been active on behalf of the Iranian refugees in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
While de Zayas' literary output and his international law and human rights publications are mainstream, his peace activism has rendered him somewhat controversial in the United States. Since his retirement from the UN in 2003, de Zayas has become a vocal critic of the Iraq war, indefinite detention in Guantanamo, secret CIA prisons, nuclear pollution, and extreme poverty. He has chastised the United States, Great Britain, and Germany for their lack of intellectual honesty and their lip service to human rights.
and earned his juris doctor
from Harvard Law School
and a doctorate of philosophy
in modern history from the Georg-August University of Göttingen
. He practiced corporate law in New York
and family law in Florida
, as member of the New York and Florida Bars. He was also a Fulbright Fellow
at the University of Tübingen
and research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
in Heidelberg
. In 1978-80, he participated in the German-American Schoolbook Commission at the Georg Eckert Institut in Braunschweig and in 1980 published a long article on the subject of prejudice and stereotypes in schoolbooks in "Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte".
During the course of his legal and academic career, he has been a visiting professor of international law and of world history at a number of institutions, including the Graduate Institute of International Studies
(Geneva), the DePaul University College of Law
(Chicago), the University of British Columbia
(Vancouver
), the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations
, the Schiller International University
(Leysin
), the Académie Internationale de Droit Constitutionnel
(Tunis
), the University of Trier
, the Santa Clara Law School, the Center for Applied Studies in International Negotiations (CASIN, Genève), the Institut de Droits de l'Homme Strasbourg
, the Felix Ermacora Institute in Vienna, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund (Sweden), the Irish National University (Galway) and the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (Madrid
). He has been member of doctoral commissions at Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales, the universities of Amsterdam, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), the International Humanitarian Law Institute (San Remo) and the Geneva School of Diplomacy.
De Zayas regularly publishes op-ed articles and essays in German and Swiss newspapers, including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
, Die Welt
, Das Parlament, Der Spiegel
, Bayernkurier, Zeit Fragen, Le Temps and the Tribune de Genève
. He has made television appearances on round tables and panels for CNN
, WDR
, WDR's Monitor, WDR's "Alte und neue Heimat", Phoenix
, 3sat
, ZDF
, ZDF-Magazin, Südwestfunk/Baden-Baden, "Report", Aschaffenburger Gespräche, Bayerischer Rundfunk
, Léman Bleu (Geneva) etc. He has been legal and historical consultant to numerous television documentaries in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Germany, including the Discovery Channel film on the sinking of the refugee ship "Wilhelm Gustloff", and the Bayerischer Rundfunk documentary "Flucht und Vertreibung". He regularly gives radio interviews to Deutschlandfunk, Deutsche Welle, Radio Cité (Geneva), WBAI (New York), and other stations.
De Zayas is a Roman Catholic and resides with his Dutch
wife in Geneva.
According to press articles, he has been a registered Republican in the United States since 1968, when he was a Harvard student and active member of the Harvard Republicans, but has voted for the Democratic party since 2004.
of Germans from their native Land in East Germany and Eastern Europe at the end of World War II have given rise to controversy. In 1975, he published a seminal study in the Harvard International Law Journal
questioning the legality of the expulsion of possibly as many as 15 million Germans from their homes after World War II
, invoking the Atlantic Charter
, the Hague Conventions
, and the Nuremberg Principles
. The article was followed by the book Nemesis at Potsdam
which focused on the degree of responsibility of the Anglo-Americans for decisions leading to the expulsions of these ethnic Germans. In the same year, an enlarged German edition was published by the legal publisher C.H. Beck, becoming a bestseller. In this book, de Zayas took an interdisciplinary approach to the phenomenon of population transfers and examined the situation of the ethnic Germans from both a historical and legal perspective. De Zayas was the first American historian to address this topic. The Deutsche Welle reported in 2007: "He wrote the first scholarly work on German expellees to appear in English, breaking what had long been a taboo topic." As law professor at DePaul in Chicago, he organized the exhibit "Ethnic Cleansing 1944-1948", (November 1993–February 1994), consisting of over 100 poster-sized Wochenschau, Bundesarchiv and US-Army Signal Corps pictures, as well as paintings by survivors of the expulsion; it was widely visited, and commented on in the Chicago press. The book is cited in scholarly publications and dissertations
His second book, The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau was published in Germany by Universitas/Langen Müller. This book describes some of the work of the Wehrmacht-Untersuchungsstelle, a special section of the legal department of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
, which investigated Allied and German war crimes. Examples include the murder of Ukrainians in Lviv by the NKVD in 1941, the murder of Polish prisoners of war at Katyn
in 1940, executions of German PoWs by French irregulars in 1944, and the sinking of the German hospital ship "Tübingen" by the British in 1944. De Zayas was the first researcher to work with the 226 extantvolumes (about half of the total, the rest apparently having been burned in Langensalza, Germany near the end of the war.). They had been classified documents in the United States and had just been returned by the US National Archives to the German Bundesarchiv. The book was savagely attacked in the media of the Soviet Union
and its satellites
. Notwithstanding criticism from a few historians in Germany, these two books were well-received in the academic community, are used in colleges and universities, and remain in print after thirty years.
The book on the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau was the product of a 4-year project financed by the Institute of International Law of the University of Göttingen and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany's foremost quasi-official academic foundation. The final report is available online
(Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen), the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law. He sits on the advisory boards of several organizations, including the Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte in Frankfurt
, and is a member of the International Expert Panel for a European Solution in Cyprus (2004–2008). In January 2008, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights placed his name on the public list of candidates for Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council
2008-2010 He was president of Millennium Solidarity, a Geneva
non-governmental organization working for world peace and the eradication of poverty. He has participated on podium discussions at the UN and chaired an expert panel on peace, disarmament and powerty at the Civil Society Development Forum on 28 June 2007 in Geneva. Millennium Solidarity has synergies with the Geneva Institute for Peace, CETIM -Centre Europe- Tier Monde
He is a member of the Asociación Española para el Desarrollo del Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos (AEDIDH), which in October 2006 produced the "Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace". He has represented AEDIDH, the International P.E.N., and the International Society for Human Rights at round tables at the United Nations in Geneva. including with Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Professor Jean Ziegler, with the Chairman of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Luis de Alba, and with the President of the General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto. He is an advocate of the human right to peace and a signatory of the "Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace". He contributed to a book on the Human Right to Peace and presented it at a symposium at the University of California at Berkeley in November 2009. On 15–16 December 2009 he participated as an expert in the UN workshop on the human right to peace established under Human Rights Council Resolution 11/4. On 22–25 February 2010 he participated at a UNESCO expert meeting in Bilbao, Spain, as a member of the editorial committee of the Declaracion de Bilbao on the Human Right to Peace, for which he served as English-language Rapporteur, and reported on the results of the workshop at a UN Panel in Geneva in March 2010. He has endorsed the Declaracion de Santiago de Compostela of 10 December 2010 and participated in relevant side-events of the Human Rights Council in Geneva in March, June and September 2011.
While a staff member at the U.N., de Zayas was the founder and editor of the series "Selected Decisions of the Human Rights Committee under the Optional Protocol." He is a regular participant in panels and round tables at the United Nations, where he represents the International Society for Human Rights. During the 4th-18th sessions of the Human Rights Council, he has participated in panels on various issues including the right to development, extreme poverty, the millennium development goals, women's rights, self-determination, indigenous rights, Kashmir, moderated a panel on human dignity, and presented the statement of Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on the International Day of Human Rights, 21 September 2007. He is a consultant with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and a member of the board of directors of Project 2048 at the University of Berkeley, which aims at a new human rights convention with effective implementation machinery to promote and protect all human rights, including the "new enabling rights" such as the right to peace, the right to truth, the right to a homeland.. On 18 August 2011 Bruna Molina and de Zayas founded the Geneva Branch of 2048 as an association under Swiss law, the International Bill of Rights Association.
In June 2009 de Zayas published, together with Justice Jakob Th.Möller (Iceland) a handbook "The Case-Law of the United Nations Human Rights Committee 1977-2008". The first Chairperson of the Committee, Andreas Mavrommatis, wrote the preface and the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan, reviewed it in the UN Special of June 2009, pp. 18–19: "It is staggering how much the Human Rights Committee has influenced the human rights jurisprudence of the world, as is striking from reading this exceedingly important book.... From the outset of its work in 1977 there have been two Secretariat pioneers in developing the case law of the Committee when it considers petitions from individuals claiming violations of their rights: Jakob Möller (Iceland) and Alfred de Zayas (USA). Möller was the first Chief of the Petitions branch of what is today the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and de Zayas was his colleague, who eventually succeeded him as Chief. ...Every lawyer, every judge, every public-spirited citizen will want to consult this fascinating book, because it tells us what is legally right and legally wrong, how to judge our governments, our societies, our United Nations and ourselves." De Zayas is co-author and co-editor with Gudmundur Alfredsson and Bertrand Ramcharan of "International Human Rights Monitoring Mechanisms", Brill, The Hague, 2009.
, French
, German
, Spanish
, and Dutch
, translated Rainer Maria Rilke
into English, French, and Spanish, translated Joseph von Eichendorff and Hermann Hesse into English.
As a member of the International Rainer Maria Rilke Society (Sierre, Switzerland), he published the first English-language translation of Rilke's "Larenopfer", 90 poems dedicated to Rilke's homeland of Bohemia, and hometown of Prague (with a historical commentary, Red Hen Press, Los Angeles, 2005, second revised and enlarged edition 2008 with a preface by Professor Ralph Freedman; The new book of George C. Schoolfield "Young Rilke and his Time", Camden House 2009, refers favourably to de Zayas' pioneering translation). With this book, de Zayas opened a new facet of Rilke research: Rilke as Heimatdichter or poet of the homeland, poète du terroir - spanning Rilke's early poetry characterized by enthusiasm for the beauties and the history of his homeland through Rilke's final poetic testament – more than 400 poems in French, dedicated to the Valais in Switzerland (Quatrains Valaisains, Roses, Fenetres, Vergers), Rilke's "Wahlheimat", where he spent the last years of his life at the Château de Muzot in Sierre and where he is buried in nearby Raron. Hitherto, Rilke had been understood primarily as a metaphyscial poet, as a poet's poet, but never seen as a homeland poet. Zayas has lectured and published on Rilke's search for a sense of belonging and his grateful attachment to a landscape and to the real people who live there. De Zayas has lectured on Rilke in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Canada. On 2 May 2011 he delivered a lecture at the Salon du Livre de Genève (Geneva bookfair) on "Rilke, poète de la Heimat"
He has also published in the literary journal of the PEN Club Suisse romande "L'Escarpe" (renamed 2008 "Pages Littéraires) in 2007 and 2008. A member of International PEN
since 1989, he was secretary-general of the Centre Swiss romand of PEN PEN Club in 2002-06, and its president 2006-2010; since then he remains a member of the Centre's executive committee. De Zayas was coordinator of the three Swiss PEN Centres Switzerland
since 2008-10.
De Zayas served for 15 years as president of the United Nations Society of Writers
(Geneva).
De Zayas was the founder of the UN literary review Ex Tempore
ISSN 1020-6604, which has published 22 issues. In October 2011 he was reelected editor-in-chief of Ex Tempore. On 21 January 2011 the 15th annual Ex Tempore salon was held in Geneva. In honour of the Whistler Olympics de Zayas read out his poem Skiing, also published in the February 2010 UN Special. and in the Spring 2010 issue of the UBC literary Journal "Esoteric".
"Dr. Walter-Eckhardt-Ehrengabe für Zeitgeschichtsforschung" ("Dr. Walter Eckhardt Award for Contemporary History") from Ingolstadt Research Institute for Contemporary History
in 2001, the East Prussian Cultural Prize in Leipzig in 2002, the ANC Scholarly Excellence Award in Los Angeles in 2003, a Menschenrechtspreis in Munich
in 2004, and on 10 December 2007 the Menschenrechtspreis of the Volksgruppe der Donauschwaben e.V. in Stuttgart. On 26 July 2008 de Zayas was awarded the Kulturpreis of the city of Geislingen (Baden-Württemberg, Germany) for his Rilke and Hesse translations.
De Zayas was awarded the Educator`s Award 2011 by the teacher- and civil society organization Canadians for Genocide Education, on 31 March 2011 at the University of Toronto, Canada. ..
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, a leading expert in the field of human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, as well as a former high-ranking United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
official. He is currently a professor of international law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations
Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations
The Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations is a private university located in Geneva, Switzerland. The campus is situated on the grounds of the , an old manor with a park and view of Lake Geneva...
, and was formerly a senior lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Secretary of the Human Rights Committee
Human Rights Committee
The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a United Nations body of 18 experts that meets three times a year for four-week sessions to consider the five-yearly reports submitted by 162 UN member states on their compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,...
, and the Chief of Petitions. He practised law in New York as an associate in the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is a law firm headquartered in New York City which employs over 800 attorneys in ten offices worldwide. The firm is highly regarded for its litigation and corporate practices, with special attention focused on its mergers and acquisitions specialty...
from 1970 to 1974, specializing on corporate law, and is also a retired member of the Florida Bar.
De Zayas has written and lectured extensively on human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, including the jurisprudence of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
, the Holocaust the US-run detention centers at Guantanamo Bay
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
, "ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
" in the former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, the expulsion of Eastern European Germans after the Second World War
Expulsion of Germans after World War II
The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...
, the invasion of Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
by Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
in 1974, the rights of minorities,, indigenous peoples He is an advocate of "the right to homeland" as a universal human right, of the human right to peace., and has been active on behalf of the Iranian refugees in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
While de Zayas' literary output and his international law and human rights publications are mainstream, his peace activism has rendered him somewhat controversial in the United States. Since his retirement from the UN in 2003, de Zayas has become a vocal critic of the Iraq war, indefinite detention in Guantanamo, secret CIA prisons, nuclear pollution, and extreme poverty. He has chastised the United States, Great Britain, and Germany for their lack of intellectual honesty and their lip service to human rights.
Biography
De Zayas grew up in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and earned his juris doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
and a doctorate of philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in modern history from the Georg-August University of Göttingen
Georg-August University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen , known informally as Georgia Augusta, is a university in the city of Göttingen, Germany.Founded in 1734 by King George II of Great Britain and the Elector of Hanover, it opened for classes in 1737. The University of Göttingen soon grew in size and popularity...
. He practiced corporate law in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and family law in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, as member of the New York and Florida Bars. He was also a Fulbright Fellow
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
at the University of Tübingen
Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen is a public university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of Germany's oldest universities, internationally noted in medicine, natural sciences and the humanities. In the area of German Studies it has been ranked first among...
and research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes publicly funded by the federal and the 16 state governments of Germany....
in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
. In 1978-80, he participated in the German-American Schoolbook Commission at the Georg Eckert Institut in Braunschweig and in 1980 published a long article on the subject of prejudice and stereotypes in schoolbooks in "Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte".
During the course of his legal and academic career, he has been a visiting professor of international law and of world history at a number of institutions, including the Graduate Institute of International Studies
Graduate Institute of International Studies
The Graduate Institute of International Studies, best known as HEI , was founded in 1927 as one of the first institutions in the world dedicated to the study of international relations...
(Geneva), the DePaul University College of Law
DePaul University College of Law
DePaul University College of Law is a law school located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Founded in 1897 as the Illinois College of Law, the school became part of DePaul University in 1912 and is one of the academic colleges of DePaul, a Big East Conference university. The College is known for its...
(Chicago), the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
(Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
), the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations
Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations
The Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations is a private university located in Geneva, Switzerland. The campus is situated on the grounds of the , an old manor with a park and view of Lake Geneva...
, the Schiller International University
Schiller International University
Schiller International University is a private American university with its main campus and administrative headquarters in Largo, Florida. It has campuses on two continents in five countries, each offering its own unique experiences to students: Largo; Paris, France; Madrid, Spain; Heidelberg,...
(Leysin
Leysin
Leysin is a municipality of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, located in the district of Aigle.-History:Leysin is first mentioned around 1231-32 as Leissins. In 1352 it was mentioned as Leisins.-Geography:...
), the Académie Internationale de Droit Constitutionnel
Académie Internationale de Droit Constitutionnel
The Académie Internationale de Droit Constitutionnel or International Academy for Constitutional Law was created in 1984 and is based in Tunis, Tunisia....
(Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
), the University of Trier
University of Trier
The University of Trier , in the German city of Trier, was founded in 1473. Closed in 1798 by order of the then French administration in Trier, the university was re-established in 1970 after a hiatus of some 172 years. The new university campus is located on top of the Tarforst heights, an urban...
, the Santa Clara Law School, the Center for Applied Studies in International Negotiations (CASIN, Genève), the Institut de Droits de l'Homme Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, the Felix Ermacora Institute in Vienna, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund (Sweden), the Irish National University (Galway) and the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
). He has been member of doctoral commissions at Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales, the universities of Amsterdam, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), the International Humanitarian Law Institute (San Remo) and the Geneva School of Diplomacy.
De Zayas regularly publishes op-ed articles and essays in German and Swiss newspapers, including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
, Die Welt
Die Welt
Die Welt is a German national daily newspaper published by the Axel Springer AG company.It was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces, aiming to provide a "quality newspaper" modelled on The Times...
, Das Parlament, Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
, Bayernkurier, Zeit Fragen, Le Temps and the Tribune de Genève
Tribune de Genève
Tribune de Genève is the most prominent regional newspaper of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.Tribune de Genève was founded on 1 February 1879 by James T. Bates. The French language daily is published by Edipresse in Geneva...
. He has made television appearances on round tables and panels for CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, WDR
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...
, WDR's Monitor, WDR's "Alte und neue Heimat", Phoenix
Phoenix (German TV station)
Phoenix is a publicly-funded television station in Germany which is produced jointly by public broadcasting organizations ARD and ZDF. Its programming consists of documentaries, news broadcasts, special events coverage, and discussion programmes...
, 3sat
3sat
3sat is the name of a public, advertising-free, television network in Central Europe. The programming is in German and is broadcast primarily within Germany, Austria and Switzerland .3sat was established for cultural...
, ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
, ZDF-Magazin, Südwestfunk/Baden-Baden, "Report", Aschaffenburger Gespräche, Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk [Bavarian Broadcasting] is the public broadcasting authority for the German Freistaat of Bavaria, with its main offices located in Munich. BR is a member of ARD.- Legal foundation :...
, Léman Bleu (Geneva) etc. He has been legal and historical consultant to numerous television documentaries in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Germany, including the Discovery Channel film on the sinking of the refugee ship "Wilhelm Gustloff", and the Bayerischer Rundfunk documentary "Flucht und Vertreibung". He regularly gives radio interviews to Deutschlandfunk, Deutsche Welle, Radio Cité (Geneva), WBAI (New York), and other stations.
De Zayas is a Roman Catholic and resides with his Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
wife in Geneva.
According to press articles, he has been a registered Republican in the United States since 1968, when he was a Harvard student and active member of the Harvard Republicans, but has voted for the Democratic party since 2004.
Publications on War Crimes in World War II and on the forced Transfer of the Eastern Germans after WW II
While de Zayas' human rights publications largely reflect United Nations positions, his historical research and conclusions regarding the Ethnic CleansingEthnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
of Germans from their native Land in East Germany and Eastern Europe at the end of World War II have given rise to controversy. In 1975, he published a seminal study in the Harvard International Law Journal
Harvard International Law Journal
The Harvard International Law Journal is the oldest and most-cited academic journal of international law in the United States. It is run and edited by students at Harvard Law School, but relies on input from peer reviewers...
questioning the legality of the expulsion of possibly as many as 15 million Germans from their homes after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, invoking the Atlantic Charter
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a pivotal policy statement first issued in August 1941 that early in World War II defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. It was drafted by Britain and the United States, and later agreed to by all the Allies...
, the Hague Conventions
Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)
The Hague Conventions were two international treaties negotiated at international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands: The First Hague Conference in 1899 and the Second Hague Conference in 1907...
, and the Nuremberg Principles
Nuremberg Principles
The Nuremberg principles were a set of guidelines for determining what constitutes a war crime. The document was created by the International Law Commission of the United Nations to codify the legal principles underlying the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi party members following World War II.- Principle...
. The article was followed by the book Nemesis at Potsdam
Nemesis at Potsdam
Nemesis at Potsdam is a 1977 book by the American lawyer and historian Alfred-Maurice de Zayas.The title is drawn from Greek mythology; Nemesis is the Greek goddess of revenge...
which focused on the degree of responsibility of the Anglo-Americans for decisions leading to the expulsions of these ethnic Germans. In the same year, an enlarged German edition was published by the legal publisher C.H. Beck, becoming a bestseller. In this book, de Zayas took an interdisciplinary approach to the phenomenon of population transfers and examined the situation of the ethnic Germans from both a historical and legal perspective. De Zayas was the first American historian to address this topic. The Deutsche Welle reported in 2007: "He wrote the first scholarly work on German expellees to appear in English, breaking what had long been a taboo topic." As law professor at DePaul in Chicago, he organized the exhibit "Ethnic Cleansing 1944-1948", (November 1993–February 1994), consisting of over 100 poster-sized Wochenschau, Bundesarchiv and US-Army Signal Corps pictures, as well as paintings by survivors of the expulsion; it was widely visited, and commented on in the Chicago press. The book is cited in scholarly publications and dissertations
His second book, The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau was published in Germany by Universitas/Langen Müller. This book describes some of the work of the Wehrmacht-Untersuchungsstelle, a special section of the legal department of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was part of the command structure of the armed forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.- Genesis :...
, which investigated Allied and German war crimes. Examples include the murder of Ukrainians in Lviv by the NKVD in 1941, the murder of Polish prisoners of war at Katyn
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...
in 1940, executions of German PoWs by French irregulars in 1944, and the sinking of the German hospital ship "Tübingen" by the British in 1944. De Zayas was the first researcher to work with the 226 extantvolumes (about half of the total, the rest apparently having been burned in Langensalza, Germany near the end of the war.). They had been classified documents in the United States and had just been returned by the US National Archives to the German Bundesarchiv. The book was savagely attacked in the media of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and its satellites
Soviet Empire
During the Cold War, the informal term "Soviet Empire" referred to the Soviet Union's influence over a number of smaller nations who were nominally independent but subject to direct military force if they tried to leave the Soviet system; see Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and Prague Spring.Though...
. Notwithstanding criticism from a few historians in Germany, these two books were well-received in the academic community, are used in colleges and universities, and remain in print after thirty years.
The book on the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau was the product of a 4-year project financed by the Institute of International Law of the University of Göttingen and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany's foremost quasi-official academic foundation. The final report is available online
Civic activities
De Zayas was co-President with Jacqueline Berenstein Wavre of the Association Suisses et Internationaux de Genève (1996–2006). ASIG was particularly active in the cultural integration of international civil servants into Geneva life, an activity currently carried out by the "Geneva Welcome Centre" at the Villa la Pastorale in Geneva. It also organized numerous round tables at the United Nations and other public events with a view to promoting Switzerland's entry into the United Nations. On 11 November 1998 ASIG hosted a conference at the Palais des Nations on "Denis de Rougement ou l'art de penser en avant les problèmes". On 12 May 1999 ASIG hosted a conference by Professor Peter Tschopp, Director of the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales, on "La Suisse et l'ONU" at the Centre d'Accueil Genève Inernationale. ASIG also hosted round tables at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the Palais Wilson 2000-2002Activist for human rights and peace
De Zayas is a member of numerous professional organizations and non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International, Point Coeur, the Geneva Club de la Presse, the German Society for International Law, the Forschungskreis Vereinte Nationen, and the Centre Against ExpulsionsCentre Against Expulsions
The Centre Against Expulsions was a planned German documentation centre for expulsions and ethnic cleansing, particularly the expulsion of Germans after World War II. Since March 19, 2008 the name of the project is Sichtbares Zeichen gegen Flucht und Vertreibung...
(Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen), the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law. He sits on the advisory boards of several organizations, including the Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, and is a member of the International Expert Panel for a European Solution in Cyprus (2004–2008). In January 2008, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights placed his name on the public list of candidates for Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council
2008-2010 He was president of Millennium Solidarity, a Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
non-governmental organization working for world peace and the eradication of poverty. He has participated on podium discussions at the UN and chaired an expert panel on peace, disarmament and powerty at the Civil Society Development Forum on 28 June 2007 in Geneva. Millennium Solidarity has synergies with the Geneva Institute for Peace, CETIM -Centre Europe- Tier Monde
He is a member of the Asociación Española para el Desarrollo del Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos (AEDIDH), which in October 2006 produced the "Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace". He has represented AEDIDH, the International P.E.N., and the International Society for Human Rights at round tables at the United Nations in Geneva. including with Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Professor Jean Ziegler, with the Chairman of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Luis de Alba, and with the President of the General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto. He is an advocate of the human right to peace and a signatory of the "Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace". He contributed to a book on the Human Right to Peace and presented it at a symposium at the University of California at Berkeley in November 2009. On 15–16 December 2009 he participated as an expert in the UN workshop on the human right to peace established under Human Rights Council Resolution 11/4. On 22–25 February 2010 he participated at a UNESCO expert meeting in Bilbao, Spain, as a member of the editorial committee of the Declaracion de Bilbao on the Human Right to Peace, for which he served as English-language Rapporteur, and reported on the results of the workshop at a UN Panel in Geneva in March 2010. He has endorsed the Declaracion de Santiago de Compostela of 10 December 2010 and participated in relevant side-events of the Human Rights Council in Geneva in March, June and September 2011.
While a staff member at the U.N., de Zayas was the founder and editor of the series "Selected Decisions of the Human Rights Committee under the Optional Protocol." He is a regular participant in panels and round tables at the United Nations, where he represents the International Society for Human Rights. During the 4th-18th sessions of the Human Rights Council, he has participated in panels on various issues including the right to development, extreme poverty, the millennium development goals, women's rights, self-determination, indigenous rights, Kashmir, moderated a panel on human dignity, and presented the statement of Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on the International Day of Human Rights, 21 September 2007. He is a consultant with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and a member of the board of directors of Project 2048 at the University of Berkeley, which aims at a new human rights convention with effective implementation machinery to promote and protect all human rights, including the "new enabling rights" such as the right to peace, the right to truth, the right to a homeland.. On 18 August 2011 Bruna Molina and de Zayas founded the Geneva Branch of 2048 as an association under Swiss law, the International Bill of Rights Association.
In June 2009 de Zayas published, together with Justice Jakob Th.Möller (Iceland) a handbook "The Case-Law of the United Nations Human Rights Committee 1977-2008". The first Chairperson of the Committee, Andreas Mavrommatis, wrote the preface and the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan, reviewed it in the UN Special of June 2009, pp. 18–19: "It is staggering how much the Human Rights Committee has influenced the human rights jurisprudence of the world, as is striking from reading this exceedingly important book.... From the outset of its work in 1977 there have been two Secretariat pioneers in developing the case law of the Committee when it considers petitions from individuals claiming violations of their rights: Jakob Möller (Iceland) and Alfred de Zayas (USA). Möller was the first Chief of the Petitions branch of what is today the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and de Zayas was his colleague, who eventually succeeded him as Chief. ...Every lawyer, every judge, every public-spirited citizen will want to consult this fascinating book, because it tells us what is legally right and legally wrong, how to judge our governments, our societies, our United Nations and ourselves." De Zayas is co-author and co-editor with Gudmundur Alfredsson and Bertrand Ramcharan of "International Human Rights Monitoring Mechanisms", Brill, The Hague, 2009.
Literary endeavors
De Zayas has published poetry in EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, translated Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
into English, French, and Spanish, translated Joseph von Eichendorff and Hermann Hesse into English.
As a member of the International Rainer Maria Rilke Society (Sierre, Switzerland), he published the first English-language translation of Rilke's "Larenopfer", 90 poems dedicated to Rilke's homeland of Bohemia, and hometown of Prague (with a historical commentary, Red Hen Press, Los Angeles, 2005, second revised and enlarged edition 2008 with a preface by Professor Ralph Freedman; The new book of George C. Schoolfield "Young Rilke and his Time", Camden House 2009, refers favourably to de Zayas' pioneering translation). With this book, de Zayas opened a new facet of Rilke research: Rilke as Heimatdichter or poet of the homeland, poète du terroir - spanning Rilke's early poetry characterized by enthusiasm for the beauties and the history of his homeland through Rilke's final poetic testament – more than 400 poems in French, dedicated to the Valais in Switzerland (Quatrains Valaisains, Roses, Fenetres, Vergers), Rilke's "Wahlheimat", where he spent the last years of his life at the Château de Muzot in Sierre and where he is buried in nearby Raron. Hitherto, Rilke had been understood primarily as a metaphyscial poet, as a poet's poet, but never seen as a homeland poet. Zayas has lectured and published on Rilke's search for a sense of belonging and his grateful attachment to a landscape and to the real people who live there. De Zayas has lectured on Rilke in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Canada. On 2 May 2011 he delivered a lecture at the Salon du Livre de Genève (Geneva bookfair) on "Rilke, poète de la Heimat"
He has also published in the literary journal of the PEN Club Suisse romande "L'Escarpe" (renamed 2008 "Pages Littéraires) in 2007 and 2008. A member of International PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
since 1989, he was secretary-general of the Centre Swiss romand of PEN PEN Club in 2002-06, and its president 2006-2010; since then he remains a member of the Centre's executive committee. De Zayas was coordinator of the three Swiss PEN Centres Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
since 2008-10.
De Zayas served for 15 years as president of the United Nations Society of Writers
United Nations Society of Writers
The United Nations Society of Writers is a club for United Nations staff registered with the United Nations Staff Socio Cultural Commission in Geneva, and is known under the acronyms UNSW and SENU, corresponding to Societé des écrivains des Nations Unies...
(Geneva).
De Zayas was the founder of the UN literary review Ex Tempore
Ex Tempore (journal)
Ex Tempore is a literary magazine published annually by the United Nations Society of Writers, or in French, Societé des écrivains des Nations Unies. The editors seek contributions that are "crisp, impromptu, and as far away as possible from the stale UN jargon of declarations, resolutions and...
ISSN 1020-6604, which has published 22 issues. In October 2011 he was reelected editor-in-chief of Ex Tempore. On 21 January 2011 the 15th annual Ex Tempore salon was held in Geneva. In honour of the Whistler Olympics de Zayas read out his poem Skiing, also published in the February 2010 UN Special. and in the Spring 2010 issue of the UBC literary Journal "Esoteric".
Prizes
De Zayas received the "Ehrengabe zum Georg Dehio Preis" in Esslingen in 1980, the Human Rights Award of the Danube Swabian Society of the United States and Canada in 1985, the VDA-Kulturpreis in Weimar in 1996, the "Plakete für Verdienste für das Selbstbestimmungsrecht" in Berlin in 1997, the "Humanitas Ring" in Frankfurt a.M. in 1998, the"Dr. Walter-Eckhardt-Ehrengabe für Zeitgeschichtsforschung" ("Dr. Walter Eckhardt Award for Contemporary History") from Ingolstadt Research Institute for Contemporary History
Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungsstelle Ingolstadt
The Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungsstelle Ingolstadt e. V. is a historical revisionist association located in Dunsdorf, Bavaria.-Political orientation:The ZFI was founded in 1981 and shaped by Alfred Schickel, Hellmut...
in 2001, the East Prussian Cultural Prize in Leipzig in 2002, the ANC Scholarly Excellence Award in Los Angeles in 2003, a Menschenrechtspreis in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
in 2004, and on 10 December 2007 the Menschenrechtspreis of the Volksgruppe der Donauschwaben e.V. in Stuttgart. On 26 July 2008 de Zayas was awarded the Kulturpreis of the city of Geislingen (Baden-Württemberg, Germany) for his Rilke and Hesse translations.
De Zayas was awarded the Educator`s Award 2011 by the teacher- and civil society organization Canadians for Genocide Education, on 31 March 2011 at the University of Toronto, Canada. ..
Books
- "Völkermord als Staatsgeheimnis" Olzog Verlag, München, 2011. ISBN 978-3-7892-8329-1.
- The Genocide against the Armenians and the relevance of the 1948 Genocide Convention, Beirut, Lebanon: Haigazian University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-9953-475-15-8.
- The United Nations Human Rights Committee Case Law 1977-2008 (together with Jakob Th. Möller), N.P.Engel Publishers, Kehl/Strasbourg, 2009, ISBN 978-3-88357-144-7.
- 50 Thesen zur Vertreibung London/München: Verlag Inspiration, 2008. ISBN 978-3-9812110-0-9.
- Rainer Maria Rilke. Die Larenopfer Bilingual English-German edition with commentary. Los Angeles: Red Hen Press, 2005. ISBN 1-59709-010-7; second revised edition with a preface by Ralph Freedman, 2008.
- International Human Rights Monitoring Mechanisms (with Gudmundur Alfredsson and Bertrand Ramcharan). The Hague: Kluwer, 2001. ISBN 90-411-1445-9. New revised edition, Brill 2009, ISBN 978-90-04-16236-5.
- Heimatrecht ist MenschenrechtUniversitas Verlag, 2001. ISBN 3-8004-1416-3
- Human Rights in the Administration of Criminal Justice (with Cherif Bassiouni), New York, Transnational Press: 1994. ISBN 0-941320-87-1
- Nemesis at PotsdamNemesis at PotsdamNemesis at Potsdam is a 1977 book by the American lawyer and historian Alfred-Maurice de Zayas.The title is drawn from Greek mythology; Nemesis is the Greek goddess of revenge...
: The Expulsion of the Germans from the East. 7th ed. Rockland, Maine: Picton Press, 2003. ISBN 0-89725-360-4. 14. revised German edition Die Nemesis von Potsdam, Herbig, Munich 2005. - A Terrible RevengeA Terrible RevengeA Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans, 1944-1950 is a bookby Alfred-Maurice de Zayas about the expulsion of Germans after World War II...
: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994, ISBN 1-4039-7308-3; second revised edition, Palgrave/Macmillan, New York 2006. - The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945 is a book by Alfred-Maurice de Zayas. It was published in November 1979 in Germany by Universitas/Langen Müller under the title Die Wehrmacht-Untersuchungsstelle, and in America in 1989 under the title The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945 . Professor...
(with Walter Rabus). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989, ISBN 0-8032-9908-7. New revised edition with Picton Press, Rockland, Maine, ISBN 0-89725-421-X. German edition: Die Wehrmacht Untersuchungsstelle, 7th revised and enlarged edition Universitas/Langen Müller, Munich 2001.
Articles and chapters
- 4 entries in Dinah Shelton (ed.) Encyclopedia of Genocide. Macmillan Reference, 2005, "Aggression", "Ismael Enver", "Nelson Mandela", "Raoul Wallenberg".
- 6 entries in David Forsythe, Encyclopedia of Human Rights (Oxford 2009): P.E.N. International and Human Rights, Jose Ayala Lasso, Aryeh Nyer, Kenneth Roth, Simon Wiesenthal and Bertrand Ramcharan, ISBN 9780195334029.
- 18 entries in the Encyclopaedia of Public International Law, edited by Rudolf Bernhardt, Amsterdam: Elsevier, Vol. 1-5, 1992–2003, including "United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights", "Combatants", "Spanish Civil War", "Population Expulsion", "Repatriation", "Open Towns", "Curzon Line", "United States Dependent Territories", "European Recovery Program", etc.
- " ISSN 1616-8828.
- "Ethnic Cleansing: Applicable Norms, Emerging Jurisprudence, Implementable Remedies" in John Carey (ed.) International Humanitarian Law: Origins, New York: Transnational Press, 2003, pp. 283–307.
- "The Follow-up Procedure of the UN Human Rights Committee" in International Commission of Jurists Review, no. 47, 1991.
- "The Illegal Implantation of Turkish Settlers in Occupied Northern Cyprus" in Gilbert Gornig (ed.), Iustitia et Pax, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2008, pp. 721–731.
- "The Istanbul Pogrom of 6–7 September 1955 in the Light of International Law" in Genocide Studies and Prevention, vol. 2, no. 2 (August 2007) pp. 137–155.
- "Karl Ernst Smidt" in Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland, Aurich, 2007.
- "" in Tilman Zülch (ed.) "Ethnische Säuberung-Völkermord", Hamburg: Luchterhand, 1993.
- "Minority Rights in the New Millennium" in The Geneva Post Quarterly, May 2007, pp. 155–208.
- "Normes morales et normes juridiques. Concurrence ou conciliation" in Anne Sophie Millet-Devalle (ed.), Religions et Droit International Humanitaire, Paris: Editions Pedone, 2007, pp. 81–87.
- "" in Alexander Demandt "", Munich: C.H.Beck, 1996.
- "The potential for US ratification and enforcement of the Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights". Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, vol. 20, 1990. pp. 299–310.
- "The Procedures and Case-Law of the United Nations Human Rights Committee" in Carlos Jiménez Piernas, The Legal Practice in International Law and European Community Law, Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2007.
- "The Right to One's Homeland, Ethnic Cleansing and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia", Criminal Law Forum, 1995, pp. 257–314.
- "The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights" in Helmut Volger (ed.) Concise Encyclopaedia of the United Nations, The Hague: Kluwer, 2002, 2nd revised edition 2009.
Other
- editor of the United Nations series "Human Rights Committee. Selected Decisions under the Optional Protocol" CCPR/C/OP/1, CCPR/C/OP/2, etc.
- Poetry in English, French, Spanish, German and Russian published in various literary journals and newspapers including "Esoteric" in 2003, 2004 and 2005 (literary journal of the University of British Columbia), in "Ex Tempore" (literary journal of the United Nations Society of Writers), in les Pages Litteraires (literary journal of P.E.N. International, Centre Suisse romand), in the U.N. Special, Reflections (United Nations Staff Council, New York), in "Paloma", publication of the Geneva Salève Society, etc.
External links
- Alfred de Zayas – official website; contains many of his articles, lectures, poetry and translations
- Geneva School of Diplomacy and International RelationsGeneva School of Diplomacy and International RelationsThe Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations is a private university located in Geneva, Switzerland. The campus is situated on the grounds of the , an old manor with a park and view of Lake Geneva...