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Richard Goldstone

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Richard J. Goldstone at Beloit College

Richard J. Goldstone (born October 26, 1938) was a South African Constitutional Court judge[1]. Called a Zionist by his daughter, he was excommunicated by the chief rabbis of Israel and is no longer considered a Jew for his self-hatred and anti-Israeli beliefs[2] he led an independent fact-finding mission created by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate international human rights and humanitarian law violations related to the Gaza War.[1][3]

Early life

Richard Goldstone is a South African of Jewish descent and married to Noleen Goldstone. They have two daughters (Glenda and Nicole) and four grandsons (Jason, Sean, Ben and Jordan). He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a BA LLB cum laude in 1962.[1]

Law

South Africa

Richard J. Goldstone practised as an Advocate at the Johannesburg Bar.[1] In 1976 he was appointed Senior Counsel and in 1980 was made Judge of the Transvaal Supreme Court.[1] He then served as a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from July 1994 to October 2003,[1] which was entrusted with the task of interpreting the new South African Constitution and supervising the country’s transition into democracy.

Before taking a seat on the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Goldstone served as chairperson of the South African Standing Commission of Inquiry Regarding Public Violence and Intimidation, later known as the Goldstone Commission.[1] The Commission played a critical role in defusing the political violence that erupted when apartheid in South Africa began eroding in the late 1980s as the country moved toward its first democratic elections, and concluded that political violence was fueled by a "third force".

He also served as national president of the National Institute of Crime Prevention and the Rehabilitation of Offenders (NICRO); chairperson of the Bradlow Foundation, a charitable educational trust; and head of the board of the Human Rights Institute of South Africa (HURISA).

Chief UN Prosecutor in Yugoslavia and Rwanda

Goldstone served as the chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda from 15 August 1994 to September 1996.[1]

Argentina

He was a member of the international panel established in August 1997 by the government of Argentina to monitor the inquiry into Nazi activity in the republic since 1938.

Kosovo

Goldstone was chairperson of the International Independent Inquiry on Kosovo from August 1999 until December 2001.[1]

Member of Volcker Commission

In April 2004, he was appointed by Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to the Independent International Committee, chaired by Paul Volcker, to investigate the Iraq Oil for Food program.[1]

Gaza

On the 3 April 2009, Goldstone was named as the head of the independent United Nations fact-finding mission to investigate international human rights and humanitarian law violations related to the Gaza War, which was established by Resolution S-9/1 of the United Nations Human Rights Council.[1] He responded to the announcement that he was "shocked, as a Jew", to be invited to head the mission.[3]

The UN mission found that there was evidence "indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity." The mission also found that there was evidence that "Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity, in their repeated launching of rockets and mortars into Southern Israel."[4] [5][6]

The Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev described the mission as "a kangaroo court" [7] and Israeli President Shimon Peres said that the report "mocks history and fails to distinguish between aggressor and those acting in self-defense."[8]

The mission will refer either side in the conflict to the UN Security Council for prosecution at the International Criminal Court if they refuse to launch fully independent investigations by December 2009, though any prosecution of Israel is likely to be vetoed by the United States.

Other activities

From 2004 through 2008, in addition to his teaching appointments, Goldstone was the chair of the Advisory Committee to the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation, an initiative of the Salzburg Global Seminar. In 2008, the Institute became an independent entity, with Goldstone as its chairman.[9] He also continues as a member of the board of directors of the Salzburg Global Seminar.[10]

Goldstone serves on the Board of Directors of several nonprofit organizations that promote justice, including Physicians for Human Rights, the International Center for Transitional Justice, the South African Legal Services Foundation, the Brandeis University Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life, Human Rights Watch, and the Center for Economic and Social Rights.[11] He is a trustee of Hebrew University[12]

Goldstone was a Global Visiting Professor of Law at New York University School of Law.

Goldstone is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Scholar in Political Science at Washington & Jefferson College.

Justice Richard J. Goldstone was named the 2007 Weissberg Distinguished Professor of International Studies at Beloit College, in Beloit, Wisconsin. From January 17–28, 2007 he visited classes, worked with faculty and students, participated in panel discussions on human rights and transitional justice with leading figures in the field and delivered the annual Weissberg Lecture, "South Africa's Transition to Democracy: The Role of the Constitutional Court" on January 24th at the Moore Lounge in Pearsons Hall.

Justice Goldstone continued teaching at Harvard University until the end of the Spring 2007 semester, after he leaves Beloit College. In Fall 2007 he was made William Hughes Mulligan Professor of International Law at Fordham University School of Law, giving a seminar on "Laws of War and International Criminal Courts."

Awards and honors

Justice Goldstone has received many prominent awards, including the MacArthur Award for International Justice, announced by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in October 2008, and bestowed in the The Hague in May, 2009.[13] In 1994, Goldstone received the International Human Rights Award of the American Bar Association and in 2005 he received the Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights. He holds honorary degrees from Hebrew University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Maryland, and the Universities of Cape Town, British Columbia, Glasgow, and Calgary among others. He is the 2009 Spinoza Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS). He is an honorary fellow of St Johns College, Cambridge, an honorary member of the Association of the Bar of New York, a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the Center for International Affairs of Harvard University.

In October 2003, Goldstone gave a lecture entitled "Preventing Deadly Conflict" at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Distinguished Lecture Series. In April 2005, Goldstone spoke on “The Future of International Criminal Justice,” at the Fletcher School (Tufts University) in Massachusetts.

Publications

Goldstone is the author of numerous articles on international humanitarian law. He has written forewords to several books, including "Martha Minow’s Beyond Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after Genocide" and "Mass Violence and War Crimes: The Legacy of Nuremberg", which examines the political and legal influence the Nuremberg trials have had over contemporary war crime proceedings. More recently, he has written about the challenge to individual human rights posed by counter-terror measures in R. A. Wilson, ed., "Human Rights in the 'War on Terror'".

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Richard J. Goldstone Appointed to Lead Human Rights Council Fact-finding mission on Gaza Conflict, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 3 April 2009
  2. ^ 'My father is a Zionist, loves Israel', Jerusalem Post, Sep 16, 2009
  3. ^ a b "UN appoints Gaza war-crimes team". BBC News. 14:42 GMT, Friday, 3 April 2009. Retrieved Friday, 3 April 2009. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  4. ^ UN Fact Finding Mission finds strong evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Gaza conflict, United Nations Human Rights Council, September 15, 2009, retrieved 2009-09-15 {{citation}}: line feed character in |title= at position 46 (help)
  5. ^ Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (PDF), United Nations Human Rights Council, retrieved 2009-09-15
  6. ^ UN Inquiry find Israel “Punished and Terrorized” by Democracy_Now!
  7. ^ Israel and Hamas 'war crimes' in Gaza, Channel 4 News, September 15, 2009, retrieved 2009-09-16
  8. ^ "Peres: Goldstone report mocks history", The Jerusalem Post, September 16, 2009, retrieved 2009-09-16
  9. ^ About the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation
  10. ^ Salzburg Global Seminar Board of Directors
  11. ^ "PHR Board of Directors — Justice Richard J. Goldstone". Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  12. ^ Goldstone to head UNHRC Gaza inquiry JTA, April 3, 2009
  13. ^ Frank Donaghue Congratulates Justice Richard Goldstone on MacArthur Award for International Justice, Physicians for Human Rights
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