Right Place, Right Time

Imagine you have been asked to set up an international war crimes tribunal in a country ravaged by decades of violence -- a daunting task, to be sure. Now imagine that country is Cambodia, where even by conservative estimates nearly one-quarter of the population was brutally tortured, starved and killed by the rampaging forces of the Khmer Rouge. Add to the equation reluctant politicians in the host country, rebel militias and a handful of recalcitrant United Nations members, and the full force of the challenge becomes apparent.

But it's a challenge that McGill's new Dean of Law, Peter Leuprecht, has agreed to take on.

One of the world's foremost authorities on human rights and international law, the soft-spoken and perennially bow-tied Leuprecht was offered the position of the UN special representative for human rights in Cambodia by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Leuprecht's lifelong commitment to social justice compelled him to accept.

"To reduce human suffering -- that's really what human rights is about," says Leuprecht simply. "And Cambodia is a profoundly traumatized society."

Leuprecht sees his role not as a prosecutor but as someone who can help the Cambodian people to collectively come to terms with their past. "There is an obvious need for justice, to assist the people in undergoing a societal cartharsis or cleansing." He adds that the focus cannot be solely on civil and political rights, but must also emphasize social, economic, and cultural rights -- putting an end to endemic violence, corruption and trafficking in children, among other crimes.

Leuprecht's dedication to human rights work was first sparked by very personal experience. Following the Nazi takeover of his native Austria, Leuprecht's family, vigorous opponents of the new regime, were exiled from Salzburg to a remote village in the Austrian Alps, and his father was banned from practising law. Says Leuprecht, "I therefore had, without asking for it, a very early political education which forged in me strong opinions and convictions."

During his law school years at the University of Innsbruck he was particularly inspired by his professors who were involved in the field of international law and human rights. After a few years spent teaching at universities in France and Italy, Leuprecht began a 36-year stint at the Council of Europe, an organization founded in 1949 to defend parliamentary democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Europe through diplomacy and cooperation. Leuprecht tirelessly promoted the Council's human rights agenda, eventually serving as Secretary of the Committee of Ministers for four years, and Director of Human Rights for another thirteen.

As a self-professed "Eurocrat," Leuprecht continued to produce prize-winning scholarship while being submerged in the sort of legal and political work that he relishes. His position involved him heavily in the Council's struggle against the ruling military junta in Greece in the late 1960s and 1970s, for example, and he was instrumental in bringing Spain and Portugal into the Council after their transitions to democracy.

As events rapidly unfolded in East and Central Europe, he was positioned to appreciate firsthand the "fascinating adventure of opening up the Council to members from the East." But this adventure, however fascinating, would end his Council of Europe career a few years later.

To Leuprecht, who was elected Deputy Secretary General in 1993, the Council had historically been a "community of democratic values," and he was horrified by what he perceived to be the dilution of its standards by the premature admission of states like Romania and Croatia. In 1997, he resigned in protest.

In a newspaper interview at the time he described a meeting of the Council's Committee of Ministers (its chief policy- and decision-making body), at which the Croatian Foreign Minister argued at length that his country was a model democracy that respected human and minority rights. Recalled Leuprecht, "None of the ministers present said a word. Not even one said, 'What do you take us for, idiots?' There was only a soft, soggy consensus."

Such undiplomatic comments caused a firestorm of controversy and engendered howls of protest from the member states he had criticized. Tellingly, however, his criticisms resonated with many within the Council: following his resignation, a highly placed anonymous source in the Council's human rights division rejoiced at Leuprecht's outspokenness and admitted that the division was "simply overwhelmed by human and minority rights violations" taking place in a handful of newly admitted countries.