Pitt to Present U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues In Jan. 28 Lecture

PITTSBURGH-The University of Pittsburgh School of Law's Center for International Legal Education will feature Stephen Rapp, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, in a lecture titled "The Role of the United States in International Criminal Justice," at noon Jan. 28 in the Barco Law Building's Teplitz Memorial Courtroom, 3900 Forbes Ave., Oakland.

Appointed by President Barack Obama, Rapp, an Iowa native, assumed his duties on Sept. 8, 2009. Prior to taking this position, Rapp served as prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, beginning in January 2007, where he led the prosecutions of former Liberian President Charles Taylor and those alleged to be responsible for the atrocities committed during Sierra Leone's civil war.

During his tenure as prosecutor, Rapp and his colleagues achieved the first-ever convictions for sexual slavery and forced marriage as crimes against humanity, and for attacks on peacekeepers and for recruitment and use of child soldiers as violations of international humanitarian law.

As senior trial attorney and chief of prosecutions at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda from 2001 to 2007, Rapp headed the trial team that achieved convictions of the principals of RTLM radio and "Kangura" newspaper-the first in history for leaders of the mass media-for the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide.

Rapp was U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Iowa from 1993 to 2001, where his office won historic convictions under the firearms provision of the Violence Against Women Act and the serious violent offender provision of the 1994 Crime Act. Prior to serving as U.S. Attorney, he worked as an attorney in private practice and was staff director of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency and an elected member of the Iowa Legislature.

Rapp received his BA degree from Harvard University in 1971 and attended Columbia and Drake Law Schools, receiving his JD degree from Drake in 1974.

This lecture has been approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board for one hour of substantive Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits. There is a $25 fee for credit. For CLE details, call 412-648-7023 or e-mail cile@law.pitt.edu. For more information about Pitt's School of Law, visit www.law.pitt.edu.

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