The Three Charters

Yesterday I delivered the inaugural lecture (in Dutch, the oratie) of the chair in international criminal law and human rights at Leiden University. It was entitled 'The Three Charters', and it attempted to weave together the Charter of the United Nations, the Charter of the International Military Tribunal and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Here is the text of the lecture.

Signing the wall in the 'sweat room' (with Penelope)

The oratie is a magnificent tradition at one of the world's great universities. It takes place in a building that is many hundreds of years old. Those in attendance comprised my many new colleagues at Leiden, including two distinguished professors emeriti, Frits Kaltshoven and John Dugard, international judges from the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and a large number of past and present students.