Program of the Conference

October 5-6, 1998
Accounting for Atrocities: Prosecuting War Crimes
Fifty Years after Nuremberg

The year 1998 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which sat in judgment on individual participants in genocide under the Third Reich. The anniversary of the tribunal and of the adoption of the Nuremberg Principles by the United Nations offers an occasion to reassess the Nuremberg trials and their legacy. More pressing reasons for a reassessment exist as international organizations, the United States, and other countries struggle to confront the acts of genocidal violence that continue to occur in the post-Cold War era.

The international conference "Accounting for Atrocities: Prosecuting War Crimes Fifty Years after Nuremberg" aims to examine the legacy of Nuremberg in the context of current international efforts to combat crimes against humanity. Participants include historians and other social scientists, journalists, and representatives of the military and the legal profession who have studied and participated in the prosecution of such crimes. The keynote address will be given by Richard J. Goldstone, former prosecutor of The Hague Court and currently Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

Monday, October 5

All conference sessions will take place in the auditorium of the F.W. Olin Humanities Building

9:45 a.m. Welcome. Leon Botstein, president, Bard College

10:00 a.m. The Legacy of Nuremberg

Peter Maguire, moderator, journalist, historian

Jonathan Bush, fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study; author of a forthcoming biography of Nuremberg prosecutor Telford Taylor

William Caming, one of the original prosecutors at Nuremberg

Jörg Friedrich, author of Das Gesetz des Krieges

1:30 p.m. The Tokyo Trial

Sanjib Baruah, moderator, professor of political studies, Bard College

Lt. Col. Conrad Crane, professor of history, West Point; expert on city bombing during World Ward II

Philip Nobile, journalist; author of Judgment at the Smithsonian: The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Lt. Colonel Gary Solis, professor of Law, West Point; author of Son Thang: An American War Crime

3:30 p.m. Law and War in the Former Yugoslavia

Anthony D'Amato, moderator, attorney for indicted war criminal

Milan Kovacevic

Richard J. Goldstone, former chief prosecutor of The Hague Court and Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa

Michael Scharf, director of the Center for International Law and Policy and professor, New England School of Law

Ed Vuilliamy, The Guardian

6:00 p.m. Keynote Address: "Accounting for Atrocities Fifty Years after Nuremberg" Richard J. Goldstone

Introduction by Robert L. Bernstein, founder of Human Rights Watch.

View the above keynote address in its entirety. You will need the free RealPlayer application to view this content. Once installed on your computer, click the link below to view the conference.

* Click here to view the keynote address speaker Richard J. Goldstone.

Tuesday, October 6

8:45 a.m. Welcome. Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, executive director, The Bard Center

9:00 a.m. Law and War in Cambodia

Peter Maguire, moderator

Catherine Dumait-Harper, Doctors Without Borders' United Nations Delegate

Craig Etcheson, program director, International Monitor Institute

David Hawk, head of United Nations Human Rights Commission for Cambodia

10:30 a.m. Law and War in Rwanda

Chinua Achebe, moderator; author of Things Fall Apart

Ibrahim Gambari, Nigerian ambassador to the United Nations

Martin Garbus, attorney; author of Traitors and Heroes

Philip Gourevitch, The New Yorker; author of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda

1:30 p.m. Amnesties and Truth Commissions

Amy Ansell, moderator, associate professor of sociology, Bard College

Alex Boraine, deputy chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South Africa

Kathrine Hite, author of the forthcoming book Politicizing Identity: Leaders of the Chilean Left 1968 - 1998

Aryeh Neier, President, Open Society Institute; author of War Crimes: Brutality, Genocide, Terror and the Struggle for Justice, Crime and Punishment: A Radical Solution

3:30 p.m. Prospects for the Future: The International Criminal Court and Beyond

Leon Botstein, moderator

Richard Dicker, associate counsel, Human Rights Watch, representative to the United Nations Diplomatic Conference for the Formation of an International Court (Rome Conference)

Richard J. Goldstone

Aryeh Neier

Conference organizer, Peter Maguire '88

Sponsors: Bard College, The Bard Center, Institute for International Liberal Education.

The conference has been made possible by the generous support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; James H. Ottaway Jr., president, World Press Freedom Committee and trustee, Bard College; and Philip and Sandra Gordon. Additional support has been provided by Daimler Benz, N.A. and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The conference is free and open to the public.