November 16, 2001 UNT Inhouse publications: Former International Criminal Tribunal president to speak at UNT

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Former International Criminal Tribunal president to speak at UNT

Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, who prosecuted individuals responsible for violations of international humanitarian law in the former Yugoslavia as president of the International Criminal Tribunal, will give a public lecture at UNT Nov. 29.

"International Law and National Justice" begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Auditorium. The lecture, sponsored by the UNT peace studies program, is free and open to the public.

James Meernik, associate professor of political science, says that through her work on the International Criminal Tribunal, McDonald "has been responsible for some of the most important advances in international law since World War II."

"There is now greater international protection of human rights. McDonald is one of the pre-eminent international jurists of our time," Meernik says.

McDonald began her professional career as a staff attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York City. After three years, she moved to Houston and became a founding partner of the law firm McDonald and McDonald, specializing in discrimination cases.

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed her as judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston. She became the first African American to be appointed to a federal court in Texas, and only the third African American woman appointed to the federal judiciary in the nation up to that point in time.

McDonald resigned from the bench in 1988 and returned to private practice. In 1993, she was elected to the new International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Created by the United Nations Security Council and located in The Hague, Netherlands, the tribunal prosecutes individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and violations of laws and customs of war committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since Jan. 1, 1991.

McDonald was elected to a four-year term on the International Criminal Tribunal. In 1997, she was elected to another four-year term, and she became president of the tribunal later that year.

She resigned from the tribunal in 1999 and currently serves on the board of directors of the mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. She also is a special counsel on human rights to the board's chair.

McDonald has taught at Texas Southern University, the University of Texas School of Law and St. Mary's School of Law in San Antonio.

She attended Boston University and Hunter College in New York City. Without an undergraduate degree, McDonald earned her law degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C., graduating first in her class.