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News Release

Last modified: Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Two IU centers to study Libyan human rights violations under State Department grant

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 4, 2011

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Two Indiana University research centers will share a $100,000 grant from the United States Department of State for the study of human rights violations in Libya.

The IU Maurer School of Law Center for Constitutional Democracy and the IU Center for the Study of the Middle East will collaborate with the Istituto Superiore Internazionale di Scienze Criminali in Siracusa, Italy, on the gathering of evidence of human rights violations in support of the investigation of the Libya Inquiry Commission appointed by the United Nations' Human Rights Council.

Amb. Feisal Amin Rasoul Istrabadi

The project will be under the supervision of three faculty at the Maurer School of Law: Ambassador Feisal Amin Rasoul Istrabadi, University Scholar in International Law and Diplomacy and director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East; David C. Williams, John S. Hastings Professor of Law and executive director of the Center for Constitutional Democracy; and Timothy William Waters, associate professor of law.

"We are pleased to receive this grant and look forward to working with the State Department and the UN," said Istrabadi. "The funding confirms the strength of Middle Eastern studies and human rights at Indiana University."

The Libya Inquiry Commission is chaired by M. Cherif Bassiouni, an IU alumnus and Distinguished Research Professor of Law Emeritus at DePaul University College of Law in Chicago. The other two commissioners are Philippe Kirsch, the first president of the International Criminal Court, and Asma Khader, a Jordanian women's rights lawyer and former cabinet minister. The team's research is expected to be completed in 2012.

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