The Honourable Irwin Cotler, P.C., O.C., M.P. visits the Faculty of Law on Monday, January 18, 2010. He will be giving a presentation titled: “Nuremberg: 60 years later - Lessons for Our Time.”

Cotler is a professor of law, constitutional and comparative law scholar, international human rights lawyer, counsel to prisoners of conscience, NGO head, public intellectual, community leader and peace activist, member of the Canadian Parliament since 1999 and former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. He is currently serving as the Official Opposition Special Counsel for Human Rights and International Justice. Professor Cotler is a distinguished academic and a prominent human rights lawyer whose dedication to humanitarian causes has earned him the Order of Canada among many other awards - including nine honourary doctorates.

As Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, he helped transform the face of the judiciary through the appointment of two outstanding women justices to the Supreme Court of Canada -Mesdames Justices Rosalie Abella and Louise Charron- making the Supreme Court of Canada the most gender-representative Supreme Court in the world, while appointing the first ever visible minority and aboriginal justices to appellate courts. He also initiated legislation for the protection of children and other vulnerable persons; the first ever legislation to criminalize trafficking in persons; made the pursuit of international justice a priority, including, in particular, the combating of mass atrocity and genocide; initiated the first ever prosecution under the Canadian War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act for incitement to genocide in Rwanda; issued the first ever National Justice Initiative Against Racism and Hate; and quashed more wrongful convictions in a single year than any prior Minister.

Cotler is currently on leave as a professor of law at McGill University, where he is director of its human rights programme and chair of InterAmicus, the McGill-based International Human Rights Advocacy Centre. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Yale Law school.

 Event details:

Date: Monday, January 18, 2010

Location: Moot Court Room 200A&B, Robson Hall, Faculty of Law

Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

The public is invited to attend.

Media note:

Mr. Cotler will be available to meet with media at 1:45-2:00 pm, after his talk.

For more information, contact Howard Liebman, Constituency Assistant - cotlei1@parl.gc.ca ; 514-283-0171

Web: www.irwincotler.ca