The 2026 Bruce J. Klatsky Endowed Distinguished Human Rights Lecture, featuring Ambassador Beth Van Schaack: “The past, present, and future of international justice”
Wednesday, January 14th, 2026 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Event Description
About The Speaker
Prior to returning to Stanford University, Dr. Van Schaack served as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice in the U.S. State Department office, where she once served as Deputy. GCJ advised the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights on issues related to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, and the deployment of the whole range of transitional justice mechanisms in states emerging from violence or repression. Prior to returning to public service, Dr. Van Schaack was the Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor in Human Rights at Stanford Law School, where she taught international criminal law, human rights, human trafficking, and a policy lab on Legal & Policy Tools for Preventing Atrocities. In addition, she directed Stanford’s International Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Clinic. Ambassador Van Schaack has published numerous articles and papers on international human rights and justice issues, including her 2020 thesis, Imagining Justice for Syria (Oxford University Press). From 2014 to 2022, she served as Executive Editor for Just Security, an online forum for the analysis of national security, foreign policy, and rights.
In addition to her work as a Distinguished Fellow with Stanford’s Center for Human Rights & International Justice, Dr. Van Schaack is a Commissioner with the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), a Senior Peace Fellow with the Public International Law & Policy Group, a Distinguished Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project, and a Distinguished Fellow with the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security. With seven other senior U.S. government human rights mandate holders, she is a co-founder of The Alliance for Diplomacy & Justice, which works to center human rights within U.S. foreign policy. Earlier in her career, she was a practicing lawyer at Morrison & Foerster, LLP; the Center for Justice & Accountability, a human rights law firm; and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Dr. Van Schaack is a graduate of Stanford (BA), Yale (JD), and Leiden (PhD) Universities.
About the Klatsky Lecture Series
The Klatsky Endowed Distinguished Lecture in Human Rights was created in 2001 by University Trustee Bruce J. Klatsky, chair and CEO of Phillips Van Heusen Corp., and a member of the board of directors of Human Rights Watch. The Klatsky endowment also provides annual fellowships for two CWRU law students at Human Rights Watch. As the 2024 Klatsky Lecturer, Beth Van Schaack joins a veritable "who's who" among the most impactful human rights luminaries on the planet who have delivered the Klatsky Lecture at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and received the Cox Center’s annual Humanitarian Award for Advancing Global Justice, including: Samantha Power (US Ambassador to the UN), Harold Koh (Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights), Prince Zeid Bin Ra'ad (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights), Navi Pillay (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights), Sir Christopher Greenwood (Judge of the International Court of Justice), Ken Roth (Executive Director of Human Rights Watch), Nicholas Koumjian (head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar), Catherine Marchi-Uhel (head of the UN International Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria), Michael Reisman (President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights), Albie Sachs (anti-Apartheid activist and later Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa), Sean Murphy (member of the UN International Law Commission and President of the American Society of International Law), Paul Williams (President of the Public International Law and Policy Group), Fatou Bensouda (Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court), Professor Leila Sada (author of the International Crimes Against Humanity Treaty), and most recently Andrew Cayley (lead prosecutor who headed the Ukraine and Gaza war crimes investigations at the International Criminal Court).
Reception to follow with hot appetizers in Ben’s Place.
Event Location
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
George Gund Hall
Room A59, Moot Courtroom
