Thomas Buergenthal

Thomas Buergenthal studied at Bethany College, Harvard Law School and New York University School of Law. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is international law and human rights. Employment is recorded with University of Texas at Austin, United Nations and George Washington University. Positions recorded include Judge of the International Court of Justice. Distinctions recorded are Manley-O.-Hudson medal, Gruber Prize for Justice, Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and honorary doctorate of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

• Name — Thomas Buergenthal • Office — President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights • Term Start — 1985 • Term End — 1987 • Predecessor — Pedro Nikken • Successor — Rafael Nieto Navia • Born — 11 May 1934 • Birthplace — Ľubochňa, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) • Died — 29 May 2023 • Place of death — Miami, Florida, U.S. • Education — Bethany College (BA) New York University (JD) Harvard University (LLM, SJD)

Thomas Buergenthal was known as one of the youngest holocaust victims to survive concentration camps like Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen. The first 11 years of his life were spent under German authority. It is known that when the Germans were pushed out by the Soviet army in January 1945, the Germans forced the victims out by marching them; it was a long journey, people began to get tired and if they stopped they were executed. Buergenthal was one of the few children to survive the three-day march to Sachsenhausen, where Buergenthal would soon be liberated. His mother was liberated from a different concentration camp around the same time, though they did not find each other until 1946. His father was killed shortly before liberation in yet another camp. Buergenthal, born to German-Jewish/Polish-Jewish parents who had moved from Germany to Czechoslovakia in 1933, grew up in the Jewish ghetto of Kielce (Poland) and later in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen. After the War he lived with his mother in Göttingen. On 4 December 1951, he emigrated from Germany to the United States. He studied at Bethany College in West Virginia (graduated 1957) and received his J.D. at New York University Law School in 1960 and his LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees in international law from Harvard Law School. Judge Buergenthal is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees from American, European and Latin American Universities, including the University of Heidelberg in Germany, the Free University of Brussels in Belgium, the State University of New York, the American University, the University of Minnesota, and the George Washington University.

Buergenthal was a specialist in international law and human rights law. Buergenthal served as a judge on the International Court of Justice at The Hague from 2 March 2000 to his resignation on 6 September 2010. Prior to his election to the International Court of Justice, he was the Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at The George Washington University Law School. He was Dean of Washington College of Law of American University from 1980 to 1985 and held endowed professorships at the University of Texas, SUNY/Buffalo Law School, and Emory University. While at Emory, he was the director of the Human Rights Program of the Carter Center. Buergenthal served as a judge for many years, including lengthy periods on various specialized international bodies. Between 1979 and 1991, he served as a judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, including a term as that court's president; from 1989 to 1994, he was a judge on the Inter-American Development Bank's Administrative Tribunal; in 1992 and 1993, he served on the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador; and from 1995 to 1999, he was a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Buergenthal was the author of more than a dozen books and a large number of articles on international law, human rights and comparative law subjects. He was member of a number of editorial boards of law journals, including the American Journal of International Law. He also served as a member of the Ethics Commission of the International Olympic Committee. On 9 July 2004, Judge Buergenthal was the sole dissenter in the advisory opinion on the Israeli West Bank barrier, where the ICJ found 14-1 that the Israeli-built barrier into the occupied West Bank violated international law and should be torn down. While he stated that Israeli settlements were illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention and that the Palestinians had the right of self-determination, Judge Buergenthal felt that the court hadn’t looked into the question of self-defense adequately. Judge Buergenthal was a co-recipient of the 2008 Gruber Prize for Justice for his contributions to the promotion and protection of human rights in different parts of the world, particularly in Latin America. He was also a recipient of the following awards: Goler T. Butcher Medal, American Society of International Law, 1997; Manley O. Hudson Medal, American Society of International Law, 2002; Elie Wiesel Award, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, 2015; and Olympic Order, International Olympic Committee, 2015. Buergenthal strongly supported the creation of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy in Nuremberg, Germany, and became the first President of its Advisory Council in 2014. From 2016 until his death in 2023, he served as its Honorary President. His memoir, A Lucky Child, which describes his experience in various German-run concentration camps, has been translated into more than a dozen languages, including German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish.

Buergenthal died on 29 May 2023 at the age of 89. He is survived by his wife, three sons, two stepchildren, and ten grandchildren, of whom two are lawyers.

* • Vol. 2 Vol. 3 * * * * •, Thomas, Shelton, Stewart, 4th ed. (2009) •, 5th ed. (2013), 4th ed. (2007)

Thomas Buergenthal is recorded as having received Manley-O.-Hudson medal, Gruber Prize for Justice and Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.