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SIPA Faculty
Horst Fischer
International Affairs Building, 13th Floor
Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs
Phone: 212-854-3213
hf2143@columbia.edu
Biography:
Prof. Dr. Horst Fischer, born in 1950, is Academic Director of the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (Institut für Friedenssicherungsrecht und Humanitäres Völkerrecht/IFHV) at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany, Professor of International Humanitarian Law at Leiden University in the Netherlands and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, New York. Since December 2003 he is the first president of the European Interuniversity Centre for Human Rights and Democratization in Venice founded by 29 European universities. He also serves as president of the NOHA-University Association (European Network on Humanitarian Assistance, Brussels, established by seven European universities) since 1999.
He is also adviser for international affairs for both the German Red Cross and the Netherlands Red Cross. He is chairman of the Berghof Foundation Board in Berlin. In 1999 he received a special price for outstanding performance in international university co-operation by the German Rectors Conference and the Ministry for Education and Research. He served in different other honorary positions including the Steering Committee of the European University Thematic Network "HumanNet" (Brussels). Prof. Fischer has worked as consultant for different national ministries, international and non-governmental organizations including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Amnesty International on issues of humanitarian affairs and security policy.
He is the General Editor both of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (The Hague) as well as of the Journal Humanitäres Völkerrecht - Informationsschriften (International Humanitarian Law Journal/Bochum). He is co-editor of the Bochumer Schriften zur Friedenssicherung und zum Humanitären Völkerrecht (Bochum Studies on Peace and Armed Conflict) since 1988. He also edits the information service "BOFAXE", the IFHV-Forschungshefte (Occasional Papers of the Institute) and the Series "Studien zur Friedensforschung" (Studies on Conflict Research/Münster). His academic work has focused on international humanitarian law and questions related to the maintenance of international peace and security. His publications include the chapter on "Peace-keeping and Peaceful Settlement of Disputes" in Ipsen's textbook on International Law (München, 4th ed., 1999), Der Konflikt in Jugoslawien und seine Auswirkungen auf das humanitäre Völkerrecht (in: Voit [ed.], Bochum 1993), the chapter on the Protection of Prisoners of War in Fleck's Handbook on International Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflicts, (Oxford 1995), Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions (in: McDonald/Swaak-Goldman [eds.], Substantive and Procedural Aspects of International Criminal Law (The Hague, 2000). He is one of the editors of the most recent books on International and National Prosecution of Crimes Under International law (Fischer/Kreb/Lüder [eds.], Berlin 2001).