Dr. Alfred de Zayas

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, Professor of international law and history at the Geneva School of Diplomacy, has been a visiting professor at numerous universities in the US, Canada, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. From 2012 to 2018 he was the UN’s Independent Expert on International Order and produced 14 reports for the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council, formulating “ 25 Principles of International Order”. From 1980 to 2003 he was a senior lawyer with the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva, served as Secretary of the UN Human Rights Committee and Chief of the Petitions Department. He is the author of ten books including “Building a Just World Order” (Clarity Press, 2021), “The Genocide against the Armenians” (Haigazian University Press, Beirut, 2010, translated into Spanish and Polish), “United Nations Human Rights Committee Case Law” (N.P.Engel, Strasbourg, 2009). He has published numerous articles concerning the Armenian genocide and the right of self-determination of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh and has spoken on these issues before the European Parliament. He is a US and Swiss national, resides in Geneva, Switzerland, with his wife Carla, a Dutch jurist, and was President of P.E.N. International Centre Suisse from 2006-9 and again from 2013-17.

Courses Taught

  • Public International Law
  • International Humanitarian Law
  • International Jurisprudence
  • Human Rights
  • World History

Publications

  • Nemesis at Potsdam: (first edition, Routledge, London and Boston 1977) 6th revised edition, Picton Press, Rockland, Maine, 2003 296 pp. 14th enlarged German version: Die Nemesis von Potsdam. Die Anglo Amerikaner und die Vertreibung der Deutschen (First edition 1977, C.H.Beck, Munich; 14th revised edition, 2005, Herbig Verlag, Munich) 416 pages.

  • The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau 1939 1945: (first edition 1989, University of Nebraska Press; fourth revised edition, Picton Press, 2000). Original German version: Die Wehrmacht Untersuchungsstelle (1st edition 1979, 7th revised and enlarged edition, 2001, Universitas/Langen Müller, Munich), 510 pages. Excerpts reprinted in Marco Sassoli and Antoine Bouvier, How does law Protect in War? Cases and Materials on International Humanitarian law in Contemporary Practice, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, 1999.

  • The German Expellees: Victims in War and Peace, Macmillan, London, 1993. Revised and enlarged paperback version, published under the title: A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East-European Germans 1944-1950 (4th revised edition Palgrave/Macmillan 2006). Original German version: Anmerkungen zur Vertreibung (4th revised edition, 1995), Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, 240 pp., 5th revised edition 2005, Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz.

  • Heimatrecht ist Menschenrecht (Universitas/Langen Müller, Munich, 2001) 296 pp.

  • 50 Thesen zur Vertreibung. Verlag Inspiration, München 2008.

  • The Genocide against the Armenians and the Relevance of the 1948 Genocide Convention, Haigazian University Press, Beirut, 2010

  • Völkermord als Staatsgeheimnis, Olzog Verlag, Munich 2011.

  • Co-author with Judge Jakob Th. Möller of the Handbook: United Nations Human Rights Committee Case-Law 1977-2008, N.P. Engel Verlag, Kehl/Strasbourg, 2009. Review on Human Rights Quartely Journal – February 2010, Volume 32, number 1. Pag 237-240

  • Co-author and co-editor with Gudmundur Alfredsson and Bertrand Ramcharan of International Human Rights Monitoring Mechanisms, Brill, Amsterdam 2009.

  • Author of 18 entries in Rudolf Bernhardt (ed.) Encyclopedia of Public International Law, North Holland Publishers, Amsterdam 1990-2003.

  • Author of 6 entries in David Forsythe (ed) Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Oxford 2009

  • Author of 6 entries in Rüdiger Wolfrum (ed.) Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public Inernational Law, Oxford 2009

  • Author of 4 entries in Dinah Sehlton (ed.), Encyclopedia of Genocide, Macmillan Reference, 2005

  • Author of the entry on “United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights” in Helmut Volger, Concise Encyclopedia of the United Nations”, Brill, 2009.

  • “Building a Just World Order”, Clarity Press, Atlanta, Georgia 2021 https://www.claritypress.com/product/building-a-just-world-order/

  • “Countering Mainstream Narratives” Clarity press, Atlanta, 2022 https://www.claritypress.com/product/countering-mainstream-narratives-fake-news-fake-law-fake-freedomcountering-the-mainstream-narratives-fake-news-fake-law-fake-freedom/