Ambassador David J. Scheffer

August 1, 2024–January 31, 2025

Ambassador David J. Scheffer served as the former Director of the Center for International Human Rights (2006–2019) at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and is currently the University’s Mayer Brown / Robert A. Helman Professor of Law. From 1993–1997, he served on the National Security Council’s Deputies Committee, and in 1997, he was appointed the first US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues and led the US delegation to the United Nations (UN) which established the International Criminal Court. From 2012–2018, he served as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Expert on UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials. In 2024 Ambassador Scheffer was recognized by the American Bar Association with their Eleanor Roosevelt Prize for Human Rights Advancement.

Ambassador Scheffer also served as a Tom A. Bernstein Genocide Prevention Fellow with the Simon-Skjodt Center from September 1, 2020–April 30, 2021.

Fellowship Project

Ambassador Scheffer examined innovative funding mechanisms to support the reparative needs of victims of mass atrocity crimes. Funding to support victims has always been insufficient, and with the global pandemic, funding shortages worsened. Ambassador Scheffer’s research project is based on the premise that understanding the needs of victims of genocide and related crimes against humanity cannot be forgotten or overlooked, even during times of global upheaval, and that we must identify creative mechanisms to fill funding gaps left by governments and traditional funding instruments. 

In this September 2024 report, Social Bonds: A Lifeline for Atrocity Victims, Ambassador David Scheffer, Dr. Caroline Kaeb, and Madeline Babin explore how social bonds—financial instruments that raise funds for specific social projects while providing financial returns to investors—can provide essential support for victims. This novel financial instrument to fund reparative justice broadens the options available for governments and other stakeholders to aid these victims.