William A. Schabas is professor of International Law at Middlesex University London and distinguished visiting faculty at Sciences Po in Paris. He further holds the titles of professor emeritus at Leiden University and University of Galway. He is honorary chairman of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, and was a member of Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2002-2004), chairman of Human Rights Council fact-finding commission on the Gaza conflict (2014-2015), and prepared quinquennial reports on the death penalty for the United Nations Secretary-General in 2020, 2015, and 2010. He is also an Officer of the Order of Canada, a member of Royal Irish Academy, and holds several honorary doctorates.

In mainstream scholarship, international law shed its racist past in the twentieth century, embracing instead, justice and humanity. William Schabas masterfully shows how the true story is much more complex. Through meticulous, detailed, and informative narrative, Schabas shows how much of the early history of the pillars of modern international law, while paying lip service to anti-discrimination, retained traces of "the leitmotif of colonialism" and its racist past. More importantly, the book illustrates how, in their struggle against racism and the pursuit of mainstreaming anti-discrimination, it was States of the Global South against the resistance of the "gentle civilisers" from the North, that pushed international law to the place where it rejects racism - or at least overt racism.

William A. Schabas is professor of International Law at Middlesex University London and distinguished visiting faculty at Sciences Po in Paris. He further holds the titles of professor emeritus at Leiden University and University of Galway. He is honorary chairman of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, and was a member of Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2002-2004), chairman of Human Rights Council fact-finding commission on the Gaza conflict (2014-2015), and prepared quinquennial reports on the death penalty for the United Nations Secretary-General in 2020, 2015, and 2010. He is also an Officer of the Order of Canada, a member of Royal Irish Academy, and holds several honorary doctorates.

In mainstream scholarship, international law shed its racist past in the twentieth century, embracing instead, justice and humanity. William Schabas masterfully shows how the true story is much more complex. Through meticulous, detailed, and informative narrative, Schabas shows how much of the early history of the pillars of modern international law, while paying lip service to anti-discrimination, retained traces of "the leitmotif of colonialism" and its racist past. More importantly, the book illustrates how, in their struggle against racism and the pursuit of mainstreaming anti-discrimination, it was States of the Global South against the resistance of the "gentle civilisers" from the North, that pushed international law to the place where it rejects racism - or at least overt racism.

William A. Schabas is professor of International Law at Middlesex University London and distinguished visiting faculty at Sciences Po in Paris. He further holds the titles of professor emeritus at Leiden University and University of Galway. He is honorary chairman of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, and was a member of Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2002-2004), chairman of Human Rights Council fact-finding commission on the Gaza conflict (2014-2015), and prepared quinquennial reports on the death penalty for the United Nations Secretary-General in 2020, 2015, and 2010. He is also an Officer of the Order of Canada, a member of Royal Irish Academy, and holds several honorary doctorates.

In mainstream scholarship, international law shed its racist past in the twentieth century, embracing instead, justice and humanity. William Schabas masterfully shows how the true story is much more complex. Through meticulous, detailed, and informative narrative, Schabas shows how much of the early history of the pillars of modern international law, while paying lip service to anti-discrimination, retained traces of "the leitmotif of colonialism" and its racist past. More importantly, the book illustrates how, in their struggle against racism and the pursuit of mainstreaming anti-discrimination, it was States of the Global South against the resistance of the "gentle civilisers" from the North, that pushed international law to the place where it rejects racism - or at least overt racism.