Richard Falk
| Richard A. Falk | |
|---|---|
| United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 | |
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In office 26 March 2008 – 2014 |
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| Preceded by | John Dugard |
| Succeeded by | Makarim Wibisono |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Richard Anderson Falk November 13, 1930 |
| Nationality | United States |
| Spouse(s) | Hilal Elver |
| Profession | Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University |
Richard Anderson Falk (born November 13, 1930) is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University. He is the author or co-author of 20 books and the editor or co-editor of another 20 volumes, In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Falk to a six-year term as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on "the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967."
Falk was born into an assimilationist New York Jewish family which all but repudiated the ethnic side of Jewishness. Defining himself as "an American Jew", he says that having an outsider status, with a sense of not belonging, may have influenced his later role as a critic of American foreign policy. His being Jewish signifies above all for Falk, "to be preoccupied with overcoming injustice and thirsting for justice in the world, and that means being respectful toward other peoples regardless of their nationality or religion, and empathetic in the face of human suffering whoever and wherever victimization is encountered."
Falk obtained a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 1952 before completing a Bachelor of Laws degree at Yale University. He obtained his Doctorate in Law (SJD) from Harvard University in 1962. His early thinking was influenced by readings of Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, and C. Wright Mills, and he developed an overriding concern with projects to abolish war and aggression as social institutions.
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