Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, president and CEO of the International Peace Institute (IPI), former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the first President of the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), received the Jackson H. Ralston Prize in International Law at Stanford Law School (SLS) on May 23. The prize recognizes original and distinguished contributions to the development of the role of law in international relations and the furtherance of international peace and justice.

Zeid’s record of international public service includes a distinguished career as a Jordanian diplomat, including serving as Jordan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as Jordan’s ambassador to the United States. In 2014, he was named the sixth United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. He was the first Asian, Arab, or Muslim to hold that post. In 2002, he was elected the first President of the Assembly of State Parties of the ICC. 

During his visit to SLS, Zeid sat down with Assistant Professor Gulika Reddy, director of SLS’s International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic, for a lunchtime conversation with SLS students about his career path, human rights challenges around the world, the role of the ICC and other topics relating to international human rights. Later that day, he delivered an address at SLS titled “Memory and Moral Consistency,” in which he argued that the failure of countries to reckon with their pasts—including the inability to reconcile contested interpretations of history—has impeded the advancement of human rights around the world. 

Watch the Ralston Prize Address

“When looking at the global human rights picture today, it is almost impossible to disentangle the laws relating to rights from their historical contexts, or to ignore the failure of almost all countries to properly reckon with their pasts,” Zeid said during his speech, which members of the Ralston family attended. Allen Weiner, director of the Stanford Program in International and Comparative Law and director of the Stanford Humanitarian Program, introduced Zeid.

He began his address by telling the story of a man with a machine gun who put down a rebellion in Damascus in the 1920s. That man was his grandfather. 

“All of us, if we go back far enough in our family histories, will come across accomplishments big or small to admire, and most probably demons to recognize, however painful those are,” Zeid said.

It is the same when it comes to the dark histories of nations, he said.

Zeid called out countries and regions around the world for glossing over the violent and discriminatory chapters of their pasts, which he said contributes to tribalism, extreme nationalism, and double standards. “Western governments are especially accused by other states of being quick to condemn the dictators and the populists who are judged to be adversaries or enemies and then excuse or be silent over those considered to be friends,” he said. “And the critics are right of course, but not totally. From my long experience with these matters, all states practice double standards. All of them. I saw it in Syria and Yemen. The countries most vocal in their attacks on the conduct of the Syrian government were also some of the quietest when it came to the attacks inflicted on civilians in Yemen.”

Zeid also called out the United Nations, where he began his diplomatic career as peacekeeper in the former Yugoslavia and where he held several senior roles in addition to High Commissioner for Human Rights. “The UN, in particular, has failed completely to seize on the critical importance of working on contested histories or is too terrified to do so,” he said. “It still believes peacebuilding, in the wake of violence and conflict, is best achieved by throwing cement at the problem: rebuild the roads, the bridges, train security officials, police and hope that reconciliation comes about by convening meetings.” 

As head of the nonprofit IPI, Zeid works on a variety of fronts to strengthen inclusive multilateralism around the world, including by helping governments, NGOs, and the private sector to cooperate in addressing existential issues such as climate change and pandemic preparedness. He is also the Perry House Professor of the Practice of Law and Human Rights at the University of Pennsylvania.

Other Ralston Prize winners have included former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, JD ’49. The first recipient of the Ralston prize was Olaf J. Palme, former Prime Minister of Sweden, in 1977.