Celebrating Professor Bennoune’s appointment to Homer G. Angelo and Ann Berryhill Endowed Chair

On Wednesday, we had a celebratory lunch hour at UC Davis School of Law.  We had a full house in the large Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom for a lecture by Professor Karima Bennoune marking her appointment as Homer G. Angelo and Ann Berryhill Endowed Chair.   Professor Bennoune truly has earned this well-deserved honor. 

In welcoming those in attendance, I offered some thoughts about Professor Homer Angelo and Ann Berryhill for whom the endowed chair is named.  Homer Angelo was an international law professor at UC Davis and a passionate champion of world peace.  He and his wife, Ann, devoted much of their lives to improving understanding and cooperation between people and nations worldwide. 

Homer and Ann would be proud that Professor Bennoune is the holder of the chair.  She is an international law scholar who promotes greater understanding between people and nations worldwide.  And she also does it through institutions.  They include UC Davis School of Law, and a slightly bigger institution, the United Nations.  In 2015, Professor Bennoune was named U.N. Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights.  This honor reflects the outstanding reputation she has established during a career devoted to advocating for universal human rights.

Professor Bennoune has authored a series of key reports for the U.N. Human Rights Council.  They have covered topics including the destruction of cultural heritage; fundamentalism, extremism, and the cultural rights of women; and universality and cultural diversity.  Some lucky King Hall students have accompanied Professor Bennoune to U.N. meetings in Geneva and New York.

Professor Bennoune has published scholarship in leading international law journals, served on the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law, and given numerous keynote addresses and lectures around the world.  In 2007, she won the Derrick Bell Award from the Association of American Law Schools Section on Minority Groups.  She went on to win the Rights and Leadership Award from the International Action in Women’s Studies.  She was a delegate to the NGO forum at the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and later served as a legal advisor for Amnesty International.

Professor Bennoune will address international law and women’s rights.  She offered a thorough overview of the law and the need for advocacy for better protection of the rights of women.  Inspirational and optimistic, Professor Bennoune in an engaging and thought-provoking lecture reviewed some of the high and low points of the global struggle for women’s rights.  I sure am proud that she is at UC Davis School of Law!