Top 10 amazing facts about Louise Arbour

Louise Arbour.Photo by Remy Steinegger – Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 amazing facts about Louise Arbour

Louise Bernice Arbour was born in Montreal Canada on the 10th of February 1947. She is a well-endowed prosecutor, lawyer, and jurist.

 She served as the chief prosecutor of war crimes and a United Nations high commissioner for human rights for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

She gained fame after the arraignment of the Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milošević for war crimes in connection with the Bosnian War, the Croatian War of Independence, and the Kosovo War.

Louise also became a pioneer to fight a case of sexual assault that was persecuted as a crime against humanity. She was a special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for International Migration for 22 months.

Here are 10 amazing facts about her:

1. Her entire early education had been in French

Louise was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec .it is the second-most popular city in Canada and the most popular city in the Canadian province of Quebec.

The official language of Quebec is French Since 1974 although some government services are still conveniently in English.

Accustomed to the language most schools teach in French.

She was an established French lawyer when she moved to Ontario where she had a hard time adapting to the new language to communicate efficiently even though her long-term partner Larry Taman had aided her to perfect English before.

2. She began her career as a lecturer

In 1970 Louise graduated with distinction with her bachelor’s in law after completing the Université de Montréal.

She then became the Law Clerk for Justice Louis-Philippe Pigeon of the Supreme Court of Canada while completing her graduate studies at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa.

Louise Arbour then became a  research officer at the Law Reform Commission of Canada. She Taught as a lecturer soon afterward at the Osgoode Hall Law School, York University.

Here she quickly rose ranks to become an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and finally Associate Professor and Associate Dean in 1987.

Afterward, she joined the Canadian Civil Liberties Association  with her role as vice president until her appointment to the Supreme Court of Ontario and to the Court of Appeal for Ontario in 1990

3. She worked at The Hague

In 1996 Louise Arbour was appointed as the chief prosecutor in the International Criminal Tribunal after the recommendation of Richard Goldstone as his replacement.

She took part in the trial of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for the war crimes of the former president and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha.

This is where three defendants were found guilty and charged with genocide, incitement to genocide, and crimes against humanity before and during the period of the genocide of 1994.

4. Served as Vice President of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association

The Canadian civil liberties association was established in 1964 as a national, non-partisan, or profit or governmental organization that has been at the forefront of protecting fundamental freedoms and democratic life in Canada.

This association is committed to defending the rights, safety dignity, and freedom of all people in Canada. Louise served as the vice president for CCLA from 1985 -1987 where she commandeered the reform work of the association.

5 . Worked for the Supreme Court of Canada

On the 26th of May 1999, Louise Arbour was appointed to the supreme court of Canada by prime minister Jean Chrétien.

This happened before the arraignment of the Yugoslavian president for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

She then served as the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights after leaving her supreme court post.

In the office, she criticized quite a number of countries for their human rights records and laws she was against. She later stepped down after only one of the four-year terms period in 2008.

6. Challenging Portions of Canada’s Rape Shield Law

Canada’s Rape shield law that was introduced in 1982 was set to encourage reporting of sexual assaults.

The law also states that victims’ sexual history cannot be used against them. This law severely restricted the ability of defense lawyers to question rape victims about their sexual pasts.

Arbour whose opinion many women disregarded claimed such restrictions inhibited the presentation of evidence which at times caused innocent men to be convicted of rape by fraudulent women framing them.

7. Campaigning for prisoners’ rights

In 1995 Arbour presided over a case for the management of the prisons for women in Kingston Ontario after a fight that involved inmates and guards the prison officials broke a few laws to punish them.

The actions which Louise called cruel, inhuman, and degrading were denying the inmates amenities like refusing them access to lawyers and allowing a male riot squad to conduct a strip search of the prison.

Louise claimed in her report refused to blame specific individuals as attribution to blame would suggest personal rather than systemic shortcomings.

8 Her daughter has dabbled in politics

Louise Arbours’ daughter Emilie Taman is a Canadian politician and a lawyer.

She has spent almost fifteen years in human rights advocacy as an educator and community organizer.

She went into politics in 2015 as an NDP candidate in the electoral district of Ottawa Vanier. She also ran for candidacy in 2017 and 2019.

9 Her son-in-law is an Accredited Lawyer.

Emilie Taman’s common-law spouse Michael Spratt is an acclaimed criminal defense lawyer.

He has been named one of Canada’s top 25 most influential lawyers in 2020. He is a partner at the Ottawa Criminal law firm AGP LLP.

In addition, he is a legal commentator with a penchant for evidence-based law and policy and has a podcast with partner Emilie Taman where they discuss issues at the intersection of law, politics, and policy.

10 She has received Numerous Accolades

 Louise Arbour has been awarded the  Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights, along with Justice Richard Goldstone for her work on the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

In 2007 She was made a Companion to the Order of Canada, a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec in 2009, and in 2011 was made a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honor.

In addition in 2005, Arbour was honored by having a  fact-based Canadian-German made-for-television movie made that followed her journey prosecuting Bosnian Serb war criminals.