We at IHRAAM were shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Francis A. Boyle, a longstading member of the IHRAAM Directorate, so relatively young and seemingly well. It was not long ago—January 24, 2025—that IHRAAM received a message from him providing counsel on the self-determination rights of the Gullah/Geechee people. and additionally seen him online since that time , indicative of his lifelong unstinting provision of expert advice to media worldwide from the mainstream and alternative media to podcasts for a range of activist groups on the urgent issues of our time: biowarfare, peace, and the right to self-determination, where he as active on behalf of a wide range of oppressed peoples: African Americans, the Blackfoot in Canada, Borinken (indigenous Puerto Ricans), Bosnians, Gulah/Geechees, the Irish, Kanako Maoli (indigenous Hawaiians), Lakota, Native Alaskans, the Palestinians and the Tamils of Sri Lanka.
Francis Boyle served as counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the Provisional Government of the Palestinian Authority and won a case at the World Court against Slobodan Milosević for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He served as an adviser as well as an independent expert on numerous individual death penalty and human rights cases. In San Francisco 1992, just prior to his case before the World Court, Francis prepared an indictment under international law and facilitated the proceedings of an International Tribunal on Indigenous People and Oppressed Nations in the United States.
He advised numerous international bodies in the areas of human rights, war crimes and genocide, nuclear policy, and bio-warfare. From 1991-92, he served as Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations. Professor Boyle served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, as a consultant to the American Friends Service Committee, and on the Advisory Board for the Council for Responsible Genetics. He served as an adviser as well as an independent expert on numerous individual death penalty and human rights cases.
Francis drafted the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention, known as the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, that was approved unanimously by both Houses of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.
A professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. he received an AB (1971) in Political Science from the University of Chicago, then a JD degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and AM and PhD degrees in Political Science from Harvard University.
In addition to his work in the courtroom, in class, and on the media, he was author of numerous books, including, inter alia, The Future of International Law and American Foreign Policy, Foundations of World Order, The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence, Palestine, Palestinians and International Law, Destroying Libya and World Order, Biowarfare & Terrorism, Restoring the Kingdom of Hawaii, Tackling America’s Toughest Questions, The Tamil Genocide by Sri Lanka and The Palestinian Right of Return Under International Law
He was truly dedicated to peace and justice—indeed, he was indefatigable and fearless—and gave authoritative counsel on so many diverse issues at so many levels. He will be truly missed by all those to whose struggles he gave so unstintingly of his time. He appears to have died like the warrior he was: still in the saddle, still engaged.
