37 Facts About Francis Boyle

Francis Anthony Boyle was an American human rights lawyer and professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law.

Francis Boyle served as counsel for Bosnia and Herzegovina and supported the rights of Palestinians and indigenous peoples.

Francis Boyle stated that he "was born Irish", and did not consider himself to be a "White North American".

Francis Boyle received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Chicago in 1971.

Francis Boyle served as counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the Provisional Government of the Palestinian Authority.

Francis Boyle represented two associations of citizens within Bosnia and was involved in developing the indictment against Slobodan Milosevic for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Francis Boyle has advised numerous international bodies in the areas of human rights, war crimes and genocide, nuclear policy, and bio-warfare.

From 1991 to 1992, Francis Boyle served as Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations.

Francis 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.

Francis Boyle stated that Amnesty, along with other human rights organisations in the US, failed to sufficiently criticise the Sabra and Shatila Massacre in Lebanon.

Francis Boyle stated his suspicion that Amnesty International, which is headquartered in London, was subject to this bias.

Francis Boyle added that Amnesty International was instrumental in publicizing the "Iraqi soldiers dumping children from incubators in Kuwait" hoax.

Francis Boyle claimed aspects of organizational continuity and survival came ahead of human rights aims in Amnesty International.

Francis Boyle prepared and filed with the International Court of Justice Case 91, known as the Bosnian genocide case claiming that genocide took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that Serbia was responsible for and complicit in that genocide.

Francis Boyle was one of the architects behind the "Freedom Charter" of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam following the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War having served as a member of the Advisory Committee on the formation of a Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam which was established "to explore the modalities for the establishment of a Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, and to recommend the objectives that should be achieved by such a Transnational Government".

Francis Boyle spoke at the inaugural session of the TGTE in May 2010.

In October 1992, Boyle participated in the International Tribunal of Indigenous Peoples and Oppressed Nationalities in the United States of America that convened in San Francisco.

Francis Boyle, acting as a "special prosecutor", petitioned the tribunal to issue the following:.

In 1993, Francis Boyle gave a speech in which he called for Hawaiian independence from the United States.

In December 2004, Francis Boyle stated that the United States is illegally occupying the state of Hawaii and he has encouraged Native Hawaiians to press for independence and, if necessary, unilaterally proclaim their own state.

Francis Boyle argued that, like the Palestinians, Hawaiians should "exercise their right of self-determination", instead of asking the permission for it.

Francis Boyle, who advised Hawaiian independence groups from 1992, argued that "The legal cause for the restoration of the kingdom is air-tight".

Francis Boyle endorsed the impeachment of Bill Clinton, though not for the reasons stated in the Articles passed by the House of Representatives.

In November 2011, Boyle was involved as a prosecutor in the four-day Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal in Malaysia, an organisation established by former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, an opponent of the Iraq War, to decide if President George W Bush had violated international law.

Francis Boyle was critical of US interventionist foreign policy, especially humanitarian intervention.

Francis Boyle was a critic of the foreign policy of president George W Bush.

Francis Boyle was a long-standing critic of Israel, Zionism, and American foreign policy towards Israel.

In 1986, Francis Boyle filed a lawsuit against Israeli General Amos Yaron for purported involvement in the Sabra and Shatila massacre on behalf of several relatives of victims, but lost when the United States State Department said that Yaron could not be tried due to the diplomatic immunity he enjoyed as a military attache to the United States.

Francis Boyle countered that under the Nuremberg Principles, there are no privileges or immunities for suspected war criminals, but the court decided that since President Ronald Reagan had given Yaron a "formal certification" that "this was a political question and the court could not do anything to the contrary".

Francis Boyle has since followed all lawsuits against Israelis internationally, and blamed "Zionist control and domination of the American judiciary" for the failure of these lawsuits in the United States.

Francis Boyle proposed that the United Nations General Assembly set up the "International Criminal Tribunal for Israel" as a "subsidiary organ" under Article 22 of the United Nations Charter.

Francis Boyle's suggestion was endorsed in the UN by Malaysia and Iran, and supported by several dozen Arab and Muslim countries.

In May 2008, Francis Boyle offered to "represent Iran in an international tribunal for trying Israel on charges of genocide of Palestinians", and reportedly demanded that his proposal be submitted to Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Francis Boyle offered to represent Iran and recommended that Iran begin drafting lawsuits for presentation to the International Court of Justice.

Francis Boyle supported the concept of a United Ireland, advocating for a "peaceful decolonization" of Northern Ireland.

Against mainstream scholarship, Francis Boyle has claimed that the Great Famine in Ireland constituted a "genocide" under the Genocide Convention.

Francis Boyle died in Urbana, Illinois, on January 30,2025, at the age of 74.