Ibrahim Gassama

After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1984, Gassama worked briefly as staff attorney for Legal Action Center in New York City, representing clients with disabilities facing employment discrimination.  From 1985 to 1991, Gassama worked on human rights, foreign policy, and international economic development issues for TransAfrica, the African-American lobby for Africa and the Caribbean. Gassama helped to coordinate Nelson Mandela’s first visit to the United States shortly after Mandela’s release from prison, and in 1994, Gassama coordinated the recruitment, training, and deployment of U.S. based nongovernmental observers participating in South Africa's first all-race democratic election. Gassama has also observed elections in Haiti and has served on human rights and economic development fact-finding missions to several other countries in the Caribbean and Africa.

Professor Gassama was on the faculty of the University of Oregon School of Law for three decades, teaching Torts and various international law courses. He retired as the Frank Nash Professor of Law in 2021. In 2022, he was hired as a visiting professor of law at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and as interim director of the Center for International Human Rights (CIHR). For the 2022-2023 academic year, Professor Gassama will teach International Human Rights in the fall semester and International Criminal Law in spring.