In Memoriam Roel van Rossum

On 28 September 2015, the ICD team was informed of the sad news of the passing away of Roel van Rossum the day before.

Roel was one of the founding fathers of the DomCLIC project, the basis for the International Crimes Database (ICD), and the first Chairman of the ICD’s Steering Committee.

Roel studied law at Leiden University and has worked at the District Court of The Hague from 1977. Since 1986, he acted as Vice-President and later as Coordinating Vice-President of this Court. He was also President of the international chamber (since 1988) and President of the chamber judging several war crimes cases (since 2004). In addition, from 1970 till December 2011, Roel was a reserve officer of the Royal Army of the Netherlands, latest as colonel. He was also a member of the International Society for Military law and the Law of War and a member of the International Institute of Humanitarian law in Sanremo.

The T.M.C. Asser Instituut is extremely grateful for all the work that Roel van Rossum has done for the ICD. Thanks to his energy and persistence, the ICD has become the user-friendly and rich database that he wanted it to become. We will continue his work, and in doing so, be guided by Roel’s vision.