When I was in law school, I assisted in editing an article on human rights by Arthur Helton. I was saddened to read here that Mr. Helton was among those killed in the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. From the article in New York Lawyer today:
“A human-rights activist and adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, Mr. Helton dedicated his professional life to working with refugees and recommending ways to ease their plight. He was in Baghdad to assess humanitarian conditions in Iraq, and he is believed to have been with U.N. Special Representative for Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was also killed, when the bombing occurred.
In 1994, Mr. Helton founded and then directed the Forced Migration Projects at the Open Society Institute. For 12 years before that, he directed the Refugee Project at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. He joined the council staff in 1999. In 2002, Mr. Helton received the Award for Distinction in International Law and Affairs of the New York State Bar Association. “