John Shattuck

John Shattuck

On 1 August 2009, John Shattuck, an international legal scholar and human rights leader, became the fourth President and Rector of Central European University.

He was "the Chief Executive Officer of the John F. Kennedy Museum and Library in Boston, Massachusetts.

"Prior to being sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic on November 9, 1998, John Shattuck was the Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

"From 1984-1993 Mr. Shattuck was Vice President of Harvard University, where he also taught human rights and civil liberties law at the Harvard Law School and served as Senior Associate in the Program on Science, Technology and Public Policy of the John F. Kennedy School Government.

"A longtime human rights advocate, Mr. Shattuck was the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Washington Office, from 1976-1984 where he was in charge of directing relations with the U.S. Congress and executive branch agencies. He also served the American Civil Liberties Union as National Counsel, litigating in areas of privacy, government secrecy and political surveillance from 1971-1976.

"Mr. Shattuck was a visiting lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School of Politics, Princeton University in 1972 and was a law clerk to a U.S. District Judge from 1970- 1971. He has also served as Vice Chair of the United States Section of Amnesty International, and as an Executive Committee member of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

"Over the years, Mr. Shattuck has won a number of prestigious awards for his contributions to civil liberties and human rights, and for his commitment to public service. In 1989 he won the H.L. Mencken Award from the Free Press Association, the Yale Law School Public Service Award in 1988, and the Roger Baldwin Award in 1984.

"Mr. Shattuck received his LL.B degree from Yale Law School in 1970, an M.A. with First Class Honors in International Law and Jurisprudence from Cambridge University in 1967, and a B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale College in 1965. He is married to Ellen Hume, a journalist and teacher and has four children, Jessica, Rebecca, Peter and Susannah." 

"Ambassador John Shattuck is the Chief Executive Officer of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Among his many awards, in 1998, Ambassador Shattuck received an International Human Rights Award from the United Nations Association of Boston for human rights achievements while serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. In 1998, Mr. Shattuck was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic. Mr. Shattuck is the author of Freedom on Fire: Human Rights Wars and the Roots of Terrorism." 


 * Trustee, World Peace Foundation
 * Director, U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
 * Strategy committee, Project on Justice in Times of Transition.
 * Advisory Council, Realizing Rights
 * Governing Board Member, Common Cause
 * Governing Board, Institute for New Economic Thinking
 * Executive Board, Institute for Global Leadership
 * Former Chair, National Security Archive
 * Endorser, Genocide Intervention Network

His father was H. Francis Shattuck, Jr. of Darien, Conn., and his mother was Ruth Murphy Shattuck.