Robert Badinter was born 30 March 1928 in Paris to Simon Badinter and CharlotteRosenberg. His Bessarabian Jewish family had immigrated to France in 1921 to escape pogroms. In 1981, François Mitterrand, a previous self-professed opponent of the death penalty, was elected president and Badinter was appointed as Minister of Justice. Among his first actions was to introduce a bill to the French Parliament pro- posing the abolishing of the death penalty for al crimes, both civilian and military. The bill was passed by the Senate after heated debate on 30 September 1981. On October 9, the law was officially enacted, putting into effect the abolishing of ca- pital punishment in France. During his mandate, he also helped pass other laws re- lated to judicial reform, such as: Abolition of the "juridictions d'exception" ("special courts"), such as the State Security Court and the military courts, in time of peace; Improvements to the Rights of Victims (any convicted person can make an appeal before the European Commission for Human Rights and the European Court for Human Rights); Development ofnon-custodial sentences (such as community service for minor offences). In 1991, Badinter was appointed by the Council of Ministers of the European Community as a member of the Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference onYugoslavia. He was elected as President of the commission by the four other members, all presidents of constitutional courts in the European Community.