By Gwyneth K. Shaw
Damir Arnaut ’02, a longtime advocate for democracy and human rights in his native Bosnia and Herzegovina, received the 2023 Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award from UC Berkeley at the school’s December winter commencement.
Arnaut, a member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Parliament and currently serving as its ambassador to Germany, is a “triple Bear” who also earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Berkeley. After finishing law school, he began his career at the U.S. State Department before returning home for a distinguished run in courtrooms and capitals.
He argued landmark human rights cases before the Bosnia and Herzegovina Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, and has also been a legal adviser to the president and security ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
When Arnaut was the nation’s ambassador to Australia, he drafted the unanimous Srebrenica Remembrance Motion commemorating the 1995 genocide and negotiated pathbreaking social security protections for citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina living in Australia.
A champion of LGBTQ+ equality, Arnaut helped organize Sarajevo’s first Pride parade in 2008 — and in 2019, by then a member of Parliament, was one of the first elected officials to march in Sarajevo Pride.
He’s also been a strong advocate for overturning discriminatory election laws, and has published scholarly articles on constitutional law.
Satisfying homecoming
“Throughout his work for his country he has been wholly committed to humanistic values of democracy, multiculturalism, pluralism, and individual rights,” Berkeley Chancellor Carol T. Christ said in her introduction of Arnaut. “He embodies and exemplifies our university’s public ethos, our commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, and our shared dedication to making this world a better place.”
Returning to Berkeley to receive the award was a treat, Arnaut says, as well as an honor. The award recognizes alumni who are a native, citizen, and resident of another country and who have a distinguished record of service to that country in the arts, science and engineering, education, business, environmental protection, government, or any other field.
“It is humbling to be in the company of such distinguished and accomplished Berkeley graduates from all over the world, who received the Haas Award over the past 57 years. At the same time, I am immensely proud to be the first in that long line to bring the award to my Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he says. “The most exhilarating, however, was to observe my children’s reaction to my speech, and to see that they are infected with Cal values.”
Arnaut jokes that his visit included “three days of no sleep, so it basically mirrored my college experience,” but the opportunity to visit with so many, including Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, was invaluable.
“The eagerness to catch up — with friends and familiar places — was intoxicating, and jetlag stood no chance against that,” he says. “It was a delight to run to dinner with my professors straight from the airport, walk across campus at 6 a.m. on a Saturday, write my remarks at Café Strada, and to reconnect with my friends and former roommates, many of whom came back to Berkeley from all over the country for this.”
His time with Chemerinsky was another highlight.
“It was a pleasure to meet Dean Chemerinsky and ‘talk law’ with him,” Arnaut says. “It was also concerning to learn that the latest edition of his Con Law book was the most edited ever, due to the overwhelming degree of U.S. Supreme Court precedent which has been overturned over the past few years, particularly in the realm of protection of individual rights.”
A distinguished career
The Haas International Award was established in 1964 by Mr. and Mrs. Walter A. Haas Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Peter E. Haas, and Mr. and Mrs. Richard N. Goldman to mark the 50th wedding anniversary of Walter — longtime head of Levi Strauss — and his wife Elise, a renowned patron of the arts. The award acknowledges their devotion to UC Berkeley and interest in international affairs, and it’s given at commencement to highlight both the global nature of Berkeley’s faculty, students, and curricula and the university’s longstanding commitment to improving the human condition around the world.
Arnaut says he’s proudest that “I never shied away from a good fight if the cause is honorable and just.” He took significant inspiration for that approach from Professor Emeritus Richard Buxbaum LL.M. ’53, a campus free speech stalwart for many decades who defended protesters in the 1960s.
“I’ve picked, and won, similar fights,” Arnaut says. “A severe discrimination case before the European Court of Human Rights, the right of the Sarajevo LGBT community to organize a Pride event, spearheading the unanimous motion commemorating the Srebrenica genocide through the Australian Parliament, severely curtailing politicians’ remuneration and other privileges, or causing the removal of corrupt judicial officials, while I served in Bosnia’s Parliament, and many others.”
In his commencement speech, Arnaut told the graduates that a Berkeley degree gives you both humility and audacity. It’s not a contradiction, he says.
“Humility because being surrounded by so many brilliant people, you realize early on how little you really know, and how important it is to constantly strive for an ever higher level of excellence,” he says. “Audacity one gets because having been exposed to that excellence for so long, having been taught the most noble of values and ideas, you simply refuse to accept simple-minded approaches or settle for mediocrity. And you are not afraid to show it.
“In short, Berkeley teaches you what is right, provides you the skills to bring it about, but also gives you that healthy dose of arrogance that makes you unwavering in your quest. That shapes one’s life, let alone a career.”
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