John Howard Francis Shattuck (born 22 September 1943)[1] is an international legal scholar and human rights leader.
His first position was National Staff Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union 1971-76; he then served from 1976 to 1984 as Executive Director of the Washington office and national staff counsel, handling a number of prominent civil rights and liberties cases, including Halperin v. Kissinger,in which he took the deposition of former President Richard Nixon in 1976.
Shattuck participated with US special envoy Richard Holbrooke in negotiating the Dayton Peace Agreement and other efforts to end the war in Bosnia.
In 2001 he became Chief Executive Officer of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, and in 2007 also a senior fellow at Tufts University, where he taught international relations.
In 2001 and 2002, the Library and Foundation delivered a widely broadcast series of public events, "Responding to Terrorism," that examined issues of international security and human rights following the September 11 attacks.
He was also Professor of Legal Studies and International Relations, and taught an interdisciplinary course entitled "U.S. Foreign Policy, Human Rights and The Rule of Law.
"[7] Under Shattuck's leadership, CEU continued to pursue to its mission to promote open societies that respect human rights and the rule of law, introducing new initiatives in that direction.