Richard Schifter was a lawyer turned diplomat who served in three presidential administrations, including as the State Department’s point person on international human rights issues from 1985 to 1992. The fundamental right of human beings to live without facing discrimination had been a personal issue for Mr. Schifter, who lost his parents in the genocide of European Jews during World War II.

Mr. Schifter spent more than three decades as a lawyer representing Native American tribes before he was selected by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 to serve as assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs. In that capacity, he headed the State Department’s Bureau of Human Rights, now called the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.