Human Rights Defender Speaker Series 2011-2012
The Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law hosts a Human Rights Defender Speaker Series each year which enables noted human rights defenders from around the world to talk from a personal perspective about why they do what they do. They share their personal journeys and offer an inside glimpse into the world of human rights advocacy.
WCL Professor Juan Mendez, UN Special Rapportuer on Torture (Argentina)
Webcast of Event
Event Flyer
As part of International Week, the first event of this school year featured Professor Juan Mendez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. Prof. Mendez was a human rights attorney in Argentina in the early 1970s when he arrested and detained by Argentine security forces. He became one of Amnesty International’s first Prisoners of Conscience in Argentina and was released in 1977. In exile, Prof. Mendez travelled to the U.S. and helped set up Human Rights Watch, spending fifteen years heading its Latin American division, and later becoming Human Rights Watch’s general counsel. Afterwards, Mendez served as a commissioner at the American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. He served as President Emeritus of the International Center on Transitional Justice and as Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide. He currently teaches at American University’s Washington College of Law in Washington, DC and serves as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.
