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ELIZABETH ABI-MERSHED. COURSE: Women and International Human Rights Law (English)
Elizabeth Abi-Mershed is the Deputy Executive Secretary for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Organization of American States – OAS) in Washington, D.C. Previously she was a Principal Human Rights Specialist for the OAS. As an attorney with the IACHR Secretariat, she analyzes incoming petitions, manages a docket of pending cases, drafts case reports, coordinates on site visits and drafts corresponding country reports, and participates in the litigation of cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Her practice also includes providing technical support to the IACHR's rapporteurs on the rights of women, and participating in initiatives concerning standard-setting and implementation. In relation to her work on gender issues, she has published "The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: Prospects for the Inter-American Human Rights System to Protect and Promote the Human Rights of Women" in Women and International Human Rights Law (Transnational Publishers; Kelly Askin and Dorean Koenig eds. 2000). She received her Juris Doctor from the Washington College of Law, and holds a Master’s in Law in International and Comparative Law from the Georgetown University Law Center.
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VICTOR ABRAMOVICH. COURSE: Litigio y Activismo en Derechos Humanos (Spanish)
Victor Abramovich is an Argentinean Lawyer from the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). He obtained his Master of Laws (LLM) at American University. Since May 2010, he is the Executive Secretary of the Public Policies in Human Rights Institute of MERCOSUR (Instituto de Políticas Públicas en Derechos Humanos IPPDH). He was the Vice President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Special Rapporteur of the IACHR on the Rights of Women, and on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Additionally, he is an Associate Professor of the Human Rights Course at the Law Faculty of Universidad de Argentina (UBA), Professor of the Universidad Nacional de Lanus, and Visiting Professor in the Universities of Valencia y Castilla and American University. He has been in charge of the human rights legal clinic at UBA (clínica legal en derechos humanos) and of the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS)-one of the most recognized institutes dedicated to legal work on human rights in Latin America-. He was the Executive Director of the CELS-where he has litigated numerous witnesses’ cases before local tribunals and the Inter-American System-, Consultant of the Inter-American Development Bank, Legal Adviser of the Ombudsman of Buenos Aires, and Consultant of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights. He worked as the Director of the Program on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the latter institution. Professor Abramovich has also worked before the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and litigated a case on the right to food before the Inspection Panel of the World Bank. He has written numerous books, articles and collaborated with legal magazines in areas concerning human rights, in particular regarding litigation strategies on economic, social and cultural rights.
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GUDMUNDUR ALFREDSSON. COURSE: The Rights of Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Groups (English)
Gudmundur Alfredsson obtained his law degree from the University of Iceland (1975), an M.C.J.-degree from New York University School of Law (1976), and an S.J.D. from Harvard Law School (1982). He worked at the Office of Legal Affairs in New York (1983-85) and the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva at the United Nations (1985-95). He is currently a professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University in Sweden. In 2004, he was elected as an expert member of the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, the editor of several books and the author of over one hundred articles on a variety of human rights and international law issues.
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EMILIO ÁLVAREZ ICAZA. COURSE: Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos (Spanish)
Emilio Álvarez Icaza Longoria is the designated Executive Secretary of the IACHR since August 16th, 2012. A Mexican national, Mr. Alvarez has a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences from the Latin American School of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in Mexico. He holds a Diploma in Analysis and Design of Political Communication from the Universidad Iberoamericana, Santa Fe campus in Mexico, Federal District (D.F.). Currently he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Social and Political Sciences at the UNAM. In 1999, he was elected as Counselor of the Electoral Institute of the Federal District (IEDF). In 2001, he was elected Commission of Human Rights of the Federal District (CDHDF) and he was ratified for a second period from 2005 to 2009. He has extensive experience teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses, he has been granted more than 50 international and national recognitions, distinctions and awards. He has been a lecturer and speaker in more than three hundred symposiums, seminars and forums in Mexico and other countries; he has co-authored more than eighty national and international publications and he has practiced journalism in several media outlets in Mexico. Emilio Álvarez was the Director General of the National Center for Social Communication (CENCOS) and co-founder of Civic Alliance, A.C. Moreover, he participated as legal advisor in more than ten civil society organizations linked to issues related to human rights, security and democracy, in Mexico. He is the co-founder and sponsor of Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad. He has worked as an independent consultant and expert in issues related to human rights, democracy, citizen participation, civil society and public policy, in Mexico and several international organizations.
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ELIZABETH ANDERSEN. COURSE: International Justice for Human Rights Violations (English)
Elizabeth Andersen is an Executive Director and Executive Vice President of the American Society of International Law where she has worked since 1995. Most recently she has served as the Executive Director of the American Bar Association’s Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative where she started to work in 2003. Earlier she also served as the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Division, a Legal Assistant to Judge Georges Abi-Saab of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and as a law clerk to Judge Kimba M. Wood of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York. Andersen is a graduate of Yale Law School, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and Williams College. Her area of expertise covers international humanitarian, human rights, and refugee law and she has authored a number of speeches and articles on those topics.
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JORGE ARAYA. COURSE: Sistema de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas (Spanish)
Jorge Araya is the Secretary of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He is a lawyer and has a Bachelor's Degree on Juridical and Legal Studies from the University of Chile and a Master's Degree on International and Comparative Law from the George Washington University. He joined the United Nations in 1996 and since then has worked in several duty stations both at the headquarters and field levels. In 2003 he began working with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, servicing different United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms.
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CARLOS AYALA CORAO. COURSE: Implementación de los Derechos Humanos en el Derecho Interno (Spanish)
Carlos Ayala Corao is currently a Member of the Board of the International Commission of Jurists and of the International Human Rights Institute of the IBA. He was the President of the Andean Commission of Jurists until 2010. He has served as the Chairman of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and earlier he worked as the Rapporteur for Latin American Indigenous People Rights Matters. He has also been professor of Constitutional Law and Human Rights at Universidad Católica “Andres Bello”, at Universidad Central de Venezuela and at Universidad Iberoamericana de Mexico. Mr. Ayala has lectured extensively at Georgetown University, at the American University Washington College of Law, and the University of Oxford. The UN High Commissioner assigned Mr. Ayala as an expert for the observation and monitoring process related to the selection and appointment of the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice of Ecuador (2005) and in Guatemala (2009). He has presented cases regarding the defense of human rights before several international organizations including IAHRC, UN and UNESCO. Carlos Ayala is the author of several publications on Constitutional Law and Human Rights.
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CATALINA BOTERO. COURSE: Libertad de Expresión (Spanish)
Catalina Botero is the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Before assuming the position of Special Rapporteur, Ms. Catalina Botero worked as Auxiliary Magistrate at the Constitutional Court of Colombia for several different periods: between 2005 and 2008, 1995 and 2000, and 1992 and 1993. She has previously held a number of public and private non-profit posts in Colombia, including: National Director of the Office for the Promotion and Dissemination of Human Rights, in the Office of the People's Defender of Colombia; Director of the Consultancy for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law at the Social Foundation; adviser for the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Nation; and professor and researcher at the Law School of the Universidad de los Andes. She received her law degree in 1988 at the Universidad de los Andes and did her postgraduate studies at that university as well as in Madrid, Spain at Universidad Complutense, the Center for Constitutional Studies and the Universidad Carlos III.
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REED BRODY. COURSE: International Justice for Human Rights Violations (English)
Reed Brody is Counsel and Spokesperson for Human Rights Watch. His work as counsel for the victims in the cases of Hissène Habré, the exiled former dictator of Chad who faces trial in Senegal, of Augusto Pinochet of Chile and Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti has been featured in four films, including “The Dictator Hunter.” He is author of four HRW reports on the U.S. treatment of prisoners in the “war on terror” and the book “Faut-il Juger George Bush?” Before joining HRW, he led United Nations teams investigating massacres in the Democratic Republic of Congo and monitoring human rights in El Salvador and helped to prosecute human rights crimes in Haiti. He coordinated International Commission of Jurists report “Tibet: Human Rights and the Rule of Law” (1997). His 1984 investigation uncovered atrocities by the U.S.-backed “contras” against Nicaraguan civilians.
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LAURENCE BURGORGUE-LARSEN. COURSE: Regional Approaches to Human Rights Law: Africa, America and Asia (English)
Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen is a Professor of Law at the Sorbonne Law School at the University Paris I and co-Director of the “Institut de Recherche en droit international et Européen de la Sorbonne” (IREDIES). She has been teaching European Union law, Inter-American and European Human Rights Law and Constitutional Law at numerous universities in Europe (Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Romania), Africa (Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast) and Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Peru). She research focuses on the areas of Human Rights Law, Comparative Law and European and International Law. She is the author of “L’Espagne et la Communauté européenne” (Belgium, ULB, 1995); “Libertés fondamentales” (Paris, LGDJ, 2003) and more recently, “La Convention européenne des droits de l’homme” (Paris, LGDJ, 2012). She has written with A. Úbeda de Torres, “Les grandes décisions de la Cour interaméricaine des droits de l’homme” (Bruylant, 2008). She has also published in Spanish “Las decisiones básicas de las Corte interamericana de los derechos humanos” (Madrid, Civitas-Thomson-Reuters, 2009) and an updated version has been published in Oxford University Press (The Inter-American Court of Human Rights Case Law and Commentary, 2011). Since January 2012, she has become a judge at the Constitutional Court of Andorra.
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ANTONIO CANÇADO TRINDADE. COURSE: Human Rights and International Tribunals (English)
Antônio Cançado Trindade is a Judge with the International Court of Justice (Brazil). Previously, he worked with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as a Judge, Vice-President, and President. He was also the Executive Director of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, where he is today a Member of the Board of Directors. He has been an Adviser of UNDP and UNEP for special projects as well as a Legal Adviser to the Council of Europe. In the past he played a significant role in representing Brazil in many international human rights meetings, regional and world conferences including those of the United Nations and the Organization of American States. He is also in a leadership position with several journals of international law. Judge Cançado Trindade received his PhD and his LL.M. in International Law from the University Of Cambridge and his LL.B. from Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Today he is Emeritus Professor of International Law of the University of Brasilia, Brazil, and Doctor Honoris Causa of the Curatorium of The Hague Academy of International Law, as well as the Institut de Droit International, and the Board of the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He is the author of several books on Public International Law and International Law of Human Rights, published in different languages in several countries.
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DOUGLASS CASSEL. COURSE: Impunidad y Justicia (Spanish)
Douglass Cassel is Professor of Law and Notre Dame Presidential Fellow at Notre Dame Law School in the United States, where he teaches courses on accountability for gross violations of human rights, together with other courses in the fields of international human rights, international criminal law and international humanitarian law. He has taught at Oxford University, the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, and the Universidad Alcalá de Henares in Spain, as well as in several US universities. Professor Cassel served as Legal Advisor to the United Nations Commission on the Truth for El Salvador, and has been an advisor to the American Bar Association on universal jurisdiction and on the International Criminal Court. He represents victims of gross violations of human rights before the Inter-American Human Rights System and the International Criminal Court. He has served as President of the Due Process of Law Foundation and as President of the Board of Directors of the Justice Studies Center of the Americas. He holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from Yale University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.
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ROBERTA COHEN. COURSE: The Rights of Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Groups (English)
Roberta Cohen is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, specializing in human rights and humanitarian issues, and a leading expert on internally displaced persons. From 1994-2010, she served as principal adviser to the Representatives of the UN Secretary-General on IDPs, Francis Deng and Walter Kalin, and co-founded the Brookings Project on Internal Displacement, which she co-directed for more than a decade. She is also a Senior Associate at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of International Migration. She co-authored the first major study on internal displacement, “Masses in Flight: The Global Crisis of Internal Displacement”, and organized and participated in the process leading to the development of the first international standards for IDPs, the “Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement”. Together with Deng, she won the Grawmeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order; in December 2006, the Forced Migration Review (Oxford) devoted a special issue to her work. She is the author of numerous articles on internally displaced persons, has served on US Delegations to the UN Commission on Human Rights, General Assembly and OSCE and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights in the State Department.
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REBECCA COOK. COURSE: Women and International Human Rights Law (English)
Rebecca Cook is a Professor of Law and Faculty Chair in International Human Rights at the University of Toronto where she also serves as a Co-Director of the International Program on Reproductive and Sexual Health Law. She is the Ethical and Legal Issues Co-editor of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, and a member of the editorial Board of the Human Rights Quarterly. Her publications include over one hundred and fifty books, articles and reports in the areas of international human rights, and women's health and feminist ethics law. Ms. Cook has earned a number of academic degrees including A.B. (Barnard University), M.A. (Tufts U.), M.P.A. (Harvard U.), J.D. (Georgetown U.), and J.S.D. (Columbia U.).
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MAC DARROW. COURSE: Human Rights and Development (English)
Mac Darrow is the Chief of the Millennium Development Goals Section of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN/OHCHR), working on policies, programming tools, advocacy and capacity building strategies to mainstream human rights within the UN system. He has extensive experience on human rights and development issues in policy, operational and academic settings, and has published monographs, chapters in edited volumes and articles in refereed journals on international human rights law, international organisations and development. He has previously worked as a consultant for various United Nations agencies including, in 2010, producing a report for the World Bank’s Legal Vice-Presidency on the inter-relationships between the international human rights and environmental legal regimes relevant to climate change, and their policy implications for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.
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CATARINA DE ALBUQUERQUE. COURSE: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (English)
Catarina de Albuquerque is the first UN Special Rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation (formerly an Independent Expert). She was appointed by the Human Rights Council in September 2008, and started her mandate on 1 November that year. Between 2004 and 2008 she presided over the negotiations of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which the UN General Assembly approved by consensus on 10 December 2008. De Albuquerque is an invited Professor at the Law Faculties of the Universities of Braga and Coimbra and a Senior Legal Adviser at the Office for Documentation and Comparative Law, an independent institution under the Prosecutor General’s Office. She was awarded the Human Rights Golden Medal by the Portuguese Parliament for outstanding work in the area of human rights (10 December 2009). Her work in human rights was also honored by the Portuguese President of the Republic with the Order of Merit, which is a recognition of an individual’s personal bravery, achievement, or service (October 2009). She holds a Law Degree from the Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and a DES from the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales (Geneva, Switzerland)
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OLIVIER DE SCHUTTER. COURSE: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (English)
Mr. De Schutter is an expert on social and economic rights and on trade and human rights. Between 2004 and 2008, he served as Secretary General of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). He was appointed Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food by the Human Rights Council in March 2008 and assumed his functions on May 1, 2008. He is Professor of Law at the University of Louvain (UCL) and at the College of Europe (Natolin). He holds a LL.M. from Harvard University, a diploma cum laude from the International Institute of Human Rights (Strasbourg) and a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Louvain. He has been lecturer in law at the University of Leicester (UK) and has been teaching European Union law, International and European Human Rights Law and legal theory at numerous universities in New York, France, Finland, Portugal, Benin and Puerto Rico.
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FELIPE GONZÁLEZ MORALES. COURSE: Implementación de los Derechos Humanos en Derecho Interno (Spanish)
Felipe González Morales is currently the Commissioner and Second Vice-President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Previously, he also served as president of IACHR. He is the Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Their Families, as well as the Rapporteur for the countries of Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba and Venezuela. He is a professor of International Public Law and Constitutional Law at the Universidad Diego Portales, in Santiago, Chile. Previously he served as the Director of the Legal Research Center, Founder and Director of the Center for Human Rights as well as the Latin American Network of Human Rights Legal Clinics, and Representative on Global Rights to Latin America. He holds a Doctorate and a Master’s in Advanced Studies in Human Rights from the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid as well as a Master’s in International Law from American University. He has been a professor of the Academy since 2001. He was the Tinker Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin, where he taught a class on Globalization and Human Rights in Latin America. In Madrid, he teaches Master’s courses at the Universidad Carlos III. Since 2003, he has taught with the program of Fundamental Rights and also with the program of Advanced Studies on Human Rights since 2008. He also teaches Master’s courses in Human Rights at the Universidad de Alcalá since 2004 and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid since 2010. Professor González has also taught classes at the Universidad de Deusto, the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, the Universidad Externado de Columbia, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú, the Universidad de Buenos Aires, the University of Venice and Lund University. An author of several publications in his field, Gonzalez has also co-authored and edited 14 books and more than 100 scholarly articles.
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CLAUDIO GROSSMAN. COURSE: Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos (Spanish)
Claudio Grossman, Dean of American University Washington College of Law and the Raymond I. Geraldson Scholar for International and Humanitarian Law, is an expert on international law, human rights, and Inter-American affairs. Grossman was unanimously re-elected in May 2012 to a third term as chair of the United Nations Committee against Torture, a position which he has held since April 2008, and has been a Committee member following his November 2003 election to that body. He was previously a member of the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files. Grossman served as president of the College of the Americas, an organization of colleges and universities in the Western Hemisphere, from November 2003-November 2007. Previously, he was a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights from 1993-2001, where he served in numerous capacities including twice as its President (1996 and 2001) as well as the special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous populations and the special rapporteur on women's rights. He has participated in numerous on-site visits and election-observing missions in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. He has also worked on international legal issues with the United Nations and the International Human Rights Law Group (now known as Global Rights). Grossman is fluent in Spanish, French, and Dutch. He is the author of numerous books and articles on international law, human rights, and the law of international organizations, and the recipient of numerous awards for his work in those fields
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FRANCOISE HAMPSON. COURSE: International Humanitarian Law (English)
Francoise Hampson is a Professor of Law at the University of Essex. She has taught, researched and published widely in the fields of armed conflict, international humanitarian law and on the European Convention on Human Rights. She was an independent expert member of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights from 1998-2007. She has acted as a consultant on humanitarian law to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and she represented Oxfam and SCF (UK) at the Review Conference for the Certain Conventional Weapons Convention. Professor Hampson has successfully litigated many cases before the European Court of Human Rights and, in recognition of her contribution to the development of law in this area, was awarded Human Rights Lawyer of the Year jointly with Professor Kevin Boyle.
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CHRISTOF HEYNS. COURSE: Regional Approaches to Human Rights Law: Asia, Africa and the Americas (English)
Christof Heyns holds the degrees MA LLB University of Pretoria; LLM Yale Law School; and PhD University of the Witwatersrand. He is Professor of Human Rights Law and Co-director of the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa at the University of Pretoria. In August 2010 he was appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. In this capacity he reports to the Human Rights Council in Geneva and the General Assembly in New York. Professor Heyns is an adjunct professor at the Washington College of Law of the American University in Washington DC, USA, and a Visiting Fellow at Kellog College at Oxford University, UK, where he has been teaching in the masters’ program since 2005. During the first part of 2012 he was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School. He is a former Director of the Centre for Human Rights in the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, as well as former Dean of that faculty. He has published widely in the field of international human rights law, including the book The Impact of the United Nations Human Rights Treaties on the Domestic Level (with Frans Viljoen) and especially on human rights law in Africa (including the book Human Rights Law in Africa). He is the founding co-editor-in-chief of the African Human Rights Law Reports and was the founding co-editor of the African Human Rights Law Journal and serves on the editorial boards of academic law journals in the UK, France, Brazil, The Netherlands, Costa Rica and Uganda. He has served as consultant to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the African Union and the South African Human Rights Commission. His publications have appeared in English, Afrikaans, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic. He has received a Humboldt Fellowship to the Max Planck Institute for International and Comparative Public Law in Heidelberg, Germany, as well as the University of Pretoria’s Chancellor’s Award for Teaching and Learning.
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SARAH JOSEPH. COURSE: United Nations Human Rights System (English)
Sarah Joseph is a Professor of Human Rights Law and the Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University, Melbourne. She is a world renowned expert on the UN and human rights, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (she is co-author of The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Cases Materials and Commentary, now entering its third edition). She has also published on global trade and human rights (Blame it on the WTO: A Human Rights Critique (OUP, 2011)), corporations and human rights (Corporations and Transnational Human Rights Litigation (Hart, 2004), terrorism and human rights, and, lately, social media and human rights. She has taught human rights courses in Australia, the US, and New Zealand, as well as training courses to international officials from Iraq, Indonesia, Iran and Burma.
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VIVIANA KRSTICEVIC. COURSE: Litigio y Activismo en Derechos Humanos (Spanish)
Viviana Krsticevic is the Executive Director of the Center for Justice and International Law. Ms. Krsticevic received her law degree from the University of Buenos Aires, a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Stanford University, and an LLM from Harvard University. She has led numerous conferences and workshops in the Americas and Europe on the international protection of human rights. Ms. Krsticevic has also litigated cases before both the Inter-American Commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. She is the author of numerous articles, which have been published in the US, Latin America and Europe.
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FRANK LA RUE. COURSE: Libertad de Expresión (Spanish)
Frank William La Rue is, as of December 2010, the current serving UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, a position he has held since August 2008. He is the founder of the Center for Legal Action for Human Rights (CALDH), a Guatemalan NGO, and has been involved in the promotion of human rights for 25 years. He was nominated for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize by Mairead Corrigan, Irish peace activist and 1976 laureate.
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JULISSA MANTILLA. COURSE: Mujeres y el Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos (Spanish)
Julissa Mantilla is a lawyer and professor at the Law School and the Gender Diploma of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). She obtained her Master’s degree (LLM) from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) of the University of London in 2000. She received a scholarship from the World Bank and from LSE in order to accomplish her post graduate studies. Her main interests are international human rights law, gender issues, human rights of women and the comparative study of cases of sexual violence against women, especially during armed conflict. In 1995, she was appointed as the Peruvian Representative of the International Development Bank Delegation at the Fourth Women's International Conference and NGO Forum. In 1998, she was selected as a Junior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, based at the George Washington University, where she developed the publication "Human Rights in the USA Foreign Policy: The Peruvian Case". From 1998 to 1999 she worked at the Peruvian Ombudsman Office for Human Rights, researching violations of reproductive rights in Peru, especially the cases of forced sterilization against Peruvian women. From 2002 to 2003 she was part of the legal team of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR); she was particularly responsible for the matters related with sexual violence against women. In addition, as a gender consultant, she was in charge of incorporating a gender perspective through all the work of the CVR. Likewise, during 2003 she was a consultant for the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia and the Women and Armed Conflict Board, developing techniques of documenting cases on violence against women.
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CLAUDIA MARTIN. COURSE: Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos (Spanish)
Claudia Martin is a professional lecturer in residence and Co-Director of the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law. She holds a law degree from the University of Buenos Aires, an LL.M. from American University Washington College of Law, and also completed graduate studies in international relations at a program sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina and the Government of Italy. She teaches and specializes in international law, international and comparative human rights law and Inter-American human rights law. She serves as a member of the Editorial Board of Oxford Reports on International Law in Domestic Courts, Oxford University Press and Amsterdam Center for International Law; a member of the Advisory Board of the Human Rights Program, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico, the Advisory Board of the Impact Litigation Project, American University Washington College of Law, and a member of the Editorial Board, Revista Iberoamericana de Derechos Humanos, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico. She also writes on Inter-American Human Rights Law for the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights.
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JUAN E. MENDEZ. COURSE: Impunidad y Justicia (Spanish)
Juan E. Méndez is a Visiting Professor of Law at the American University – Washington College of Law, and an advisor on crime prevention to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. He is also Co-Chair of the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association. Until May 2009 he was the President of the International Center for Transnational Justice (ICTJ) and in the summer of 2009 he was a Scholar-in-Residence at the Ford Foundation in New York. Concurrent with his duties at ICTJ, the Honorable Kofi Annan named Mr. Méndez his Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, a task he performed from 2004 to 2007. A native of Argentina, Mr. Méndez has dedicated his legal career to the defense of human rights and has a long and distinguished record of advocacy throughout the Americas. In 1994, he became general counsel of Human Rights Watch, with worldwide duties in support of the organization’s mission, including responsibility for litigation and standard setting activities. From 1996 to 1999, Mr. Méndez was the Executive Director of the Inter American Institute of Human Rights in Costa Rica, and between October 1999 and May 2004 he was Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Between 2000 and 2003 he was a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, and served as its President in 2002.
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ELIZABETH ODIO BENITO. COURSE: Impunidad y Justicia (Spanish)
At the domestic level, Ms. Elizabeth Odio Benito has been the State Attorney of the Republic of Costa Rica, twice elected Minister of Justice, Minister of Environment, and Vice President of the Republic. She worked as a Judge of the Ad hoc Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, from the dates of its establishment in 1993 until 1998. She actively participated in the drafting of the Rules of Evidence and Procedure of the Rule 96, which allowed the judgment of sexual violence crimes with a gender perspective. She was elected as a Judge for the International Criminal Court in 2003 for the period of nine years. Professor Odio Benito was also a member of the Trial Chamber that issued the first decision of the ICC in the Lubanga Case. She was Vice-president in both Tribunals. In the Human Rights field, Professor Odio Benito has worked several years as a scholar, researcher and activist in the defense of women’s rights. She has also worked as a Rapporteur of the Human Rights Sub Commission in the area of discrimination based on religion and as President of the United Nations Working Group that drafted the Optional protocol to the Convention Against Torture. In her country, Costa Rica, she has worked in different public positions (General State Attorney, Minister of Justice, and Second Vice-President) and she was a Professor at Universidad de Costa Rica for over 25 years. She is an Emeritus Professor.
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MICHAEL O'FLAHERTY. COURSE: United Nations Human Rights System (English)
Professor Michael O'Flaherty is Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and Professor of Applied Human Rights and Co-Director of the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre. From 2004 to 2012 he has been a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, latterly as a Vice-Chairperson. He is a member of the UN Expert Group on Human Rights Indicators. Michael O'Flaherty is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He read law at University College Dublin, theology and philosophy at the Gregorian University, Rome, international relations at the University of Amsterdam and is a Solicitor of the Irish Courts. In 2009, O'Flaherty initiated the "Dublin Process" on the strengthening of the UN human rights treaty body system and directed its opening and closing consultations. He was the rapporteur for development of the Human Rights Committee's General Comment 34 on the topic of Article 19 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Freedoms of Opinion and Expression). In 2006 he was rapporteur for the Yogyakarta Principles on the application of international human rights law regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. He has been an advisor to many international and regional inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations and is a member of a number of the editorial boards. He has published widely and his latest books address such topics as human rights diplomacy and the theory and practice of human rights field work. Until December 2003, O'Flaherty served in a number of senior positions with the United Nations. He established the UN human rights field missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1994) and Sierra Leone (1998) and subsequently guided UN headquarters support to its human rights programs across the Asia-Pacific region. He has served as Secretary of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and UN human rights advisor for implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. From 2000 to 2002 he chaired the UN reference group on human rights and humanitarian action.
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MONICA ROA. COURSE: Mujeres y el Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos (Spanish)
Mónica Roa is the Programs Director at Women’s Link Worldwide. Women's Link Worldwide is an international human rights non-profit organization working to mainstream gender into the world of justice and human rights. With this objective in mind, she strives to advance women's rights through the implementation of international human rights standards and strategic work with the courts, including strategic litigation. Mónica Roa has a degree in law from the University of the Andes, Bogotá, Colombia and holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) as a Global Public Service Law Scholar from New York University. Since 2004, at Women’s Link Worldwide she has developed her ideas regarding the judiciary as a pivotal branch in democratic society and has worked to foster greater dialogue between civil society and the courts on how to interpret rights from a gender perspective. Her work led her to file a petition before the Constitutional Court of Colombia, which led to the liberalization of the country's abortion law. Her contribution to human rights and women’s rights has been recognized by the most important media outlets in the country, which have awarded her accolades including ‘person of the year’ in 2005 and 2006. In 2011 she was recognized as one of the ten best leaders of Colombia by SEMANA and the Leadership and Democracy Foundation. In 2012 America’s Quarterly awarded her as one of the “heroes of social inclusion”. She has participated in academic, political and legal conferences in Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States. Her publications include: "Bodies on Trial: Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Latin American Courts" (2002), "Litigating Reproductive Rights at the Inter-American System for Human Rights" (Harvard, 2003), "Litigio de alto impacto en Colombia, la inconstitucionalidad del aborto" (Paidós, 2006), "El derecho a decidir, avances, obstáculos y amenazas" (Razón Pública, 2009), "La objeción de conciencia en el aborto: escudo, no espada" (Razón Pública, 2010), "Great Eggspectations: La tecnología reproductiva y los nuevos retos para la autonomía de las mujeres" (U. Nacional de Colombia, 2010). “El procuradorcillo mentiroso: lo que sea con tal de impedir los derechos reproductivos” (Razón Pública, 2011), “Cuerpos de mujer, territorios de guerra” (Razón Pública 2011), “Aborto, segundo round” (Razón Pública, 2011). She currently resides in Bogota.
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HARRY ROQUE. COURSE: Regional Approches to Human Rights Law: Africa, American and Asia (English)
Harry Roque is a professor and director of the Institute of International Legal Studies Centre at the University of the Philippines. He has been admitted to practice before the UN War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda, as well as for the International Criminal Court. He is currently representing some of the families in the prosecution of 197 people involved in the planning and carrying out of the Maguindanao Mindanao massacre—the worst single massacre of journalists in history. He earned a Master of Law from London School of Economics, a Bachelor of Law from the College of Law, University of the Philippines, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from The University of Michigan.
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DIEGO RODRÍGUEZ-PINZÓN. COURSE: Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos (Spanish)
Diego Rodriguez-Pinzón is a Professorial Lecturer in Residence and Co-Director of the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University, Washington College of Law (WCL). He holds an LL.M. degree from WCL and an SJD degree from George Washington University Law School. He teaches courses in the fields of international law and human rights law. He was recently appointed Ad Hoc Judge to sit in the Inter-American Court on Human Rights of the Organization of American States. He also works as a correspondent for the British periodical Butterworths Human Rights Cases where he covers the Americas and reports on the Inter-American system for the Netherlands Human Rights Quarterly. He has served as international legal consultant for international organizations and agencies including the Inter-American Development Bank and the Organization of American States.
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PABLO SAAVEDRA. COURSE: Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos (Spanish)
Pablo Saavedra is currently Executive Secretary at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San José, Costa Rica. As an attorney for the National Corporation on Reparation and Reconciliation of Chile, he investigated human rights violations that occurred between 1973 and 1990 in Chile. He has also worked as a staff attorney at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and has presented numerous lectures and conferences at various universities. He graduated from the Diego Portales University in Chile and obtained his Master’s Degree in Law from the University of Notre Dame.
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JUANA SOTOMAYOR. COURSE: Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales (Spanish)
Juana Sotomayor received her doctorate in Jurisprudence from the Universidad del Azuay of Ecuador in 1999, and in 2010 she received her M.A. in education from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. As a fellow of the Carnegie Council’s Human Rights Initiative in 2000, she researched the public legitimacy of economic, social, and cultural rights in small towns in Ecuador where she is developing a project entitled, "The Public Legitimacy of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in Rural Ecuador." She is also the Spanish coordinator of the British Council in Quito, Ecuador, and provides pedagogical consulting to the Colegio Einstein and the Centro Educativo. In 1998, she created a module on environmental laws for the Ecuador National Parks staff. She seeks to apply her background in law and education to improving democratic participation and adult education in Ecuador or the Andean region. In 2005 she was the coordinator of the Training and Promotion of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights program at the Centro de Derechos Economicos y Sociales (CDES) in Ecuador. Since 2007, Ms. Sotomayor is Human Rights Officer at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and her focus is on the legal protection of economic, social and cultural rights.
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PHILIPPE TEXIER. COURSE: Derechos Economicos, Sociales y Culturales (Spanish)
Philippe Texier has been a Member of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee since 1987 and was its president from 2007 – 2008. Until May 2009, he was a judge of the Cassation Court of France (equivalent to a Supreme Court) labor room. He was also an independent expert of the UN Commission in Haiti and managed the Human Rights Division – ONUSAL (UN Mission in El Salvador), when the peace agreement was signed.
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RODRIGO UPRIMNY YEPES. COURSE: Implementación de los Derechos Humanos en Derecho Interno (Spanish)
Rodrigo Uprimny Yepes is the Director of Centro de Estudios de Derechos, Justicia y Sociedad (DeJusticia). He is also a professor of Constitutional Law, Human Rights and Theory of the State in Universidad Nacional de Bogotá, where he is the Director of the Master’s Program in Law. Previously, Mr. Uprimny was Auxiliary Judge of the Constitutional Court in Colombia. He has published many articles regarding democracy, administration of justice, conflict resolution and human rights. Among his publications are: “El laboratorio colombiano: narcotráfico y administración de justicia en Colombia”; “Legitimidad y conveniencia del control constitucional de la economía”; “Violence, Power and Collective Action: A Comparison between Bolivia and Colombia” (Violencia, Poder y Acción Colectiva: Una Comparación entre Bolivia y Colombia), and “Tribunal Constitucional e emancipacao social na Colombia” (Corte Constitucional y emancipación social en Colombia). He is also the co-author of “¿Justicia para todos? Derechos sociales, sistema judicial y democracia en Colombia” (2006); co-author and editor of “¿Justicia transicional sin transición? Verdad, justicia y reparación para Colombia” (2006) and “Libertad de información y derechos fundamentales en Colombia” (2006). Professor Uprimny holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy from the University of Amiens Picardie, a DSU in Sociology of Law from the University of Paris II, and a Master's degree in Social Economy of Development from the University of Paris.
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ALEJANDRO VALENCIA VILLA. COURSE: Derecho Internacional Humanitario (Spanish)
Alejandro Valencia Villa is a Colombian lawyer dedicated to the promotion and defense of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law since 1989. He is currently an independent consultant in human rights, humanitarian law and transnational justice and is a member of the academic committee of the Masters’ program on Human Rights at the Universidad Santo Tomás de Bogotá. Previously he was a consultant to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, both for its office in Bogota and to various projects in Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and the Dominican Republic. He has also been called as an expert witness before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. He was general counsel to the Truth Commission of Ecuador and was a consultant to the Commission for Truth and Justice of Paraguay and the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation in Peru. He was also in charge of the Special Investigation Team of the Comisión de Esclarecimiento Histórico of Guatemala. He was the first National Director of Information Service and Processing of Complaints at the Defensoría del Pueblo in Colombia and was a lawyer at the Center for Justice and International Law in Washington D.C. as well as at the Comisión Andina de Juristas Seccional Colombiana (today it is called Comisión Colombiana de Juristas). He has published several books on human rights and humanitarian law, holding the title of author, editor or complier.
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MARGARET WACHENFELD. COURSE: Human Rights and Development (English)
Margaret Wachenfeld is the Director of Legal Affairs at the Institute for Human Rights and Business where she leads the think tank’s programme on due diligence. Just prior, she spent six years as a Senior Policy Adviser on children’s rights at UNICEF. Earlier, Ms. Wachenfeld was principal external advisor on human rights for the International Finance Corporation (IFC, World Bank Group). She also advised the EBRD and EIB on human rights and environmental issues. Margaret was a staff lawyer at IFC where she worked on the environmental and social dimensions of IFC’s investments first in the legal department then later in the Environment and Social Development Department. Earlier, Margaret was a senior associate with the law firm of White & Case for seven years where she had a corporate and environmental law practice. Margaret started her career as counsel at the Danish Institute for Human Rights. She has a PhD in human rights law from the University of Copenhagen, a masters in international and comparative law and a juris doctor degree from Duke University Law School, and a bachelor of arts in biology from Wellesley College in the US.
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JAMIE WILLIAMSON. COURSE: International Humanitarian Law (English)
Jamie A. Williamson has worked in the field of international law and practice for over sixteen years, with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations, and in academia.
Presently, he is the Legal Advisor with the ICRC Advisory Services on International Humanitarian law (IHL) in Geneva, responsible for Common law Countries. In this role, he assists State authorities with the implementation of IHL, with a particular focus on international justice, private security companies, the Environment, torture, extra territorial use of forceand terrorism.
From 2008 to 2011, he served as the Legal Advisor at the ICRC Washington, D.C. Regional Delegation, where he was responsible for ICRC legal activities in the US and Canada, with a focus on Guantanamo and military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. From 2005 to 2008, Jamie Williamson was the ICRC Regional Legal Advisor based in Pretoria, South Africa, working with 17 countries in the region.
Before joining the ICRC, he worked for nearly ten years with the UN ad hoc international criminal tribunals in Tanzania and the Netherlands, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
He has published numerous papers on notably the repression of war crimes, international justice, the regulation of private security companies, the laws of war, and challenges to international humanitarian law in contemporary armed conflicts.
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LEO ZWAAK. COURSE: European Human Rights Law (English)
Leo Zwaak is a former Senior Researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) and Associate Professor, Utrecht University. Professor Zwaak was responsible for the Digest of Strasbourg Case-Law Relating to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Council of Europe and Gross and Systematic Violations of Human Rights in Europe: the Case of Turkey. The Digest project (in cooperation with Council of Europe, Directorate of Human Rights; Professor P. van Dijk, co-editor) is designed to meet the needs of all those who are required to be, or have an interest in becoming, familiar with the case-law of the organs of the European Convention on Human Rights. The present project is an up-date of a six-volume publication on the case law of the European Commission and Court of Human Rights, covering the period from 1955 to 1996. He is also the co-author of the book Theory and Practice of the European Convention of Human Rights, 4th revised edition 2006, Intersentia, Antwerp, Belgium. He has been teaching in Central and East Europe, Africa and Latin America. He is visiting Professor at the Washington College of Law, American University, Washington D.C., the University for Peace, San Jose, Costa Rica and at the Viadrina European University, Frankfurt Oder, Germany.
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