PUBLISHED:August 28, 2014

Commissioning Truths: The Field of Transitional Justice 30 Years after Nunca Más

Juan Mendez UN Special Rapporteur Juan Mendez Poster

Friday, September 19
10-11 am | Room 4000
Duke Law School

Please click here for the webcast.

 

Please click here for the webcast of Prof. van Aaken's lecture. - See more at: http://law.duke.edu/news/anne-van-aaken/#sthash.Sa2A5HYm.dpuf

Juan Méndez, UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, and a Professor of Human Rights Law in Residence at the American University Washington College of Law, will give a talk titled "Commissioning Truths: The Field of Transitional Justice 30 Years after Nunca Más," followed by a Q&A.  This lecture is co-sponsored by the International Human Rights Clinic, the Center for International and Comparative Law, the Human Rights Archive at the Rubenstein Library, and the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute.


For more information, contact Ali Prince.
 

Biography

Juan E. Méndez is a Professor of Human Rights Law at the American University Washington College of Law and the author (with Marjory Wentworth) of "Taking A Stand: The Evolution of Human Rights", New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011. As of November 1, 2010, he was appointed as the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.  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.  As a result of his involvement in representing political prisoners, the Argentinean military dictatorship arrested him and subjected him to torture and administrative detention for more than a year.  After his expulsion from his country in 1977, Mr. Méndez moved to the United States. 

For 15 years, Mr. Méndez worked with Human Rights Watch, concentrating his efforts on human rights issues in the western hemisphere. 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.  He has taught International Human Rights Law at Georgetown Law School and at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and he teaches regularly at the Oxford Masters Program in International Human Rights Law in the United Kingdom. He is the recipient of several human rights awards: the Rafael Lemkin Award for contributions to the prevention of genocide by the Auschwitz Institute on Peace and Reconciliation (2010); the Goler T. Butcher Medal from the American Society of International Law (2010); a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the University of Quebec in Montreal (2006); the inaugural “Monsignor Oscar A. Romero Award for Leadership in Service to Human Rights,” by the University of Dayton (2000); and the “Jeanne and Joseph Sullivan Award” of the Heartland Alliance (2003).  

 

Katherine Gallagher, Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, will give a talk titled "From the UN to the ICC: The Vatican’s Accountability for Sexual Violence Against Children."  This lecture is co-sponsored by the International Human Rights Clinic and the Center for International and Comparative Law.  Lunch will be served.

For more information, please contact Ali Prince.

- See more at: http://law.duke.edu/news/katherine-gallagher/#sthash.Cwu6nBER.dpuf

Katherine Gallagher, Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, will give a talk titled "From the UN to the ICC: The Vatican’s Accountability for Sexual Violence Against Children."  This lecture is co-sponsored by the International Human Rights Clinic and the Center for International and Comparative Law.  Lunch will be served.

For more information, please contact Ali Prince.

- See more at: http://law.duke.edu/news/katherine-gallagher/#sthash.Cwu6nBER.dpuf