Reed Brody

Reed Brody

Reed Brody (* 1953 in Brooklyn ) is an American lawyer for Human Rights and spokesman for the Human Rights Watch , the relevant proportion in the trial against Hissène Habré has. He was also involved in the trial of Augusto Pinochet and tried to represent the victims of Jean-Claude Duvalier in Haiti . He also worked for the International Campaign for Tibet , sought to make public grievances in East Timor and helped the Mongolian government draft its constitution.

Live and act

Brody is the son of Ervin Brody, a Hungarian Jew , the two labor camps of the Nazis survived and with Tito's partisans fought. Ervin Brody is a professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University and is believed to be a major influence on his son.

Reed Brody was the youth leader of the presidential campaign of George McGovern, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of America , in 1972 . Brody received his Juris Doctor from Columbia University in 1977 . He worked in the New York Attorney General's office until 1984.

Disclosure report on Nicaragua

Brody documented by several US sponsored Contras in Nicaragua made human rights violations . His statements about his book of exposures were part of several hearings before the United States Congress . The point of criticism was expressed several times that he had unilaterally researched in Nicaragua because the Sandinista had initiated his investigations. Regarding these allegations, he said that although this was done by a lawyer from the then government of Nicaragua, it had no influence on his investigations.

Human rights lawyer

Reed Brody was a member of various NGOs . From 1987 to 1992 he was a member of the international legal commission . He also worked from 1987 to 1991 as managing director of the Center for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers (CIJL) and helped organize campaigns and lobbying against the oppressive governments of Haiti, Indonesia and Iraq. In 1991 he was the representative of the Human Rights Center , which advised Mongolia on the drafting of its constitution. From 1992 to 1994, Brody served as managing director of the International Human Rights Law Group (now Global Rights ). In 1994 and 1995 he was head of the human rights department at the Misión de Observación de las Naciones Unidas en El Salvador

In 1995 he helped as part of the International Campaign for Tibet in a protest by Tibetan women in front of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing , at which the women appeared in silence with gags; this is considered to be the first Tibetan protest action on Chinese soil. In the same year he helped found the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux in Haiti , committed by Jean-Bertrand Aristide, which legally prosecutes human rights violations from the time of the military dictatorship. In particular, the 53 convictions relating to the Raboteau massacre are considered a success in one of the most significant trials in Haitian history. Likewise, Brody tried to work in the 2010 trial against Jean-Claude Duvalier.

In 1997 Brody was again head of the department for human rights at the Misión de Observación de las Naciones Unidas en El Salvador. In the same year he was Associate Director of the United Nations Secretary General's Investigative Team. in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , investigating allegations against Laurent Kabila's forces .

Human Rights Watch activist

Brody became a member and head of the legal profession of the NGO Human Rights Watch in 1998 and has since been one of the most prominent and active advocates of their cause to publicly prosecute crimes against human rights and prosecute the perpetrators accordingly.

One of his greatest successes is the coordination of Augusto Pinochet's indictment before the House of Lords , which led to his 503-day house arrest in London . Brody assesses this success with the words: For the victims it was a sign that it is worth standing up and fighting (...) The best way to learn the truth is through the fear of the dictators. In its investigation, Human Rights Watch. The Pinochet Precedent: How Victims Can Pursue Human Rights Criminals Abroad , inspired by the Pinochet court case, proposes ways and means to publicly prosecute crimes against human rights.

As spokesman for Human Rights Watch in 2004, he defended their allegations against the United States that eleven terrorist suspects had disappeared in custody and demanded that all prisoners be brought under legal protection. Brody contributed to the book America's Disappeared: Detainees, Secret Imprisonment, and the "War on Terror" .

In 2010, he helped the Haitian government bring charges against Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier and co-wrote the report for Human Rights Watch.

The trial of Hissène Habré

In 2000, a group of human rights lawyers, including Reed Brody, filed a lawsuit against Hissène Habré in Senegal . In 2001, Brody managed to gain access to essential archives of the DDS, the secret police of Chad, when the broadcaster Arte worked with Human Rights Watch for a documentation. The acquired data later played a major role in the trial against Habré. He lived in exile in Senegal for more than 22 years. On December 19, 2012, the Senegalese National Assembly allowed the establishment of special chambers within the existing court system, within which Habré, among others, was brought to justice.

Fonts

• Contra Terror in Nicaragua: Report of a fact-finding mission: September 1984 – January 1985. South End Press, Boston MA 1985, ISBN 0-89608-313-6 .
• The Pinochet papers: the case of Augusto Pinochet in Spain and Britain. Kluwer Law International, The Hague 2000, ISBN 90-411-1404-1 .
• Getting away with torture: the Bush Administration and mistreatment of detainees. Human Rights Watch, New York 2011, ISBN 978-1-56432-789-5 .

Appearances in film and television

Brody's work has been highlighted in several documentaries, including:

• the documentary The Dictator Hunter , directed by Klaartje Quirijns. Eyes Wide Films 2007.
• several episodes of the series XXI Century . The Cat's Dream 2003.
• of the documentary series The Agenda with Steve Paikin , moderated by Steve Paikin. TVOntario 2006ff.

literature

• Munkhsaikhan Odonkhuu: Towards Better Protection of Fundamental Rights in Mongolia: Constitutional Review and Interpretation. (= CALE Books. Volume 4). Nagoya University, Nagoya 2014. ( Digitized ; PDF 3.4 MB)
• Ole Bruun, Ole Odgaard: Mongolia in Transition: Old Patterns, New Challenges . Curzon, Richmond 1996, ISBN 0-7007-0418-3 .

Web links

• Reed Brody's publications in WorldCat .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Human Rights Activist Stands Up for Those Silenced. In: FDU Magazine. 1/1996.
2. ↑ Reed Brody ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on the website of the College of Law at American University Washington . 
3. ^ Richard Bolles: What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job Hunters and Career Changers. 1986, p. 256.
4. ^ Contra Terror in Nicaragua. Report of a fact-finding mission. September 1984 - January 1985 , 1985.
5. ^ Doyle McManus: Rights Groups Accuse Contras: Atrocities in Nicaragua Against Civilians Charged. In: Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1985.
6. ^ Subpage About Reed Brody , the website for the documentary The Dictator Hunter .
7. ↑ Ole Bruun, Ole Odgaard: Mongolia in Transition: Old Patterns, New Challenges. 1996, p. 150.
8. ^ Paul Lewis: Differences Are Narrowed at UN Talks on Rights. In: The New York Times, June 21, 1993.
9. ^ Reed Brody: In El Salvador, UN Had a Success Story (Letter to the Editor). In: The New York Times. dated June 29, 1995.
10. ↑ Tibetan Women's defiant voices: the World Conference on Women in Beijing 1995 ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on the Tibetan Women's Association website . 
11. ^ Reed Brody: 'Baby Doc' Duvalier: His Victims Won't Forget. In: The Miami Herald of January 27, 2011, on the website of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux .
12. ^ Raboteau Massacre Trial Victory , on the website of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux .
13. ^ Haiti: Human Rights Watch to Monitor Duvalier Court Hearing , on the website of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux .
14. ^ Reed Brody: The United Nations and Human Rights in El Salvador's "Negotiated Revolution". In: Harvard Human Rights Journal. Volume 8 (1995), pp. 153-178.
15. ↑ Barbara Crossette: Inquiry into Congo Killings Meets Obstacles. In: The New York Times. dated November 15, 1997.
16. ↑ Michael Remke: On the hunt for tyrants. Osama bin Laden is just one of 29 ex-rulers that Reed Brody wants to bring to justice. In: Welt am Sonntag of November 25, 2001.
17. ^ The Pinochet Papers: The Case of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte in Spain and Britain. P. 505.
18. ↑ Human Rights Watch, The Pinochet Precedent: How Victims Can Pursue Human Rights Criminals Abroad , on the Human Rights Watch website .
19. ↑ US detention. Eleven terror suspects disappeared. In: Spiegel Online from October 12, 2004.
20. ↑ America's Disappeared: Detainees, Secret Imprisonment, and the “War on Terror,” 2004.
21. ^ Haiti's Rendezvous with History: The Case of Jean-Claude Duvalier.
22. ↑ Bartholomäus Grill: At the end of the silence. In: Der Spiegel , No. 40 of September 26, 2015, pp. 96–99.
23. ↑ XXI Century. In: Internet Movie Database .
24. ↑ Christophe Boltanski: Brody, My Life As Despot Hunter. In: L'Obs from August 15, 2004, on the WorldCrunch website .
25. ^ Amnesty Report 2013 , on the Amnesty International website .