Agnes Callamard

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Agnès Callamard, 2019.

Agnès S. Callamard (born 1964 or 1965 ) is a French human rights expert . Since 2013 she has been the director of the Global Freedom of Expression project at Columbia University in New York City. Since 2016, she has also acted as special rapporteur for extrajudicial, civil or arbitrary executions in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights .

life and work

Angès Callamard graduated from the Institut d'études politiques de Grenoble in 1985 and earned a Masters in International and African Studies from Howard University in Washington, DC. She received her PhD in Political Science from the New School for Social Research in New York. From 1995 to 2001, she was the Cabinet Director of the Secretary General of Amnesty International and, as Research Policy Coordinator, led Amnesty's work on women's rights. In 2001 she founded HAP International (Humanitarian Accountability Partnership), an organization which she led until 2004. It was the first international self-regulatory agency for humanitarian organizations to work to increase accountability to disaster-hit populations. Callamard led field trials in Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Sierra Leone. From 2004 to 2013 Callamard was Executive Director of Article 19 , a UK human rights organization promoting the right to freedom of expression.

She is considered an expert on human rights issues, especially in the areas of freedom of expression, gender sensitivity and extrajudicial executions. She has carried out human rights investigations in several countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Her list of publications also includes articles on women's rights , refugee movements and global responsibility. She worked closely with the Center for Refugee Studies in Toronto in the field of international refugee movements. Callamard has been the director of the Global Freedom of Expression project at Columbia University in New York City since November 2013 .

She has been the United Nations Special Rapporteur on executions since 2016 - as the successor to the South African Christof Heyns . An appearance at a conference in the Philippines in May 2017, at which she criticized the drug policy of the local government, led to vandalism against her Wikipedia entry.

Just four months after the murder of the Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his home country's consulate in Istanbul, Callamard began investigations in Turkey and gathered information about the circumstances of the murder. A Saudi killing squad murdered the journalist who was critical of the government, who was living in exile in the United States, in early October 2018. Washington Post columnist Khashoggi went to the consulate to collect documents for his wedding. Only after massive international pressure did the government in Riyadh admit the murder, but is still trying to minimize responsibility. Eleven suspects have been on trial in Riyadh since January 2019. Callamard initiated the investigation himself and reports to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. In June 2019, she presented the UN report on the Khashoggi murder and declared "credible evidence" of a possible personal responsibility of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of Khashoggi. She recommended an investigation against Crown Prince Salman.

She described the targeted killing of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi Brigadier General Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by the US military as “most likely illegal” and contrary to human rights.

Publications (selection)

  • with Aristide R. Zolberg: The École Libre at the New School, 1941–1946. In: Social Research. Volume 65, No. 4, 1998, pp. 921-951.
  • NGO Accountability and the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership, in: Lisa Jordan, Peter van Tuijl (Eds.): NGO Accountability: Politics, Principles and Innovations, Earthscan, London 2006, ISBN 9781844073672
  • "Protect the believers, not the belief, in: The Guardian (London), March 18, 2009
  • Monitoring and Investigating Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, and Prison Conditions , Amnesty International Dutch Section; Codesria (2000), Dakar: Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. ISBN 978-2-869-78088-0
  • "Comity for Internet? Recent Court Decisions on the Right to be De-indexed". in: The National Law Review, August 12, 2015
  • "Are courts re-inventing Internet regulation?", In: International Review of Law, Computers & Technology: 1–17, 23 March 2017

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Ghislaine Dupont et Claude Verlon, Jamal Khashoggi… Agnès Callamard, une intraitable enquêtrice à l'ONU" lemonde.fr of July 17, 2020, accessed on August 9, 2020
  2. ↑ Composed Callamard keeps cool considering cascade of criticism , accessed January 28, 2019 /
  3. ↑ Agnes Callamard: NGO Accountability and the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership, in: Lisa Jordan, Peter van Tuijl (Ed.): NGO Accountability: Politics, Principles and Innovations, Earthscan London 2006, ISBN 9781844073672 , p. 183
  4. ↑ HAP International , accessed January 28, 2019
  5. ↑ William Horskey: Pressing for freedom: 20 years of World Press Freedom Day, UNESCO, 2013, ISBN 978-9230011628 , page 42
  6. ↑ Agnes S. Callamard on the Columbia Global Center website, accessed January 28, 2019
  7. ↑ U N experts urge the Philippines to stop unlawful killings of people suspected of drug-related offenses , accessed January 28, 2019
  8. ↑ UN rapporteur's Wikipedia page defaced upon visit to PH , accessed on January 28, 2019
  9. ↑ ORF : UN reporter investigates the murder of Khashoggi , accessed on January 28, 2019
  10. ↑ Khashoggi killing: UN human rights expert says Saudi Arabia is responsible for “premeditated execution”. UNHCR, June 19, 2019, accessed June 20, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Christoph Sydow: Jamal Khashoggi: UN report provides cruel details on the murder in the consulate. In: Spiegel Online . June 19, 2019, accessed May 16, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Agnes Callamard: #Iraq: The targeted killings of Qasem Soleiman and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis are most lokely unlawful and violate international human rights law: Outside the context of active hostilities, the use of drones or other means for targeted killing is almost never likely to be legal (1). In: Twitter. January 2, 2020, accessed January 3, 2020 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Callamard, Agnes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Callamard, Agnès S.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French human rights expert
DATE OF BIRTH 1964 or 1965