Augusto Alejandro Zúñiga Paz

Augusto Alejandro Zúñiga Paz († May 18, 2005 ) was a Peruvian human rights attorney.

He headed the legal department of the human rights organization Comisión de Derechos Humanos (COMISEDH). He was repeatedly threatened because he represented the relatives of the student Ernesto Rafael Castillo Páez, who disappeared into police custody in 1990 . On March 15, 1991, he was the victim of a letter bomb attack in the COMISEDH office in Lima : an envelope that was supposed to have come from the secretary of the Peruvian President contained an explosive charge that exploded when opened. As a result, Zúñiga Paz suffered severe burns and lost his left arm. The explosives used were used in particular by the Peruvian armed forces. Zúñiga Paz then sought refuge in Sweden with his family.

In the same year, Zúñiga Paz received the (first awarded) human rights prize of the German Association of Judges . In 1994 he was awarded the Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize by the Bordeaux Bar Association.

Zúñiga Paz lodged a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights , alleging that the Peruvian state had violated its obligation under the American Convention on Human Rights to conduct a serious and impartial investigation into the attack. This was recognized by Peru in 2002.

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1. ^ Urgent action by Amnesty International
2. ^ Information on the award of the International Ludovic Trarieux Human Rights Prize
3. ^ Augusto Paz v. Peru, Case 11.149, Report No. 70/03