Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales
The Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS, Center for Law and Social Sciences ) is an Argentine non-governmental organization founded in 1979 with headquarters in Buenos Aires with the aim of promoting and defending human rights and strengthening democracy.
It was founded during the Argentine military dictatorship (1976–1983) by human rights activists such as Emilio Mignone , Augusto Conte, Alfredo Galletti and Boris Pasik. Its first president was the lawyer Mignone, whose daughter had disappeared. After his death in 2000, the journalist and political writer Horacio Verbitsky was his successor.
The CELS is a member of
- International Legal Commission in Geneva
- International League for Human Rights in New York
- World Organization Against Torture in Geneva (OMCT).
- International Federation of Human Rights in Paris (FIDH) ( corresponding member ).