Juan Ernesto Méndez

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Juan Ernesto Méndez in Chatham House (2012)

Juan Ernesto Méndez ( Juan E. Méndez ) (born December 11, 1944 in Lomas de Zamora ) is an Argentine legal scholar who campaigns for human rights , against torture and genocide .

Life

Juan E. Méndez graduated from the Catholic Stella Maris University in Mar del Plata in 1970 with a degree in law, where he studied political science at the then provincial university until 1971.In the following years he worked as a lawyer for labor law and political prisoners in Argentina. During the military dictatorship , Juan Méndez was a prisoner of the regime from August 1975 to February 1977 and was tortured. In 1976, Amnesty International stood up for him and declared him a prisoner of conscience , a term coined by Peter Benenson in 1961 for non-violent political prisoners.

After his release, Méndez and his family settled in the United States in the late 1970s . He continued his studies in Washington and worked for Human Rights Watch for the next fifteen years , most recently in an executive position. From 1996 to 1999 he worked for the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights in Costa Rica . In the following years until 2004 he taught law at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and directed its center for human and civil rights. From 2000 to 2003 Méndez worked for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and was its President in 2002.

Méndez has taught at Georgetown University Law Center and the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC , the University of Oxford and the Academy on Human Rights at American University in Washington . In 2007 he received an honorary doctorate from the Université du Québec à Montréal .

From 2004 to 2007 Méndez was Special Advisor for the prevention of genocide at the United Nations . From November 2010 to October 2016 he was UN Special Rapporteur on Torture ( Special Rapporteur ) and thus the successor to Manfred Nowak .

Juan Méndez is married and has three children.

Statements on the subject of human rights

Although based in the United States , Méndez criticized not only the situation in other states, but also the policy of the United States after the attacks of September 11, 2001 . The war on terror has led to attitudes that are more permissive to torture. Such an attitude by the most powerful nation in the world would have a devastating impact on the fight against torture.

In October 2011, Méndez spoke out before the Third Main Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations in favor of a ban or extensive limitation of solitary confinement . The form of detention, known under various names, could cause severe psychological consequences, should not be ordered in the case of minors and the mentally ill and would run counter to the goal of rehabilitation. He also announced a report on the case of US soldier Bradley Manning , who was in solitary confinement for over eight months. Méndez was refused an unsupervised visit from the prisoner. In March 2012, he criticized Manning's treatment as "cruel, inhuman and humiliating".

2013 Méndez urged all States to patients with psychosocial disabilities to forced treatments in psychiatry to renounce to reform the relevant laws and to look for alternatives.

Quote

In an interview with the Austrian newspaper Der Standard , Méndez commented on his assumption of office in November 2010 about the relationship between his own experience and his work:

“Every single experience of torture brings back memories of what was done to me. But also in a positive way: I saw what family, friends, lawyers and state institutions can do to protect people from torture. I don't think the experience makes me more determined than those who have not suffered torture and are committed. But it makes it a personal thing. Our children and grandchildren have the right to live in a world free of torture. "

- Juan E. Méndez : Interview in Standard , November 2, 2010

Awards

Fonts (selection)

  • Foreword (English), in: William F. Schulz: The phenomenon of torture: readings and commentary, pp. Xiii ff. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2007, ISBN 978-0-8122-1982-1 . Online: limited preview in Google Book search
  • An Emerging 'Right to Truth:' Latin-American Contributions , in: Legal Institutions and Collective Memories (Suzanne Karstedt, Hart Publishing 2009).
  • Preface: Genocide in Guatemala , in: Quiet Genocide: Guatemala 1981-83 (Etelle Higonnet, Transaction 2009).
  • Individual Accountability for Human Rights Violations , in: Global Standards, Local Action: 15 Years Vienna World Conference on Human Rights (Wolfgang Benedek et al., Intersentia 2009).
  • Prevention of Genocide and Its Challenges , in: Standing for Change in Peacekeeping Operations: Project for a UN Emergency Peace Service (Kavitha Suthanthiraraj and Manah Quinn, Global Action to Prevent War 2009). online: (PDF; 3.0 MB)
  • Juan E. Mendez, Ian Martin, Marjory Wentworth: Taking a Stand: The Evolution of Human Rights . Palgrave Macmillan Publisher, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-230-11233-9 (English, Library of Congress Online Catalog ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d United Nations: CV. Retrieved July 15, 2011 .
  2. ↑ since 1975; Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata : History of the National University of Mar del Plata. (PDF; 114 kB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 22, 2009 ; accessed on July 18, 2011 (English).
  3. ↑ a b c d American University Washington College of Law: CV. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 23, 2011 ; accessed on July 15, 2011 .
  4. ^ A b American University Washington College of Law: Brief CV. Retrieved July 18, 2011 .
  5. ^ Kellogg Institute for International Studies; Juan E. Méndez: Accountability for Past Abuses, 1996. (PDF; 99 kB) Retrieved July 18, 2011 (English).
  6. ^ The Guardian, May 28, 1961: The Forgotten Prisoners. Retrieved July 16, 2011 .
  7. ^ A b UN News Service of July 12, 2004: Annan chooses former political prisoner as his first Special Adviser on genocide. Retrieved July 17, 2011 .
  8. ↑ Press Release No. 21/02 of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Retrieved July 16, 2011 .
  9. ↑ Preface (English), in: William F. Schulz: The phenomenon of torture: readings and commentary, p. Xiv. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2007, ISBN 978-0-8122-1982-1 . Online: limited preview in Google Book search
  10. ↑ UN News Center on October 18, 2011: Solitary confinement should be banned in most cases, UN expert says. Retrieved October 28, 2011 .
  11. ↑ Gulli.com on 20 October 2011: UN special rapporteur on the case of Manning. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 5, 2012 ; Retrieved October 28, 2011 .
  12. ↑ AFP on March 6, 2012. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 7, 2012 ; Retrieved March 8, 2012 .
  13. ↑ United Nations: Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment , February 1, 2013, accessed March 1, 2015
  14. ↑ The Standard of November 2, 2010: Even the mightiest have fallen into the trap. Retrieved July 19, 2011 .
  15. ↑ https://udayton.edu/artssciences/academics/humanrights/_resources/romero_recipients/program_2000.pdf
  16. ^ Coalition for the Criminal Court: Advisory Board. Retrieved July 17, 2011 .
  17. ^ Skoll Foundation, March 2009. Retrieved July 17, 2011 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Méndez, Juan Ernesto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mendez, Juan; Méndez, Juan E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Argentinian legal scholar, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Lomas de Zamora