Juan E. Méndez
Argentina | Professor of Human Rights Law, Washington College of Law, American University
Former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment
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Juan E. Méndez is a professor of human rights law at the Washington College of Law at American University. Méndez was the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment from 2010 to 2016.
He was special advisor to the prosecutor of the international criminal court and was also co-chair of the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute from 2010 to 2011. Until May 2009 Méndez was the president of the International Center for Transnational Justice (ICTJ) and in the summer of 2009 he was a scholar-in-residence at the Ford Foundation in New York. Concurrent with his duties at ICTJ, the Honorable Kofi Annan named Méndez his special advisor on the prevention of genocide.
For 15 years, he worked with Human Rights Watch, concentrating his efforts on human rights issues in the western hemisphere. In 1994, he became general counsel of Human Rights Watch, with worldwide duties in support of the organization’s mission, including responsibility for litigation and standard-setting activities. From 1996 to 1999, Méndez was the executive director of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights in Costa Rica, and between October 1999 and May 2004 he was professor of law and director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Between 2000 and 2003 he was a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, and served as its president in 2002.
He has taught International Human Rights Law at Georgetown Law School and at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and he teaches regularly at the Oxford Masters Program in International Human Rights Law in the United Kingdom. He is the recipient of several human rights awards: the Rafael Lemkin Award for contributions to the prevention of genocide by the Auschwitz Institute on Peace and Reconciliation (2010); the Goler T. Butcher Medal from the American Society of International Law (2010); a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the University of Quebec in Montreal (2006); the inaugural “Monsignor Oscar A. Romero Award for Leadership in Service to Human Rights,” by the University of Dayton (2000); and the “Jeanne and Joseph Sullivan Award” of the Heartland Alliance (2003).
Méndez earned a JD from Stella Maris University in Argentina and a certificate from the American University Washington College of Law and is a member of the bar both in the US (DC) and in Argentina (Mar del Plata).
Méndez was an event speaker at the Dialogue.
