Pedro Vaca Villarreal is the special rapporteur for freedom of expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) since October 6, 2020. He is a Colombian lawyer from Universidad Nacional of Colombia. He holds a Master’s degree in Law and a Specialization in Constitutional Law, with more than 12 years of professional experience in the field of human rights. He has litigated on behalf of victims of serious violations of freedom of expression. From 2013 to 2020, he served as executive director of the Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP) in Colombia. He has extensive experience in organizational management, inter-sectoral dialogue, and articulation of teams and networks. Vaca is also a professor for the Master’s Program in Journalism at Universidad de los Andes. He was a member of the Advisory Network of the Media Freedom Coalition and of the Global Council of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX). Vaca was part of the UNESCO team for the training of judges in Bolivia, Mexico and Colombia, was a consultant to Freedom House for the Colombia chapter of the global report on internet freedom, and co-founded the Presunto Podcast.
Vaca was an event speaker at the Dialogue.