December 4-6, 2007
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Almudena Bernabeu is CJA’s International Attorney and Transitional Justice Program Director. She also directs CJA’s Latin America Program. Almudena Bernabeu currently serves as the lead prosecutor on two human rights cases before the Spanish National Court: one filed on behalf of survivors of the Guatemalan Genocide and the other brought against senior Salvadoran officials for the massacre of Jesuit priests in 1989. Ms. Bernabeu holds a law degree from the University of Valencia School of Law, where she specialized in Public International Law. Trained in Spanish and U.S. law, she is a member of the Valencia Bar Association and the International Bar Association. She is currently a PhD candidate in Public International Law at UNED University in Spain.
Ms. Bernabeu has worked in human rights and international law for the past decade. In addition to her law practice, she has published several articles on human rights litigation in national courts and its effectiveness in the struggle against impunity, as well as on reforming Spanish asylum and refugee law. She has participated in numerous panels and conferences throughout Europe, Latin America, and the United States and has conducted numerous trainings for lawyers and government prosecutors. From 1995-99, she worked in private practice in Southern Spain and with UNHCR-coordinated non-governmental organizations on asylum and refugee cases focusing on clients from Latin America, North and Central Africa, and the Balkans. Throughout the 1990s, Ms. Bernabeu worked pro bono for Amnesty International – Spain and served as an investigator for the European Court for Human Rights. Ms. Bernabeu was recently elected vice-president of the Spanish Association for Human Rights (www.apdhe.org). She also serves as a board member at a U.S.-based human rights organization called Equatorial Guinea Justice (www.egjustice.org). She is a member of the advisory board of the Peruvian Institute of Forensic Anthropology (EPAF) (www.epafperu.org), a forensic group providing evidence on human rights violations investigations and prosecutions.
Jose Pablo Baraybar, Executive Director of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (Equipo Peruano de Antropología Forense – EPAF). Founded in 2001, EPAF seeks to bring internationally accepted technical standards and methodologies to the forensic investigation of human rights crimes. The organization’s work is particularly aimed at the identification of victims of forced disappearances during the internal armed conflict that afflicted Peru from 1980 to 2000. Mr. Baraybar was the resident forensic expert for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and for the International Criminal Court of Rwanda (ICTR) from 1996 to 2002. Additionally, Mr. Baraybar was the director of the UN Office of Missing Persons and Forensics in Kosovo from June 2002 to April 2007. During Mr. Baraybar’s tenure as its director, this office received the UN21 Award, the maximum recognition given by the United Nations to a project in this particular area. Mr. Baraybar’s work as an expert in the forensic sciences has taken him to Haiti, Guatemala, Iraq, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
Sidney Blanco is Judge of the Fifth Instructional Court of San Salvador in El Salvador and an alternate magistrate for the Constitutional Court of El Salvador. Judge Blanco is also a law professor at the Central American University Jose Simeon Cañas (Universidad Centro Americana Jose Simeon Cañas – UCA). He formerly worked as a prosecutor for the Human Rights Unit at the Salvadoran Attorney General’s Office. Judge Blanco has been a visiting professor at Boston College Law School and a consultant to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Judge Blanco is a founding member of the Forum of Democratic and Independent Judges (Foro de Jueces Democraticos e Independientes – JDI).
Eduardo Rodolfo Freiler is a judge and President of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Buenos Aires in Argentina and an academic advisor to the Magistrate Council of the Province of Buenos Aires. Dr. Freiler’s previous experience includes work as a prosecutor before the national courts of Argentina. Dr. Freiler obtained his law degree from the Catholic University of La Plata and subsequently obtained his Doctorate of Juridical Science at the University of El Salvador in Buenos Aires. Dr. Freiler has also conducted post-graduate legal studies at the University of Salamanca in Spain and at the University of Buenos Aires. Additionally, Dr. Freiler has attended courses at South Western University School of Law in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Freiler has taught law at universities in Argentina and abroad since 1999, specifically in the areas of criminal and civil procedure.
Sergio Manuel Muñoz Gajardo has been Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Chile since 2005. Minister Muñoz received his law degree from the Catholic University of Valparaiso in Chile. During his tenure as a judge of the Appellate Court of Chile, Minister Muñoz was assigned as a visiting judge of first instance and was in charge of the investigation of the murder of union leader Tucapel Jimenez, whom was assassinated by members of the Pinochet government in 1982. The case, which had previously stalled for over 17 years at the hands of a previous judge, was one of the first cases where members of the Pinochet regime were convicted of a violation of human rights in Chile. Minister Muñoz teaches courses in the Program of Formation and Habilitation of Ministers in Chile, and he was the creator of the student aid program for law students at the Catholic University of Valparaiso. Minister Muñoz has participated in multiple international legal training programs since 1977, including international civil procedure and maritime law.
Juan Pablo Gallego is an attorney, law professor and consultant for the Argentinean Fund for Horizontal Cooperation (Fondo Argentino de Cooperacion Horizontal – FOAR), the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Mr. Gallego received his law degree from the University of Buenos Aires and a post-graduate degree from the Catholic University of Argentina. Mr. Gallego is the Managing Director of the Argentinean office of the international legal firm of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo. From June 1998 to June 1999, Mr. Gallego was an advisor to the Argentinean Senate and from 2000 to 2001, he was an Advisor to the Argentinean Congress. Mr. Gallegos is a visiting professor at the University of Buenos Aires and a professor at the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas de Madrid in Spain.
Bertha Othilia Nativi Oliva Guifarro is a well known Honduran human rights activist whose life was forever changed with the kidnapping and disappearance of her husband Tomas Nativi in June 1981. Ms. Nativi Oliva is the founder and former general coordinator of the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (Comité de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos en Honduras – COFADEH). In addition to her work with COFADEH, Ms. Nativi has held several positions at the Latin American level in defense of human rights. Ms. Nativi Oliva has a degree in communications and journalism and has undertaken studies in forensic anthropology, international law and human rights. Ms. Nativi Oliva is a founding member of several organizations that work to promote human rights in Honduras and Latin America, including the National Organization Against Impunity (Coordinacion Nacional Contra la Impunidad), Citizen’s Forum (Foro Ciudadano) and the Rehabilitation Clinic (Clinica para la Rehabilitacion).
Leo Valladares Lanza is a Professor of Law at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras – UNAH), former National Commissioner of Human Rights of the Republic of Honduras and founder and first president of the Center for Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights (Centro de Investigacion y Promocion de los Derechos Humanos – CIPRODEH). Professor Valladares Lanza holds a law degree from the UNAH and a Doctorate in Law from the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain. In December 1993, in his capacity as the National Commissioner of Human Rights, Dr. Valladares Lanza presented his findings on forced disappearances in Honduras in the early 1980’s in a report entitled The Facts Speak for Themselves. As a result of this work, Dr. Valladares received numerous threats. Undeterred, Dr. Valladares Lanza has continued his work in defense of human rights in Honduras.
Ramon Custodio Lopez is the National Commissioner of Human Rights of the Republic of Honduras, a doctor of medicine and surgery and a founding member of the Medical College of Honduras. In May 1981, Dr. Lopez founded the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH) which he chaired until 1999. Between 1984 and 1990, Dr. Lopez held the presidency of the Commission of Human Rights in Central America (CODEHUCA). Since 1989, Dr. Lopez has been a member of the managing board of the Latin American Institute of Legal Alternative Services (ILSA) in Bogotá, Colombia. Dr. Lopez has been recognized for his humanitarian work at both the national and international levels. His honors include the Latin-American Prize in Human Rights, Lettelier-Moffit in Washington, D.C., the Latin-American Prize “Monsignor Aníbal Proano” from the Latin-American Association of Human Rights, the Rothko Chappel Prize “For Liberty and Justice” in Houston, Texas, and the Francisco Morazán Medal awarded by the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN). Dr. Lopez has been a featured speaker on forced disappearances and human rights in the 21st century. From 2005-2006, Dr. Lopez served as the president of the Central American Council of Human Rights Commissioners.
Naomi Roht-Arriaza is Professor of Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law and an expert in international human rights law, international environmental law and international humanitarian law. She clerked for Judge James Browning of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. During 1991-92, Professor Roht-Arriaza was the first Riesenfeld Fellow in International Law and Organizations at the University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law. In the summer and fall of 1995, she was a European Community Fulbright Scholar in Spain. In 2001-2002, Professor Roht-Arriaza received research grants from the United States Institute of Peace and the MacArthur Foundation. She is the author of The Pinochet Effect: Transnational Justice in the Age of Human Rights (2005) and Impunity and Human Rights in International Law and Practice (1995). Professor Roht-Arriaza serves on the board of directors of several human rights and environmental groups.
Carlos Alberto Rozanski has been a federal judge, President of the Oral Procedure Court for Federal Crimes No. 1 of La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina since 2004. Dr. Rozanski is a founding member of the Argentinean Association for the Prevention of Mistreatment of Infants and the Young (Asociacion Argentina de Prevencion del Maltrato Infantil Juvenil – ASAMPI) and the Forum for Democratic Justice (Foro para la Justicia Democratica – FOJUDE). Dr. Rozanski is a professor in the postgraduate program of the psychology department at the National University of Buenos Aires. He teaches in programs for the training of judges, prosecutors and police officers from Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. As a judge, Dr. Rozanski has presided over some of the most influential human rights cases in Argentina. Most recently Dr. Rozanski presided over the case of Christian Von Wernich, an Argentine Roman Catholic priest and a former chaplain of the Buenos Aires province police during the dictatorial period known as the National Reorganization Process (1976–1983). The Federal Court of La Plata, presided over by Dr. Rozanski, oversaw prosecution and imprisonment of Von Wernich on charges of co-authorship of homicide, illegal restraints and acts of torture (including the kidnapping of Jacobo Timerman, the editor of La Opinión). On October 9, 2007, Dr. Rozanski found Von Wernich guilty of complicity in seven homicides, 42 kidnappings, and 32 instances of torture, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Jorge Mario Saavedra is the Chilean Ambassador to the Republic of Guatemala. Ambassador Saavedra holds a law degree from the University de Concepcion in Chile. Since 1995, he has been a lecturer at the Law School of the Andres Bello University and at the School of Police Investigations in Chile. Ambassador Saavedra is a founding member of the law firm Saavedra & Associates; a counselor for the National College of Attorneys in Chile; former member of the Disciplinarian Court of the National Association of Employees of the District Attorney’s Office; and former president of the Association of Employees of the Ministry of Economics in Chile. Additionally, Ambassador Saavedra is a member of the Ethics Committee of the Party for Democracy (Partido Por la Democracia – PPD), and was a candidate to the Chilean Congress for the PPD in 2001. As an attorney, he specializes in human rights cases.
Manuel Olle Sese is an attorney and President of the Association Pro-Human Rights in Spain (Asociacion Pro Derechos Humanos de Espana – APDHE). He is a professor of criminal law at the University Antonio de Nebrija, at the Escuela de Practica Juridica Colex in Madrid, and a visiting professor at the Law School of the National University of Las Lomas de Zamora in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mr. Olle is an expert in universal jurisdiction matters and has been a speaker and exponent in numerous international congresses and conferences. As an attorney, Mr. Olle has practiced before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, where he successfully litigated the cases of Fuentes Bobo v. Spain and Gabarri Moreno v. Spain. Mr. Olle has also played a major role as a prosecutor in the “Madrid Trials” (Argentina, Scilingo, Cavallo, Pinochet and Guatemala).
