Human rights litigation

 

My litigation work before human rights organs has covered litigating the full spectrum of human rights: from the right to privacy, non discrimination and due process (on civil, administrative and criminal cases) to the rights of the child, gender justice, prisoners' rights and the protection of the right to life and freedom from torture in the context of mass atrocities.  Whereas some of the issues I have dealt with have arisen from societies in peace, I have wide experience litigating human rights violations taking place in the context of armed conflicts.

 

My practice has to a great extent dealt with accountability for gross human rights violations and has ensured the right of reparation for hundreds of victims including restitution, compensation, measures of satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.   

 

In what concerns the right to life, I have experience in the investigation of violations of the right to life in the context of counterinsurgency operations, police operations, death under custody and crowd control.  I have expertise in dealing with cases of mass violations of the right to life of civilians based on alleged direct participation in hostilities.  In the Castro Castro prison case which I litigated on behalf of 800 victims, my pleadings assisted the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to establish the extra-judicial killings of around 46 prisoners (security prisoners) and serious bodily injury of over 300 in the context of a massacre against 600 prisoners accused of having rioted in a high security prison in Peru.  The establishment of the facts in this case required gathering over 400 pieces of evidence including forensic evidence, expert reports and testimonial evidence.  It also required developing specialised knowledge on a wide range of weapons, ammunition and gases (such as white phosphorous gases) and their impact on human targets both in closed and open environments.   Both the Castro Castro prison case and an earlier case I represented, the Gomez Paquiyauri Brothers case (concerning extra-judicial killings of two minors in the context of an internal armed conflict), enabled me to develop expertise working with current international standards for the forensic investigation of extra-judicial killings. In the context of my work as legal counsel I cross-examined and worked together with leading experts in forensic science with experience investigating extra-judicial killings in Jenin, Israel, Gaza, Guatemala, Rwanda, Afghanistan and Bosnia and Herzegovina, including Dr. Nizam Peerwani (Physicians for Human Rights), Dr Hans Petter Hougen (University of Copenhagen), Dr. Benito Morentin and Dr. Rafael Alcaraz (Department of Forensic Pathology of the Basque Institute of Legal Medicine). 

 

In addition to cases concerning mass murder, I have extensive experience dealing with large scale cases of torture regarding both men and women, expertise on the adequate standards under international law concerning persons under detention, and on different forms of violence against women including those constituting crimes against humanity.  The cases I have represented required handling complex litigation (concerning hundreds of exhibits), gathering evidence, as well as pleading orally before tribunals under tight deadlines, in different types of settings.    

 

My advocacy work before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in particular, contributed to important changes in that regional system.  It pioneered the rights of victims in the Inter-American system challenging for the first time the use of State appointed Ad hoc Judges in individual petitions before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which led to the end of a practice that had existed for nearly two decades, and advocating the need for a Victims' Fund for legal aid before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to ensure access to justice and equality of arms for victims.  A Victims' Legal Assistance Fund before the ICHR was finally created in 2010.    I litigated the first international human rights case in the world on the protection of the rights of the child in times of war and obtained the first international binding decision on gender justice in the history of adjudication of the Inter-American region, initiating the feminization of human rights law in the Americas.   My pleadings prompted the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to hold a State accountable for violations of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women ( "Convention of Belém do Pará") for the first time in eleven years, since its entry into force.   The litigation work on behalf of hundreds of prisoners led on the other hand, to a landmark case on prisoners' rights where the Inter-American Court ruled on a massacre taking place in a prison and on torture practices that had never been tested before an international human rights tribunal, ordering as a consequence, the prosecution of former Head of State Alberto Fujimori for crimes against humanity. 

 

Working on such large cases has provided me with experience in designing legal strategy combining actions before international law tribunals and strategies at domestic level, in national jurisdictions.  At times, implementing international justice has required applying principles of international law at domestic level (such as the principle of aut dedere aut judicare -Universal Jurisdiction), as an ancilliary measure.

 

My forensic experience investigating and documenting torture in international contentious cases, was used as a model for training advocates worldwide, representing victims of torture, by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims.    Cooperation with expert organisations like IRCT, has been often sought in my work.   Likewise, I have been sought by law firms or NGOS for legal advice on areas of my particular expertise for the litigation of cases before international organs, or in preparation for further action in case domestic litigation does not resolve a matter.    

 

I accept instructions to act in the litigation and investigation of human rights violations in contentious international cases or non-contentious cases on behalf of individuals, international organs, States and Non Governmental Organisations.  To contact me please click here.