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Departures with Robert Amsterdam


Oct 26, 2020

From 1976-1983, a brutal military dictatorship disappeared some 30,000 citizens and arrested and tortured scores more in Argentina. As a young lawyer at the time known for representing dissidents and political prisoners, Juan Méndez himself was arrested and subjected to torture.

The story of his career, rising to become the Special Rapporteur on Torture to the United Nations, Special Advisor to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and also Co-Chair of the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute, is a remarkable example of personal experience translating into powerful global advocacy.

Méndez joins the Departures podcast this week along with Alfredo Forti, a member of Amsterdam & Partners LLP, for a discussion on what it was like to live through the dirty war, some of the key cases they've worked on, and the Istanbul Protocol - a new set of proposed guidelines for documenting torture.

A professor of Human Rights Law in residence at the American University – Washington College of Law, Méndez is the author (with Marjory Wentworth) of "Taking A Stand: The Evolution of Human Rights."