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Mr. Juan E. Méndez was appointed as the first UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide by the Secretary General of the United Nations in July 2004. He currently serves as the President of the International Center for Transitional Justice.
He has been a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (2000-2003), serving as its President in 2002. Mr. Méndez has taught International Human Rights Law at Georgetown Law School and at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Mr. Méndez has dedicated his legal career to the defense of human rights and has a long and distinguished record of advocacy throughout the Americas. As a result of his involvement in representing political prisoners, the Argentinean military dictatorship arrested him and subjected him to torture and administrative detention for more than a year. During this time, Amnesty International adopted him as a "Prisoner of Conscience".