Center Welcomes New Board Member Victor E. Abramovich
(PRESS RELEASE) The Center is pleased to announce that Victor E. Abramovich, a leading Argentinean human rights lawyer and expert in the field of Economic and Social Rights in Latin America, has been elected to the Center’s Board of Directors.
From 2006 to 2009, Abramovich was a member of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. He served as Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women and as Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Prior to his appointment to the Commission, he was Executive Director of the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), a prominent human rights NGO founded in Argentina during the last military dictatorship. In CELS, he litigated numerous cases in domestic courts and in the Inter-American system, did advocacy in the U.N. Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee, and litigated a case regarding the right to food in the World Bank Inspection Panel. Between 2006 and 2008, he consulted for the Inter-American Development Bank, UNESCO, IOM, UNICEF, and the United Nation office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, on issues related to international human rights law and administration of justice. Abramovich has written articles, books and law reviews concerning human rights, particularly about the impact of litigation on the economic, social and cultural rights.
As of May 2010, Victor has been the Executive Secretary of the Institute of Human Rights Policies of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), a regional trade body comprised of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil.
Abramovich received his Juris Doctor degree with honors from Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) and his Masters in Law from American University. He is an adjunct professor of Human Rights Law of the Law Faculty of Universidad de Buenos Aires and teaches at Universidad Nacional de Lanús, Argentina. He has been a visiting professor at the Washington College of Law at American University.