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international

Part one of a two part interview with
Prof. Alfred de Zayas

Geneva School of Diplomacy

President Jimmy Carter

Professor de Zayas is a distinguished professor with an
impressive list of accomplishments to his credit in the field of
human rights. Let us briefly mention: a former Human Rights
Council Special Rapporteur, a former international civil
servant, a former president of the Swiss PEN Club… He is
always there extending a helping hand to NGOs working in
human rights and international law. In other words, he is a
generous person whom we are lucky to have among our
faithful readers and supporters. Professor de Zayas has just
written a human rights trilogy [1], and we were curious to
learn more about it and him, so, we shall give the floor to
him.
Ferencz 2014
You have been called a «veteran human rights defender».
What has this meant for you?
Indeed, I have been privileged to work in different capacities
in the human rights arena, starting with neighbourhood
activities as a teenager, church initiatives for the disabled,
distribution of pamphlets and collection of signatures at
supermarkets. I went on to more serious college and
university demonstrations, the anti-war movements of the
1960’s, human rights “clinics”, visits to prisons, “pro bono”
legal work in the slums of New York etc. I entered United
Nations service in 1980 and served as Secretary of the Human
Rights Committee and Chief of the Petitions Department,
took early retirement to return to university teaching, did
Rafael Correa brief stints as a UN consultant on mercenaries, participant as
expert on United Nations panels concerning peace, self-
determination, unilateral coercive measures. Perhaps my
most productive time has been as a teacher – in Geneva,
Chicago, Vancouver, Galway, Trier, Göttingen, Tunis and
Alcalá de Henares. I still entertain friendly email contact with
my students from 30 years ago, and when they pass by Geneva
we meet for coffee and a chat! My six years as United Nations
independent expert on a democratic international order
(2012-18) gave me the opportunity to draft 14 reports to the
Human Rights Council and United Nations General Assembly,
and issue more than 100 media statements on matters such as
freedom of expression, the need to protect whistleblowers

Ramos Horta
w w w. d i va i n t e r n at i o n a l . c h