2012

For more than twenty years, I have dedicated my professional life to the promotion and protection of human rights. I have focused in particular on documenting grave human rights violations - including arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions - and on providing support to the victims as well as their relatives. I started my professional career as a human rights lawyer in Colombia and was then entrusted to participate as a Public Prosecutor in a specialized unit to investigate human rights violations. Due to the sensitivity of my job and of the investigations I was conducting against State-related groups, I received threats, which eventually led me to leave my home country.

I studied for a PhD in international law, human rights law and criminal law at the University of Salamanca in Spain. After 4 years, I felt the necessity to promote and protect human rights in the field and went back to Latin America to work as Director of the Regional Office of the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) in Costa Rica. CEJIL is a non-governmental organisation, whose mission is to represent victims and litigate cases in the Inter-American system of human rights at the Organization of American States. Further to this experience, I started an academic career and worked as a professor of law at a number of universities in Mexico, including the Universidad Ibero-Americana, the Instituto de Formacion de la Procuraduría de Justicia del Distrito Federal de la Ciudad de Mexico (Attorney General´s Training Center in Mexico City) and currently in the Master’s programme of human rights and democracy at the Facultad Latino-Americana de Ciencias Sociales.

Due to the sensitivity of my job and of the investigations I was conducting against State-related groups, I received threats, which eventually led me to leave my home country.

As Mexico was at a historical turning point, I decided to move there to support the democratic transition. I worked with the Mexican Government as Director of the Human Rights Cooperation Programme with the European Union. In this position, I coordinated capacity-building sessions for law enforcement personnel on the incorporation of international treaties in Mexican law as well as on international best practices on relevant human rights issues.

Upon completion of the programme, I worked for the Office of the High Commissioner of United Nations as a liaison with the Mexican Congress to promote the reform of the Constitution in relation to human rights. This experience led to extremely positive results: alongside the efforts deployed by other human rights non-governmental organisations, activists and academics, my work led the Mexican Congress in 2011 to approve the most important reform of its Constitution in many decades, guaranteeing the full protection of human rights for every person in this country. International treaties are now part of the Mexican Constitution and have now legally the same hierarchy as the Constitution itself.

Afterwards, the Board of Directors of the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH) invited me to become their new general director. I have been provided with the opportunity to work on human rights cases at both the national and the international level. I have represented and continue to work for hundreds of victims and relatives of victims of grave human rights violations, which have occurred in the context of the so-called ´war on organized crime´ launched by the Felipe Calderon’s Government. In the past five years 60,000 deaths have been registered throughout the country. During 2011, 11 deaths of human rights defenders were recorded as well as threats, harassments and attacks directed against them.

One of the main cases I have been working on was the one on the social leader Rosendo Radilla Pacheco, who was disappeared at a military checkpoint in the town of Atoyac de Alvarez, in the state of Guerrero in 1974. Decades later, this unsolved case reached the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), which resulted in a paradigmatic ruling condemning the governmental policies of the 1960’s and 1970’s during which authoritarian regimes used the military forces to quell opposition movements.

The IACHR established the responsibility of the Mexican State for the violation of Mr. Radilla's rights to life, liberty and personal integrity. The IACHR called for the necessary legislative reforms that would harmonise the Military Code of Justice with recognised international standards on the matter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The goal was to prevent further cases of serious human rights violations committed by members of the armed forces from being investigated in military courts and have an investigation carried out by the ordinary justice system.

Whilst continuing to direct the CMDPDH, I decided to come to the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York to benefit from this unique programme for human rights defenders at one of the most highly regarded and prestigious universities in the United Kingdom. This experience provided me with the opportunity to further improve my English skills as well as to get in touch with both human rights defenders from all over the world and with very talented professors. This was a privileged moment, which allowed me to share human rights related experiences and challenges as well as best practices and ways forward; for which I am most grateful and I will bring back to Mexico in my ever-lasting commitment to promote and protect human rights.

2015

Juan Carlos Guiterrez Contreras is a lawyer who has dedicated his life's work to improving human rights policy and speaking on behalf of victims of human rights violations in Mexico. He maintains a strong commitment to supporting his fellow human rights defenders and has worked tirelessly since completing his fellowship to improving the HRD protection mechanisms in Mexico.

Juan Carlos' experience as a fellow highlights the diverse and significant influence that it has had on building capacity, knowledge and understanding for the many HRDs who have joined the programme. Juan Carlos credits the programme for introducing him to new ideas and experiences that are being faced by HRDs from across the world – helping him to realise that there is indeed a community of like-minded individuals who are committed to fighting for justice and speaking for the voiceless in various countries. The programme has helped to reaffirm Juan Carlos's commitment as a human rights defender in Mexico. He states that the fellowship helped to shape his outlook and the way he worked after completing the programme. "It strengthened my commitment in my work as a HRD and I was able to recognize myself as one. The fellowship was important for me because it helped me feel my identity as a HRD. When I think about the past, enjoying the fellowship was important for me as a HRD."

After the fellowship Juan Carlos worked with the Mexican government where he hoped to build a better human rights infrastructure for the country. Though he ultimately, decided to leave this position due to the heightened level of personal risk as a HRD, he still remained committed to his advocacy work. Juan Carlos subsequently became the director of IDHEAS, an NGO that handles cases of disappearances, and victims of torture. IDHEAS further aims to implement constitutional reform of human rights, law reform and it also works with other NGOs for legal transformation in Mexico.

The Protective Fellowship Scheme strengthened my commitment in my work as a HRD and I was able to recognize myself as one.

The knowledge Juan Carlos has gained on the fellowship has allowed him to achieve a greater appreciation of the diverse work of HRDs – a knowledge base that has proven useful with his work as director for IDHEAS. Juan Carlos explains that he applied what he has learned in the fellowship "to build strategic litigations". During the programme he worked on a petition to the UN on behalf of victims of torture. This experience made him realise that there are multiple international mechanisms in place to petition for the rights of others – a valuable lesson that has impacted his work and that of IDHEAS which has prepared 2-3 petitions that were presented to the UN Human Rights Commission.

The fellowship has had a far reaching impact on the people he works with as well. Juan Carlos has told us that he trains almost 200 students, victims and lawyers per year in human rights based on the knowledge he gained whilst in York.

In reflecting on the value of the fellowship programme Juan Carlos says, "The programme is very important. The most important [thing] is that you have the possibility to save the life of people … you have the possibility to strengthen the work of the HRDs. Your work has the ability to empower the people. For them to have tools to continue their work in their countries and in difficult situations."

Juan Carlos was interviewed by CAHR staff in August 2015.