Paolo G. Carozza

Associate Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame and Kellogg Faculty Fellow
Chairman, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Andrew D. Stevenson

US Permanent Mission to the Organization of American States

"The Role of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the Politics and Law of Contemporary Latin America"

Tuesday, March 25, 2008
12:30 pm - C103 Hesburgh Center

Abstract

The panelists will discuss different ways in which the Organization of American States and its associated human rights institutions contribute to the consolidation of democracy in the Americas, including through the Inter-American Democratic Charter and through the contentious cases decided by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Biographies

Paolo G. Carozza is an associate professor of law at the University of Notre Dame Law School and a faculty fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. A member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights since 2005, he was recently elected as the commission’s chairman. Carozza is the director of the Law School’s JSD program in international human rights law and is involved as well in the activities of Notre Dame’s Center for Civil and Human Rights. He is also a fellow of the Kroc Institute for Peace Studies and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. His scholarly interests include international, comparative, and human rights law, European and Latin American legal systems, comparative legal methods, and theoretical approaches to international law and human rights. Carozza earned his JD from Harvard Law School, and pursued graduate studies at Cambridge University and Harvard Law School as a Ford Foundation Fellow in Public International Law. He served as a clerk for the Supreme Court of the Federated States of Micronesia and worked as an associate at the Washington, DC law firm of Arnold and Porter before coming to Notre Dame.

Andrew D. Stevenson is the alternate representative to the US Permanent Mission to the Organization of American States (OAS). He serves as the primary US Mission representative for OAS efforts regarding human rights, democracy promotion, election observation, civil society, conflict resolution, and other initiatives funded by the congressionally appropriated “OAS Fund for Strengthening Democracy.” Prior to joining the US Mission to the OAS, he served as a special assistant to Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick and in the office of Tom Ridge, governor of Pennsylvania. He holds an MA from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, where his faculty advisor was Arturo Valenzuela. A former Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) and Harry S. Truman Foundation national finalist, Stevenson is also a recipient of the US Department of State’s Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards.