(Geneva – 14 June 2013) The International Service for Human Rights is delighted that ISHR Board member and Executive Director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, Gustavo Gallon, has been appointed as the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti.

(Geneva – 14 June 2013) The International Service for Human Rights is delighted that ISHR Board member and Executive Director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, Gustavo Gallon, has been appointed as the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti.

Mr Gallon has been a Board member of the International Service for Human Rights since 2010. He has previously served as the UN’s Special Representative on Equatorial Guinea (1999 to 2002) and is Chair of the Center for Justice and International Law in Washington, DC. Mr Gallon is also a member of the International Commission of Jurists.

Welcoming the appointment, ISHR Director, Phil Lynch, said, ‘Gustavo Gallon is one of the world’s leading human rights advocates and jurists. His deep commitment to human rights, social justice and the rule of law is well known.’

‘ISHR’s proud association with Mr Gallon traces back twenty years to 1993, when he was one of three Latin American human rights NGO representatives at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna – a conference at which ISHR played a civil society leadership and coordination role,’ Mr Lynch said.

As the UN’s Independent Expert on human rights in Haiti, Mr Gallon will be responsible for working with both government and civil society to assist in promoting human rights, strengthening the rule of law and combating impunity.