Notre Dame Law School Professor Paolo Carozza has been elected the 2008 chairman of the human rights commission for the Organization of American States, whose member nations are the 35 countries of the Americas. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) investigates petitions from individuals and organizations alleging human rights violations, publishes studies on its research, and makes recommendations to the OAS member nations.
The IACHR consists of seven “persons of high moral character and recognized competence in the field of human rights,” which are nominated to the commission by their respective governments. Besides Carozza, who represents the United States, the commission has representatives from El Salvador, Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Antigua and Barbuda.
Since joining the ND Law School faculty in 1996, Carozza has been active in its Center for Civil and Human Rights, where he oversees the doctor of jurisprudence program in international human rights law. He also is a fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies.
A Harvard Law School graduate, Carozza is a former Ford Fellow in Public International Law, a former law clerk to the Supreme Court of the Federated States of Micronesia, and a former lawyer at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in international law practice and human rights work.
