Gerald Staberock - Secretary General of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), www.omct.org founded in 1985 in Geneva, is the
principal global civil society coalition against torture, arbitrary detention,
extra-judicial killings and for the protection of human rights defenders.
With offices in Geneva, Brussels and Tunisia it
supports a network of more than 200 local anti-torture organizations (SOS
Torture Network) in over 90 countries and is today operating a global human
rights defenders’ protection program, the only in Switzerland of its sort.
It works
to protect the most vulnerable members of our societies, including women,
children, indigenous peoples, migrants and other marginalized communities. To
achieve this, OMCT and its network advocate document and report on torture,
advocate with governments to change or implement their laws and policies, to help
victims and survivors to seek rehabilitation and seek justice holding
perpetrators to account. Inherent in its work is the support to local
anti-torture actors providing support, solidarity and protection and giving
them a voice internationally. Because torture can never be tolerated, and human
dignity is not negotiable.
See www.omct.org
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/WorldOrganisationAgainstTorture/
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The
OMCT is an international NGO with ECOSOC status also active towards the United
Nations system, especially its human rights council and structures, as well as
regional organisations, such as the Council of Europe, the OSCE, EU, as well as
the Inter-American Court and Commission of Human Rights and the African Union. It
is leading a global anti-torture coalition (United Against Torture) supported
by the European Union and is a co-chair of the EU Protection mechanisms for
human rights defenders in situation of threat and risk. It received in the past
a variety of prizes for its work, including the Prix de la Fondation pour
Genève.
Gerald Staberock is Secretary General of the World Organization
Against Torture (OMCT). He has been first appointed to this post in 2011.
He is also a co-chair of the EU Human Rights Defenders
Protection Mechanism, a coalition of 12 NGOs entrusted by the European Union to
provide a comprehensive global system of protection for defenders most at risk.
He serves in the Advisory Council of the Norwegian Human Rights Fund, the
Geneva Human Rights Film Festival and the Jury of the Geneva based Martin
Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.
Prior to joining the OMCT in 2011, he served with the
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), including as Director of its Center
for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers (CIJL) and as Director of its Global
Security and Rule of Law Initiative. He let the most comprehensive global
inquiry on the impact of counterterrorism and human rights through a high-level
panel of jurists (ICJ Eminent Jurists Panel). From 1998-2002 he worked at the
OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Warsaw
coordinating rule of law and anti-torture projects, including prison reform
projects in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Gerald Staberock is a qualified lawyer from Germany.
He studied in Bonn, Geneva, Washington DC (LL.M in International and
Comparative Law at George Washington University) and Berlin.
He is a double citizen of Germany and Switzerland,
fluent in English, French and German, and a proud family father. His
publications cover the prevention of torture, ‘the rule of law in transition
countries’, the domestic implementation of human rights standards, counterterrorism,
including intelligence accountability and cooperation, as well as on the role
of civil society in international law. He is a frequent speaker at
international events and has been lecturing at the Washington College of Law.
and RACE for GIFT will be presented by Cécilia Cretin later in the evening.
