Four LL.M. in International Human Rights Law students are named Rita Bahr Cari Scholars
The Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights is proud to announce the Rita Bahr Cari Memorial Fund Scholars for 2022-23. The recipients are human rights lawyers enrolled in the LL.M. Program in International Human Rights Law, a joint program of Notre Dame Law School and the Klau Institute.
Carlos Martinez Roca is a Guatemalan human rights lawyer and advocate for mass atrocity victims in Guatemala. Carlos has served as assistant professor at Rafael Landívar University teaching constitutional law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. He recently worked on the national reparations program and precautionary measures for evicted and displaced indigenous communities in El Petén, the northern part of Guatemala. As head of the international department at Bufete de Juridico Derechos Hermanos (BDH), one of Guatemala’s leading human rights organizations, Carlos represented matters before international tribunals and participated in proceedings at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, UN treaty bodies and committees, and Special Rapporteurs.
Faisal Yamil Meneses is a Venezuelan human rights lawyer and assistant professor of constitutional law at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, with specific practice and research interests in human rights, transitional justice, and refugee law. At the law firm of Ayala, Dillon, Fernández y Chavero he litigated cases before human rights systems alongside the former president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Professor Carlos Ayala Corao, defending persecuted Venezuelan political leaders and representing victims from Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Suriname. Faisal also worked as national coordinator for vulnerable groups and individuals of the Presidential Commission for Human Rights of the Interim Government of Venezuela.
Monserrat Camara Santos is a Mexican human rights lawyer working as Vice-Principal at the Technical Secretary against Torture and Other Cruel and Inhuman Treatment in the Federal Public Defender’s Office of Mexico, where she collaborated on and led the design and implementation of national and international legal strategies to defend human rights survivors of torture, ensure the adequate investigation of torture and ill-treatment cases, the creation of special investigation bodies of torture in multiple states of Mexico, and the operation of the National Registry on Torture. Monserrat co-founded the initiative Actions for the Dignity, which seeks to promote the human rights of victims of gross human rights violations and gender violence in Mexico.
Josemaria Rodriguez Conca is a Chilean human rights lawyer who served as head of the Department of Human Rights Protection Systems at the Chilean Ministry of Justice. Prior to this appointment, he worked at the Chilean Ministry of International Relations in the Directorate of International Economics Relations. Josemaria has participated in litigation representing the state of Chile at the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, as well as supervising Chile’s submission of various periodic reports to United Nations human rights treaty bodies. He has also served as teaching assistant at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Mr. Joseph Cari endowed the Rita Bahr Cari Memorial Fund in 2001, with additional donations, to encourage advanced studies in international human rights law. The fund provides opportunities to students outside of the United States who wish to study at the Klau Institute by assisting with tuition and living expenses.
Originally published by at klau.nd.edu on October 27, 2022.