Prof. Carozza Returns from Honduran Human Rights Mission

Notre Dame Professor of Law Paolo Carozza returns to campus Monday, Aug. 24 following a week-long fact-finding mission in Honduras to observe the human rights situation there following a June 28 military coup that led to the ousting of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

Carozza traveled to Honduras in his role as an elected member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which promotes the observance and defense of human rights in the 35 Western hemisphere nations that are members of the Organization of American States (OAS). The OAS issued a statement calling for Mr. Zelaya’s return and said it would not recognize any other government.

Carozza joined the Notre Dame Law School faculty in 1996. He is actively involved in the work of the Center for Civil and Human Rights (CCHR) at the Law School, and serves as director of the J.S.D. program in international human rights law, administered through the CCHR. At the University of Notre Dame, he is also a fellow of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. Carozza earned both his A.B. and J.D. degrees from Harvard, and pursued graduate studies at Cambridge University and at Harvard Law School as a Ford Foundation Fellow in Public International Law. After law school, he served as a judicial clerk for the Supreme Court of the Federated States of Micronesia and worked as an associate at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Arnold & Porter.

Read a news release about the IACHR delegates’ visit to Honduras here: http://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English/2009/58-09eng.htm

Look for updates on this story in the days to come.