Juan E. Méndez

United Nations Human Rights Council

This report of the Council's special rapporteur on torture contains summaries of three kinds of texts: letters to the rapporteur alleging particular acts of torture, urgent appeals sent to governments regarding these allegations, and the replies of governments to these appeals. It includes communications issued from 21 December 2009 to 1 December 2010, and the replies of governments received through 30 January 2011. The report addresses acts committed in 66 countries.

Addendum : Summary of Information, Including Individual Cases, Transmitted to Governments and Replies Received

Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman Or Degrading Treatment Or Punishment, Juan E. Méndez

Marjory Wentworth

Juan Méndez has experienced human rights abuse first hand. As a result of his work with political prisoners in the late 1970s, the Argentinean military dictatorship arrested, tortured, and held him for more than a year. During that time, Amnesty International adopted him as a "Prisoner of Conscience." After his release, he moved to the United States and continued his lifelong fight for the rights of others, and the lessons he has gleaned over the decades can help us with our current struggles. Here, he sets forth an authoritative and incisive examination of torture, detention, exile, armed conflict, and genocide, whose urgency is even greater in the wake of America's recent disastrous policies. Méndez offers a new strategy for holding governments accountable for their actions, providing an essential blueprint for different human rights groups to be able to work together to effect change.

Juan E. Méndez

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