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The 2025 Panel of Experts

Alejandro Chehtman

Dean and Professor of Law at the Law School of the University Torcuato Di Tella. Alejandro is Executive Director of the Latin American Society of International Law (SLADI-LASIL) and a Fellow at the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET). He studied Law at the University of Buenos Aires, where he graduated with honors, and did his MSc in Political Theory and his PhD in Law at the LSE. His main research interests are Public International Law, International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law, and Constitutional Law, with special interest in philosophical and empirical issues. 

Alejandro was previously Fellow at the Law Department at LSE, was Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Faculty of Laws at University College London, Visiting Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, and Visiting Professor at the University of Girona and in LUISS, in Rome. Before joining Di Tella he clerked at the Federal Appeals Chamber for Criminal Matters and at the Public Defense Office in the City of Buenos Aires. He is the author of numerous publications in journals of his speciality, including the European Journal of International Law, Leiden Journal of International Law, Journal of International Criminal Justice, Journal of Law & Courts among many others. He is the author of The Philosophical Foundations of Extraterritorial Punishment and a co-editor of the recently appeared Latin American International Law in the 21st Century, both published by Oxford University Press.

Robert Goldman

Is Professor of Law and Louis C. James Scholar at Â鶹Æƽâ°æ Washington College of Law. He is also Faculty Director of the War Crimes Research Office and Co-Director of WCL’s Center For Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. A member of WCL’s faculty since 1971, Professor Goldman was the law school’s Acting Dean from 1979-1980. He was instrumental in founding and was the first Faculty Director of WCL’s International Legal Studies Program. He practiced international trade law at Arnold & Porter from 1974-1976. 

Professor Goldman teaches, practices and writes in the areas of International Law, Human Rights Law, Terrorism, and International Humanitarian Law. In 1993, he chaired the Commission of International Jurists on the Administration of Justice in Peru, jointly tasked by the US and Peruvian governments to evaluate Peru’s anti-terrorist legislation. He helped from 1994-1996 develop the normative framework for internally displaced persons and was a principal author of The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. He was a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights from 1995 to 2004 and was that body’s president in 1999-2000. From July 2004 to August 2005, Professor Goldman was the former UN Human Rights Commission’s Independent Expert on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. In 2008, he was elected a Commissioner and member of the Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and since 2014 was its Vice President. In July 2018, Professor Goldman was elected President of ICJ. Prior to his election to the Inter-American Commission, he was a member of the Policy Committee of Human Rights Watch and the Advisory Boards of Americas Watch, Helsinki Watch and Middle East Watch. Professor Goldman is currently a member of the Diplomatic Reception Room's Fine Arts Committee of the State Department.

He was instrumental in founding and was the first Faculty Director of WCL’s International Legal Studies Program. His area of expertise are International and human rights law; U.S. foreign policy; terrorist violations of international law; law of armed conflict. He practiced international trade law at Arnold & Porter from 1974-1976. Professor Goldman teaches, practices and writes in the areas of International Law, Human Rights Law, Terrorism, and International Humanitarian Law. In 1993, he chaired the Commission of International Jurists on the Administration of Justice in Peru, jointly tasked by the US and Peruvian governments to evaluate Peru’s anti-terrorist legislation. He helped from 1994-1996 develop the normative framework for internally displaced persons and was a principal author of The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. He was a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights from 1995 to 2004 and was that body’s president in 1999-2000. From July 2004 to August 2005, Professor Goldman was the former UN Human Rights Commission’s Independent Expert on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. 

In 2008, he was elected a Commissioner and member of the Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and since 2014 was its Vice President. In July 2018, Professor Goldman was elected President of ICJ and finished his third term in that position in 2024. Prior to his election to the Inter-American Commission, he was a member of the Policy Committee of Human Rights Watch and the Advisory Boards of Americas Watch, Helsinki Watch and Middle East Watch. Professor Goldman is currently a member of the Diplomatic Reception Room's Fine Arts Committee of the State Department.

Margarette May Macaulay

She has been a Commissioner since January 2016 and was re-elected by the General Assembly of the OAS during its 49th Regular Period of Sessions, on June 28, 2019, for a further four-year term from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2023. She also was the president of the IACHR Board of Directors. 

Macaulay was elected to serve as a judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for the term 2007 to 2012, contributing to the formulation of the Court’s Rules of Procedure. 

She serves as Mediator in the Supreme Court of Jamaica and as Associate Arbitrator, as well as serving as Notary Public. 
 She has also served as an Expert for UN Agencies and Ad Hoc Committees at various times over the years. 

She holds a bachelor of laws degree from the University of London and is currently an attorney in private practice. 

She is an honored member of the Gender Justice Legacy Wall of notable women’s rights advocates who have brought about important changes, which was launched in December 2017 at the United Nations in New York, during the Assembly of Ministers. She took part in the reform and drafting of laws in Jamaica and is well known as a strong proponent of and authority on women’s rights. She is a citizen of Jamaica.

Ariela Peralta Distéfano

She is a Uruguayan lawyer and notary with a Master’s degree in International Legal Studies from the Washington College of Law at Â鶹Æƽâ°æ through the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program.

She served as the lead expert for the ProDerechos program of the European Union and the Government of Honduras, aimed at strengthening a National Human Rights System.

She is a member of the Advisory Council of the International School of the Institute of Public Policy on Human Rights of the Southern Common Market (IPPDH-Mercosur).

She was appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council as a member of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua.

She served as a legal consultant to the President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In 2024, she was part of the Independent Panel to Evaluate Candidates for the Bodies of the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS).

She was the Executive Secretary of the Institute of Public Policy on Human Rights of the Southern Common Market (IPPDH-Mercosur).
She worked as a consultant for the Organization of American States (OAS).

She was a member of the first Governing Council of the National Human Rights Institution and Ombudsperson’s Office of Uruguay (INDDHH - Ombudsperson).

At the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), she held the positions of Deputy Executive Director and Director of the Program for the Andean, North American, and Caribbean Region.

Juan E. Méndez

Juan is a Professor of Human Rights Law in Residence at the Â鶹Æƽâ°æ-Washington College of Law and was the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment from November 2010 to October 31, 2016. In July 2020, Juan was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture; his 3-year term was renewed in 2023. In January 2022, he was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to a three-year term as a member of the International Independent Expert Mechanism on Racial Justice and Law Enforcement.

In 2020 and 2021, Juan served as one of five members of the International Independent Group of Experts (GIEI) that investigated and reported on violations of human rights and acts of violence in Bolivia in late 2019. Between April and December 2017 he was a member of the Selection Committee (Comité de Escogencia) that appointed magistrates to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and members of the Truth Commission contemplated in the Peace Accords between Colombia and the FARC guerrillas.

Juan is the author – with Marjorie Wentworth – of "Taking a Stand" (New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, October 2011) and of the Spanish and updated version ("Un Puesto de Lucha") published by Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico in 2021. In January 2017, Juan was elected a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists (Geneva, Switzerland), and has been an advisor on crime prevention to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. In 2010 and 2011, Juan was also Co-Chair of the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association.

Until May 2009, Juan was the President of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and Scholar-in-Residence at the Ford Foundation in New York (summer 2009). Concurrent with his duties at ICTJ, Juan was Kofi Annan’s Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide (2004 to 2007). Between 2000 and 2003, Juan was a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, serving as its President in 2002.  

Juan has taught international law and human rights at Oxford University in the United Kingdom since 1997, and has also taught at the Notre Dame Law School, the Georgetown Law School, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in the United States. From 1982 to 1986, Juan worked for Human Rights Watch in Washington and New York, and from 1996-1999, he served as Executive Director of the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica. 

Gabriela Rodriguez

She has been a full-time professor in the Academic Department of Law at ITAM since 1994, teaching Public International Law I and II as well as Human Rights. She holds a Law degree from ITAM, a Master’s degree in Public International Law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and a Doctorate in Law from UNAM.

She has served as the Director of the Law Bachelor's Program at ITAM and as the Director and founder of the Master's Program in Human Rights and Guarantees at ITAM, as well as the founder of the ITAM clinical projects. She is a member of the National System of Researchers. She has published books and articles on Mexican foreign policy, various perspectives on the incorporation of international law into Mexico’s domestic legal system, and Mexico’s relationship with the Inter-American Human Rights System, among other topics. She has coordinated ITAM students' participation in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights through amicus curiae submissions.

She has participated in lectures and conferences on general public international law, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, the relationship between the international system and Mexico’s domestic legal framework, as well as foreign policy. She has also conducted training sessions for Mexican public officials on the application of international standards in human rights and humanitarian law.