Dinner at the Chilean Embassy Honoring Claudio Grossman’s

Election to the Position of UN CAT Chair (July 2, 2008)

• I would like to thank Ambassador Mariano Fernández for his kind remarks, and for this very nice and generous celebration by him and his wife.

• It means a lot to me to be here with you, Mariano.  I remember that it was not that long ago when you and I were both “enjoying Pinochet Scholarships,” as they say, in Europe.   

• I can’t help reflecting on those days when we were refugees in distant countries, and the world and our Hemisphere appeared so alien and grim. 

• Those were days filled with mass and gross violations of human rights, of torture – not only in Chile but in many places.  It would’ve been easy to be captured by the gloom, and some people were. 

• Instead, Mariano, we resisted it, and didn’t allow it to poison our way of thinking.  I remember that we were captured by something else:  imagining and contributing to the creation of a different world.  We never lost our faith – our “madness” if you like - in a better reality for the region and the world.     

• I think that we always knew that, sooner or later, there would be opportunities to contribute to important values of human dignity.

• And now, standing here with you – the Ambassador of Chile, a position that helps shape politics on the global stage – it makes me think that, although in those days we were even younger than we are now, we were not so foolish.

• Chile is an example of the new reality as it undertakes the important process of strengthening and expanding its democracy.  It is impossible to mention Chile’s many achievements in that regard, but among its most impressive ones are:
• the solidity of its institutions;
• the strength of its civil society;
• the dramatic reduction of poverty; and
• the central role that “inclusion” – for example, of women – plays in governance.  President Michelle Bachelett is a poignant example of this. 

• As a victim of torture herself, and as a person whose father was brutally killed, Michelle represents some of the best human rights traditions:
• how to conquer the past, without forgetting it, and forge ahead to build a future of humanity and happiness;
• how to move from hatred to cooperation and unity; from being scared for your life to being free; from arbitrariness to the rule of law; and from exclusion to inclusion.

• When democracy was restored to Chile, Mr. Ambassador, you should know that the Washington College of Law created the first summer law program there.  It was quite a miraculous program:
• to begin with, it was the first summer law program held in the winter (thank God we didn’t get sued!). 
• At the same time, we should be grateful that it takes place during the winter because, even though in many respects that season is Chile’s least appealing, our students had amazing experiences.  If it weren’t for the winter, I think we may have lost our students for good to a perennial “summer-summer” Chile program. 

• I’m also very pleased and honored to see here friends, colleagues, alumni, faculty  and administrators of the Washington College of Law and American University, institutions renowned for superb education and commitment to public service.

• The WCL community is so intelligent that, sometimes, it even manages to make sense of the things I say.

• It is also a community of tremendous generosity and commitment to public interest.  As some of you know, I lived many years in the Netherlands, where people can be quite, shall we say, “realistic”.  Every Dutch child, for instance, is taught at a young age that you shouldn’t get involved in the Balkans. 

• So when I came to this country in 1982, I found the law school incredibly refreshing – almost naïve – in its optimism, energy, creativity, and initiative.  I was so struck by the fact that more than 60% of our applicants indicate that one of their primary motivations in coming to law school is to contribute to a better world.

• At WCL, there are many venues where students can make a difference.  Our community is deeply committed to realizing important values of human dignity through the rule of law – we have numerous programs and initiatives such as our Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, our Center for Human Rights, War Crimes Research Office, Health Law program, Environmental Program, Project on Addressing Prison Rape, Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, Women and the Law Program, Innocence Project, Clinical Program with 9 in-house clinics on subjects such as disability rights, intellectual property, and domestic violence, and many, many more programs.

• I am extremely grateful to the WCL community for providing support for my efforts at the UN Committee against Torture where I have served since 2003, and previously at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, where I was a member for 8 years.

• With respect to torture, ours is perhaps the only law school in the world that runs a program to strengthen the prohibition against torture:  our United Nations Committee against Torture (or UN CAT) Project. 

• As part of this Project, 6 students join me and the project coordinator each fall in preparing for the November session of the Committee.  The students take a specialized seminar on the prohibition of torture under international law, and they work like law clerks, conducting extensive research, preparing position papers, and identifying issues related to cases and country reports.

• The group travels with me to Geneva to participate at the session and conduct follow-up research and work at a very intense pace.
•  Some of the students are so good, I think that they should sit on the Committee.

• And I’ll let you in on a little secret, so long as you don’t share it with my fellow Committee members:  Thanks to our UN CAT Project, I am the most prepared – perhaps others would say the “biggest pain in the neck” - of the Committee members, armed with questions and comments about accountability, implementation, compliance, reparations, and claims of abuse and torture.

• Well, once again, I would like to thank the Ambassador and all of you for this very special evening.

• And as the Ambassador mentioned, my wife Irene and I recently welcomed a new member of our family, granddaughter Naomi Clara.  My other daughter, Sandra, is here with us tonight.  She works as an immigration and refugee lawyer in DC.

• For the record, let me say that “Grandma Irene” and I were married when we were both 18 years old, making us very, very young grandparents – particularly Irene.

• I hope that Naomi Clara will grow up with the conviction that even under the worst circumstances, humanity, generosity and kindness, are what defines us all, and that we all can help achieve that world, one which is free from torture.