Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, Human rights expert, United Nations official. (born in Havana) ** Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, experto en Derechos Humanos, oficial de las Naciones Unidas.
He was born in Havana, Cuba (born 31 May 1947; né Alfredo (de) Zayas), also known as Alfred de Zayas y Rozos (usually known as Alfredo (de) Zayas under Spanish naming customs), the son of the Cuban lawyer José-Maria-Enrique-Victor Zayas y Portela and Agustina Rozos y Arnaldo, a native of Asturias in Spain. He is a relative and namesake of Cuba’s 4th President Alfredo Zayas y Alfonso. The family moved to the United States following the Cuban Revolution, and he anglicized his first name to Alfred.
Alfred de Zayas grew up in Chicago and earned his juris doctor from Harvard Law School and a doctorate of philosophy in modern history from the Georg-August University of Göttingen. He practiced corporate law in New York and family law in Florida, as member of the New York and Florida Bars. He was also a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Tübingen and research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg.
He is an American lawyer, writer, historian, a leading expert in the field of human rights and international law, a retired high-ranking United Nations official, a peace activist, and since 2012 the United Nations Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order (also known as Special Rapporteur), appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
He is currently a professor of international law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations, and formerly worked with the United Nations from 1981 to 2003 as a senior lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Secretary of the Human Rights Committee, and the Chief of Petitions. He practised law in New York as an associate in the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett from 1970 to 1974, specializing on corporate law, and is also a retired member of the Florida Bar.
Alfred de Zayas’ scholarly work focuses on the judicial protection of peoples and minorities. He holds a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and a doctorate in modern history from the University of Göttingen. De Zayas has written and lectured extensively on human rights, including the jurisprudence of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust the US-run detention centers at Guantanamo Bay, ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, the expulsion of Eastern European Germans after the Second World War, the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey in 1974, the rights of minorities, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the rights of indigenous peoples. He is an advocate of “the right to homeland” as a universal human right, of the human right to peace, of the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly and a World Court on Human Rights, and has been active on behalf of the Iranian refugees in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
Since his retirement from the UN in 2003, de Zayas has become a vocal critic of the Iraq War indefinite detention in Guantanamo, secret CIA prisons, nuclear pollution, and extreme poverty. He has chastised the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany for their lack of intellectual honesty and their lip service to human rights. A resident of Geneva, Switzerland, he was President of the Suisse Romand Centre of International PEN from 2006 to 2009 and in March 2013 was again elected its president for a term of three years. From 1990 to 2005 he was president of the United Nations Society of Writers.
Activist for human rights and peace.
De Zayas is a member of numerous professional organizations and non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International, Point Coeur, the Geneva Club de la Presse, the German Society for International Law, the Forschungskreis Vereinte Nationen, and the Centre Against Expulsions (Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen), the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law. He sits on the advisory boards of several organizations, including the Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte in Frankfurt, and is a member of the International Expert Panel for a European Solution in Cyprus (2004–2008).
In 2008-2010, he was president of Millennium Solidarity, a Geneva non-governmental organization working for world peace and the eradication of poverty.
He is an advocate of the human right to peace and a signatory of the “Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace”.
While a staff member at the U.N., de Zayas was the founder and editor of the series “Selected Decisions of the Human Rights Committee under the Optional Protocol.” He is a regular participant in panels and round tables at the United Nations, where he represents the International Society for Human Rights. During the 4th-18th sessions of the Human Rights Council, he has participated in panels on various issues including the right to development, extreme poverty, the millennium development goals, women’s rights, self-determination, indigenous rights, Kashmir, moderated a panel on human dignity, and presented the statement of Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on the International Day of Human Rights, 21 September 2007. He is a consultant with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and a member of the board of directors of Project 2048 at the University of Berkeley, which aims at a new human rights convention with effective implementation machinery to promote and protect all human rights, including the “new enabling rights” such as the right to peace, the right to truth, the right to a homeland. On 18 August 2011 Bruna Molina and de Zayas founded the Geneva Branch of 2048 as an association under Swiss law, the International Bill of Rights Association.
During his mandate, Alfred de Zayas has made important remarks related to contemporary world issues, welcoming the Arms Trade Treaty and urging States to regulate not only trade but also production of arms. For the 2013 World Water Day, he stated that: “With the growth of the world population, the global climate change and the need for a greater healthy environment, access to water resources has become a crucial condition for the realization of an equitable international order, where the needs of the peoples are effectively addressed.”. Furthermore, for the 2013 International Earth Day, he observed: “When we pollute the Earth and waste resources, we violate the rights of future generations and undermine an international order based on democratic participation and equitable sharing of the planet’s wealth.”He argues that a change of paradigm is necessary to achieve a just international order: “This vision can be achieved by respecting the United Nations Charter as the World Constitution, by applying international law uniformly and not à la carte, An international democratic order is one where all peoples have the opportunity to participate in global decision-making. We must build on the principles of self-determination, sovereignty, and respect for national identities and universal human dignity.”He proposed reforms in the international arena, including in the UN Security Council and the General Assembly, while also stressing that the riches of the planet must be equally shared and not controlled by a few countries or cartels. “Fair trade is possible, as are transfer of knowledge and technical cooperation based on mutual benefit,” pointing to the international financial crisis as an indicator of inequality in the international order, and calling for transparency and accountability in the markets, emphasizing that markets cannot be the “private playground of financial bankers”, and instead need to understand their role as “a public responsibility.”
Literary endeavors.
De Zayas has published poetry in English, French, German, Spanish, and Dutch, translated Rainer Maria Rilke into English, French, and Spanish, and translated Joseph von Eichendorff and Hermann Hesse into English.
A member of International PEN since 1989, he was Secretary-General of the Centre Swiss Romande of PEN PEN Club in 2002-06, and its president 2006-2010; since then he remains a member of the Centre’s executive committee. De Zayas was coordinator of the three Swiss PEN Centres Switzerland since 2008-10.
He has been a member of the Société Genevoise des Ecrivains since 2008 and a member of the Société Valaisanne des Ecrivains since 2013.
Poetry in English, French, Spanish, German and Russian published in various literary journals and newspapers including “Esoteric” in 2003, 2004 and 2005 (literary journal of the University of British Columbia), in “Ex Tempore” (literary journal of the United Nations Society of Writers), in les Pages Litteraires (literary journal of P.E.N. International, Centre Suisse romand), in the U.N. Special, Reflections (United Nations Staff Council, New York), in “Paloma”, publication of the Geneva Salève Society, etc.
Agencies/Various/Wiki/InternetPhotos/thecubanhistory.com
The Cuban History, Hollywood.
Arnoldo Varona, Editor.