Former UN Human Rights Committee Secretary speaks on Guantanamo detainees


Event: Alfred de Zayas, former senior
lawyer with the United Nations, to speak on Guantanamo Bay
for the 2003 Douglas McK. Brown Lecture

Date/Time: Wednesday, November 19, 2003.
5:30 p.m.

Place: Moot Courtroom, Curtis Building,
UBC Faculty of Law, 1822 East Mall

The U.S. Supreme Court recently announced it would consider
whether foreigners being held at an American naval base in
Cuba should have access to American courts.

Human rights law expert Alfred de Zayas will comment on the
legal status of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the detainees currently
held there by the United States when he presents the 2003
Douglas McK. Brown Lecture at UBC’s Faculty of Law.

de Zayas, a U.S. citizen who is the former secretary of the
UN Human Rights Committee and chief of the Petitions Division
of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human, maintains
that detention violates American and international law.

de Zayas is a graduate of Harvard Law School and member of
the New York bar, and holds a PhD in history from Goettingen,
Germany. He has written books on history, international law
and human rights law.

He is at UBC until early December as the visiting Douglas
McK. Brown Chair in Law. The chair was established in 1986
to honour the B.C. lawyer who was one of Canada’s most distinguished
counsels.

de Zayas is available in advance for interviews. To arrange,
please contact him at 604.822.1208 or dezayas@law.ubc.ca.

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