ESTEBAN BELTRÁN VERDES

Director of Amnesty International Spain

Today:

Since June 1997, he has been the Director of the Spanish Section of Amnesty International. This human rights organization has more than 80,000 members in Spain, more than 100 working groups, and it is his direct responsibility to run its Central Office where more than 60 employees and more than 200 volunteers work.

Until recently he was the Adviser to the Secretary General for Amnesty International’s global projects worldwide. He is currently a member of Amnesty International’s Global Management Team.

He has a Degree in Development Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, which he studied from 1993 to 1995.

He is also a university guest professor for the Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Cooperation at the Universities of Granada and the Basque Country, professor of investigation into the violation of human rights in the Master’s Degree on International Relations at the Autonomous University of Madrid and professor at the Institute of Human Rights in the Master’s Degree on Human Rights at the University of La Plata.

Additional information:

He lived in several Latin American countries in the early 1990s, including Argentina, Ecuador and Costa Rica, where he worked as an international development consultant within Amnesty International. His work consisted of developing the organization’s structure in these countries.

He lived in London and worked for the organization’s International Secretariat in various positions from 1992 to 1996.

These include Head of Development of Amnesty International in Latin America and the Caribbean in 1992 and 1993. His work consisted in developing the organization in more than 20 countries in the region.

In 1994 and 1995 he was Director of the Organization’s Office of the Secretary General. The Secretary General is the organization’s highest official worldwide. During these years, as Director of the Office, he was the Chief Adviser to the Secretary General and he coordinated the Senior Management Team of the International Secretariat in London.

Until June 1997, he was an investigator for human rights violations in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama. His work consisted in documenting and investigating violations of these rights in these countries and designing the lobbying of their governments. As a result of this work, he carried out field work with investigation missions in these countries.

In recent years he has also carried out 20 field missions on behalf of Amnesty International, gathering testimonies and talking to the respective governments.

He is author of several books and publications on human rights, the most recent “Derechos Torcidos; Tópicos, mentiras y medias verdades sobre pobreza, política y derechos humanos” (Editorial Debate). He has published a book of poetry “La Jodida Intensidad de Vivir” (Editorial Vaso Roto). He has also published several articles in Spanish magazines and newspapers on human rights.

  • Friday, 9 November

    SESSION 5. THE FUTURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

  • 14:30  - 15:55
    ESTEBAN BELTRÁN VERDES
    What we have called “demonization policy” poses a serious challange, possibly an existential threat to the whole project of human rights, as cooperation and international norms lose support and increasingly more governments openly express themselves as hostile to human rights, often with the support of public opinion. Demonization speeches are increasingly more evident, more extended and more popular. Certain conditions exist that are systematically taken advantage of to promote demonization policies. Inequality is increasing in many parts of the world, as is the perception of cultural displacement, and politicians take advantage of this sitaution making use of simplified discourse that identify scapegoats to blame for causing a popular sensation of discontent, often migrant people or other minorities. Hate and fear have passed from being rhetoric to being reality, as many governments have attempted to apply policies that standardise large-scale discrimination of minorities and marginalised groups. With few leaders prepared to stand in defense of human rights in the world scenario, governments are removing without any shame guarantees of human rights protections which has taken a lot of effort to obtain. Faced with this situation, people are mobilising because governments do not satisfy their basic needs, especially in matters of housing, work and economic rights. The alarming increase in inequality is creating an ideal climate for the exacerbation of the social division, resulting in an increased risk of human rights violations. By denying these human rights, governments are provoking the most absolute desperation. The enormous social and economic difficulties, such as austerity, physical abuse and the lack of government solutions to these problems, could provoke a human rights disaster that would affect millions of people. An example of this is that, in Europe, citizens took to the street to protest against the harmful effects of the austerity measures in Spain, Greece, UK and Serbia. Research carried out in England listed around 120,000 deaths from the cuts in health care and social services During 2017 there were considerable cuts in public spending in Indonesia, Mongolia and Sri Lanka. As we approach the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 2018, the challenge facing us is obvious. The time has come to recover the essential idea of the equality and dignity of all persons, of appreciating these values and demanding that they become the basis of policy formulation and its application. Governments must give priority to human rights both nationally and internationally. With outstanding leaders attempting to undermine fundamental liberties, and war crimes against humanity ignored, the lack of leadership on matters of human rights on a global scale has had dangerous consequences. Raising your voice has become increasingly more dangerous, and governments must invert this tendency if we want to protect our valued right to freedom of expression. Attacks against the mass media have reached unprecedented extremes, as has happened with attacks against human rights activists. Societies can only flourish if they are prepared to scrutinise those in power, rather than refraining from doing so.




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ESTEBAN BELTRÁN VERDES