Patricia Valdez

Patricia Tappatá de Valdez "coordinates the Program for Leadership in Philanthropy in the Americas (Center for State and Society Studies, Kellogg Foundation, Buenos Aires office). The program aims to generate a critical mass of leaders capable of playing a key role in promoting philanthropy in six Latin American countries and the US Latino community.

"She is a founding member of Memoria Abierta (February, 2000), an alliance of eight human rights organizations. She directs the project Recordar that seeks the following: to collect, preserve, and make accessible the documentary, testimonial and state-based patrimony on the Argentine dictatorship and state terrorism; to promote public knowledge of what happened during the 1970s and 19880s; and to recuperate the memory of those years, making it a part of Argentine political and social identity.

"She is secretary of the board of the Center of Legal and Social Studies (CELS) in Buenos Aires. CELS is a non-governmental organization created in 1979 that works to promote and secure the relevance of human rights within the democratic system. The center basically carries out its task from a legal perspective and through litigation in witness cases before national tribunals and international organizations.

"She is a founding member of the International Coalition for Museums of Conscience at Historic Sites. In 1996 and 1999, she joined the board of directors of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) with offices in Capetown and Pretoria.

"She was executive director of El Salvador's truth commission (1992), created by the peace accords signed by the Salvadoran parties, with support from the UN General Secretary and charged with investigating the grave human rights violations in El Salvador during the years of conflict.

"She directed the Human Rights Department of the Social Action Episcopal Commission (Peruvian Episcopal Conference) between 1977 and 1987. In 1985, she was one of the founders of the National Human Rights Coordinating Committee in Peru and was a member of its first executive committee.

"She headed the Political Representation Program of the Citizen Power Foundation (1991-1992 and 1993-1997). She is a member of the Commission in Favor of a Monument Honoring the Victims of State Terrorism (City of Buenos Aires legislature). The monument will be erected at Memorial Park on the bank of the Río de la Plata.

"She has been a visiting professor at the universities of Buenos Aires, Torcuato di Tella, San Andrés, and Georgetown. She is a consultant on matters relating to human rights, memory, political representation, citizen participation, and non-governmental organizations in several Latin American countries. She has published essays and has been a contributor to anthologies on these topics.

"Patricia is Argentine. Her undergraduate degree is in social work and her master's in social sciences." 

In 2003 she was a board member of the Memory, Truth and Justice: Comparative Perspectives on National Reconciliation.


 * Executive Director, Memoria Abierta
 * Working Group, New Tactics in Human Rights