Raul Molina

Raúl Molina-Mejía "is an Adjunct Associate Professor of History at Long Island University and has had a varied career as a professor, researcher, adviser, human rights advocate, and administrator. He teaches courses at LIU in Latin American History and World Civilizations, and also teaches courses on Human Rights, Sustainable Development, and NGOs at New York University, School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Molina-Mejía has a graduate degree from the School of Engineering, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), Guatemala and conducted post-university studies in Education for University Professors (USAC, Guatemala) and in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Mexico D.F., and Federal Republic of Germany. Molina-Mejía was elected Dean of the School of Engineering, USAC, Guatemala (1976-1980) and in 1980 he became Acting President of the university.

"In 1980 he was forced to go into exile due to the military dictatorship in Guatemala. He was a visiting professor at the University of Panama (Panama, 1981-82) and the Catholic University of America (Washington D.C., 1983-1986) and a visiting scholar at Columbia University (New York, 2000). For many years he was also Coordinator of the National University of Guatemala's Truth Commission (1998-99); adviser to human rights organizations in Central America including CODEHUCA, a federation of human rights NGO's in Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, and CONADEHGUA, a federation of human rights organizations in Guatemala (1985-95). In particular, he was a founding member of Representación Unitaria de la Oposición Guatemalteca (RUOG) in 1982, a political and diplomatic team that presented the case of Guatemala to all important international forums on human rights, particularly the UN General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights (1982-1998)." 


 * Director, Guatemala Human Rights Commission