Roberto Alvarez

Roberto Alvarez Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Dominican Republic to the Organization of American States. also see

"Roberto Álvarez served in the foreign service of the Dominican Republic from 1966 to 1970. Between 1970 and 1978, he worked at the Organization of American States, first as staff attorney in the legal department and later in the secretariat of the human rights commission. As principal researcher, he prepared the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)'s draft country reports on Chile (1976), El Salvador (1978), Nicaragua (1978), and Paraguay (1977). He also organized IACHR on-site visits to El Salvador (1978), Nicaragua (1977), and Panama (1977).

"With a grant from the Inter-American Foundation, Mr. Álvarez carried out research (1979-1980) on legal aid to indigents and under represented groups in the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean as well as on the promotion and protection of human rights in the area. From 1982 to 1984, he served as program associate in the Central American and Caribbean Program at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

"Mr. Álvarez has served as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank, the Instituto Latinoamericano para la Prevención del Delito y el Tratamiento del Delincuente (ILANUD) of the United Nations, and the Ford Foundation on issues concerning the development of business, the strengthening of judicial systems and the rule of law, and the promotion and protection of human rights. He has also been a delegate on Amnesty International missions to Nicaragua and Sri Lanka.

"Mr. Álvarez has been a professor as well as a guest lecturer on human rights and international law at several universities and academic centers, including American University and the Foreign Service Institute of the US State Department, both in Washington, DC; the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo; the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Managua; Rutgers University Law School in Camden, New Jersey; and the City University of New York.

"He is the author of several books on human rights and international affairs, and writes frequently for Dominican newspapers and magazines, such as El Siglo, Listín Diario, Rumbo, and Gaceta Judicial.

"Mr. Álvarez received a Master's degree in international relations from SAIS and completed all course work there toward a PhD in US foreign policy. He also holds a JD degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo and a Master's in Comparative Law from Georgetown University. He speaks English and Spanish fluently and has a working knowledge of Portuguese and French.

"Mr. Álvarez is presently conducting independent research on issues relating to amnesty laws, impunity, and the historical memory of human rights violations in El Salvador and Argentina." 

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

on February 27, 2006, Alvarez attended a seminar ran by the Haiti Democracy Project.


 * Member, Human Rights Watch Americas Advisory Committee