By: Gabriela Yareliz
Today, I cried when I heard of the passing of Mario Joseph.
Mario was a Haitian human rights attorney that I worked extensively with through BAI for my asylum cases. It was a thrill to meet him in-person at the Center for Constitutional Rights Social Justice Conference in summer of 2014, after so many hours on the phone through crazy late nights and wild cases dealing with life or death situations.
He was exactly who I had perceived him to be, an incredible person. A man who carried himself and the legal profession with so much dignity and integrity.
The world lost a fighter and incredible human. Rest in glory, Mario Joseph. The world will feel your absence.
Mario Joseph’s bio here (source):
Mario Joseph, Av., has co-managed or managed the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux in Haitisince 1996, and has practiced human rights and criminal law since 1993. The New York Times called him Haiti’s most respected human rights lawyer. He spearheaded the prosecution of the Raboteau Massacre trial in 2000, one of the most significant human rights cases anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. He has represented dozens of jailed political prisoners, in Haitian courts and in complaints before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In 2009, he received the Judith Lee Stronach Human Rights Award from the Center for Justice & Accountability and the Katherine and George Alexander Human Rights Prize from the University of Santa Clara Law School. He has testified as an expert on Haitian criminal procedure before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and in U.S. courts, and served on the Haitian government’s Law Reform Commission.
Mr. Joseph is also an educator, and a graduate of Haiti’s Teachers’ College. He has extensive experience teaching human rights and legal issues to grassroots advocacy organizations, human rights groups and victims’ organizations. He appears frequently on television and radio in Haiti to explain legal issues. He speaks Haitian Creole, French and English.
GABRIELA YARELIZ 