José "Pepe" Zalaquett Daher is a Chilean lawyer, renowned for his work in the defence of human rights during the de facto regime that governed Chile under General Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990.
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José Zalaquett graduated from the law school of the University of Chile in 1967.
Following the coup d'état of 11 September 1973, he became involved with the Comité Pro Paz, an agency established by various Christian churches and members of the Jewish community on the initiative of Roman Catholic Cardenal Raúl Silva Henríquez. Serving as the director of its legal department from late 1973 until the committee was wound up in December 1975, his job was to direct and coordinate the efforts of internal and external lawyers in defending human rights. This entailed work in three broad areas:
On 15 November 1975, agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) arrested José Zalaquett and took him to the Tres Álamos detention centre. He was released on 30 January 1976, arrested again on 5 April, and sent into exile on 12 April. He did not return to Chile until 1986.
During his years abroad, he served as the head of the international executive committee of Amnesty International from 1979 to 1982.
During Chile's transition to democracy, Zalaquett was appointed by President Patricio Aylwin to serve on the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a truth commission set up in 1990 to investigate human rights violations committed by the military regime. In 1999 and 2000 he served on the dialogue panel (mesa de diálogo) on human rights between members of the armed forces and human rights lawyers.
From 2002 to 2005 he served as a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, including a stint as its president in 2004-05.
José Zalaquett has taught law at the University of Chile, and lectures there in international human rights law and in ethics and government. He holds Honoris Causa doctorates in law from Notre Dame University and City University of New York (United States). He is a member of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists and member of the board of the International Centre for Transitional Justice.
Along with Cecilia Medina, a Chilean judge on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Zalaquett currently directs the Human Rights Centre at the University of Chile's law school.
In 1994 UNESCO awarded him that year's Prize for Human Rights Education.
In 2003 he was awarded Chile's National Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences for his "contribution to the protection of the rights of individuals and of ethics in politics".[1] In August 2006, Santiago's Alberto Hurtado University gave him the San Alberto Hurtado Medal in recognition of his human rights work.[2] He is patron of the Media Legal Defence Initiative.