Brian Concannon
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Brian Concannon, Jr. (born November 18, 1963) is a human rights lawyer and foreign policy advocate. He is the Executive Director of the
Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) is a non-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, US, that seeks to accompany the people of Haiti in their nonviolent struggle for the consolidation of constitutional democracy, ju ...
(IJDH), which he co-founded in 2004. Concannon also serves as a member of the Editorial Board of ''Health and Human Rights: An International Journal'' at the Harvard School of Public Health, and is a contributor to the
Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft is a U.S. think tank founded in 2019 and located in Washington, D.C., named after former U.S. president John Quincy Adams. It has been described as realist and advocating for restraint in U.S. fo ...
blog. He is an alumnus of
Boston College High School , motto_translation = ''So they may know You.'' , address = 150 Morrissey Boulevard , city = Boston , state = Massachusetts , zipcode = 02125 , country ...
'81, as well as an Ignatius Award winner. He holds an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College and JD from
Georgetown Law The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment a ...
. He is the recipient of the Wasserstein Public Interest Fellowship from Harvard Law School the Brandeis International Fellowship in Human Rights, Intervention, and International Law and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Canisius College. Brian has qualified as a
expert witness
on country conditions Haiti in over 40 cases in the U.S. and Canada, appearing on behalf of both applicants and the U.S. government.


Bureau des Avocats Internationaux

After working for the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
as a Human Rights Officer in 1995–1996, Concannon co-managed the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), Haiti's only public interest law office with Mario Joseph between 1996 and 2004. During his time at BAI, Concannon played an essential role in preparing the prosecution of the landmark Raboteau Massacre trial in 2000. As many as 50 people were killed in the Raboteau in 1994. Six years after the slaughter, Concannon and BAI were able to convict 16 defendants guilty for their role in the massacre. The Court also issued a civil damages judgment against the defendants for 1 billion gourdes (roughly $43 million). A documentary was made about the trial which features extensive interviews with Concannon. BAI was tasked with various other cases during this time period, geared primarily toward seeking justice for the victims of ex-military and paramilitary violence in Haiti (which has been documented in depth), and BAI was also involved in the investigation into the murder of famed Haitian radio journalist
Jean Dominique Jean Léopold Dominique (31 July 1930 – 3 April 2000) was a Haitian journalist and noted activist for human rights and democracy in Haiti. His station, Radio Haiti-Inter, was the first to broadcast news, investigative reporting, and politic ...
.


Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti

In 2004, Concannon left Haiti and returned to the United States to found the
Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) is a non-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, US, that seeks to accompany the people of Haiti in their nonviolent struggle for the consolidation of constitutional democracy, ju ...
(IJDH) after the February 2004 coup d'état that overthrew Haiti's president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. IJDH was founded specifically as the sister group of BAI. IJDH and BAI work collaboratively on all their projects. IJDH is based in Boston, Massachusetts. Concannon successfully represented former Prime Minister and political prisoner Yvon Neptune in the first Haiti case ever decided by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In January 2016, Concannon taught a class on human rights at Whitman College. He was also an integral part of the IJDH team that sued the United Nations for their responsibility in bringing cholera to Haiti. The case was dismissed both by the UN and in the NY Federal Court on the basis of UN immunity. In December 2016, the then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon finally apologized for the cholera outbreak in Haiti, saying he was "profoundly sorry" for the outbreak. The work of Concannon and his colleagues at the BAI and IJDH is the subject o
How Human Rights Can Build Haiti
by Professor Fran Quigley, and
case study
by
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
's Project on Justice in Times of Transition.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Concannon, Brian Living people 1963 births Middlebury College alumni American lawyers Georgetown University Law Center alumni Wasserstein Fellows Boston College High School alumni