Cruz Melchor Eya Nchama (born 6 January 1945) is an Equatorial Guinean
judge at the Court of Geneva.
Justice Eya Nchama currently serves as a "judge assessor" at the ''Conciliation Commission for Leases and Rents'', which is where rental and lodging/housing matters are adjudicated. Prior to his current role, he was an elected
Swiss politician.
He is also a writer and well-known
Human Rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
activist within the international human rights community as well as being a prominent person within the Swiss/Geneva Canton.
Eya Nchama studied at the
Complutense University of Madrid
The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loc ...
.
[Un guineano es elegido alcalde en el cantón de Ginebra](_blank)
by J. M. Bacheng, El Periódico de Suiza, nr. 35, June 2005 (Spanish) He was head of the research department of the
Graduate Institute of Development Studies
The Graduate Institute of Development Studies (GIDS, French language, French: ''Institut universitaire d’études du développement'', IUED) was a graduate school in Geneva, Switzerland focusing on development studies. Created in 1961 as the Insti ...
attached to the
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centur ...
and an advisor to the Special Rapporteur of the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of ...
. He is head of the
Anti-Racism Information Service (ARIS)
Geneva Humanitarian Forum
While in exile in the early 1970s, Eya Nchama
J.B. Mbia Mbida Essindi
and others founded the ANRD (''Alianza Nacional por la Restauración Democrática de Guinea Ecuatorial''), which would be the main opposition to the Equatorial Guinean dictatorship. He was a fervent opponent of Macías Nguema, succeeding in 1976 in breaking the forced silence on the subject by then fascist Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
government, presenting a detailed report to the UN Human Rights Commission. After the fall of Macías Nguema and the succession by Obiang in September 1979, he coined the phrase "it's the same dog with a different collar", which gained him considerable notability.
Some years after his naturalisation, Eya Nchama was appointed head of the municipal council of Grand-Saconnex
Le Grand-Saconnex () is a municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the ...
near Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
, being the first black person to reach such a position in Switzerland.
Works (selection)
* ''Développement et droits de l’homme en Afrique'', édition Publisud, Paris, 1991
* ''El mundo en los acrósticos, y otros temas'', Pentalfa, Oviedo, 2001
* ''Misceláneas Guineo Ecuatorianas 1: del estado colonial al Estado dictatorial'' with Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel et al., Editorial Tiempos Próximos, Madrid, 2001
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nchama, Cruz Melchor Eya
1945 births
Living people
21st-century Equatoguinean politicians
Swiss writers
Complutense University of Madrid alumni
Equatoguinean emigrants to Switzerland
20th-century Swiss politicians
21st-century Swiss politicians
21st-century Swiss judges
People from Centro Sur