HRDAG Colombia Board of Advisors
Laura Gil
Laura Gil is a consultant to the Department of Political Affairs and Democracy of the Organization of American
States, the Diplomatic Academy of the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Commission of International
Relations of the Colombian Congress. She teaches courses on international organizations at Universidad
Externado de Colombia and the Escuela Superior de Guerra and has worked as facilitator in numerous academic
programs of the Canadian Pearson Peacekeeping Center. Laura writes regularly for the op-ed page of El Tiempo,
Colombia’s largest newspaper, on issues relating to the United Nations and the Organization of American States.
Prior to her current posts, Laura was a member of the Fundación Seguridad y Democracia, a security think-tank, where
she wrote a book on possible alternatives for peacekeeping in Colombia. From 1993 to 1996, she worked in Haiti, first
with the United Nations and later with the Haitian Commission on Truth and Justice. She also served as an electoral
observer in numerous Organization of American States missions.
Laura studied at St. John’s College and The Fletcher
School of Law and Diplomacy.
Ana María Gómez López
Ana María Gómez López is the coordinator and founding member of EQUITAS, a non-profit organization
dedicated to providing pro-bono forensic and psychosocial services to families of missing persons in Colombia.
As member of EQUITAS, Ana María has been involved in designing search strategies and carrying out fieldwork for
cases, as well as working with families throughout the search process of their missing loved one. She worked
with U.S. and Colombian human rights organizations, mainly during her time as Colombia Coordinator of the U.S.
Colombia Coordinating Office (now U.S. Office on Colombia). Ana María holds a BA and MA in anthropology from
the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in forensic and socio-cultural anthropology.
Michael J. Reed Hurtado
Michael J. Reed Hurtado, is a human rights lawyer that has conducted research and activism in the
following fields: criminal due process; prison conditions and reform; military criminal jurisdiction; enforced
disappearances, forced displacement and freedom of speech. He has also worked in the humanitarian field with
UNHCR. Michael has also conducted several large scale planning and evaluation initiatives for various UN and
EU bodies. He has worked mainly in Latin America, with sporadic work in Asia and Africa.
In the academic field, Michael is a professor of the theoretical study of violence and punishment in
the Masters Programme on International Affairs offered by the Universidad Externado de Colombia, Columbia
University and Sciences PO Paris.
Michael joined the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) in April 2007, as a
consultant in Colombia, initially assisting in an institutional strengthening project aimed at the Office
of the Prosecutor General’s capacity to investigate crimes perpetrated by recently demobilized paramilitaries,
who are being tried under a specially instituted procedure. Since September 2007, Michael serves as the
coordinator of the Justice Unit in ICTJ-Colombia.
Michael received his B.A. and B.J. from the University
of Texas and J.D. at the University of Minnesota.
Francoise Roth
|