María José Guembe
President
Attorney and Master in International Human Rights Law. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the ESMA Memory Site Museum and an associate researcher at the Latin American Observatory of Regulation, Media and Convergence (Observacom). María José is a also member of the International Expert Panel on State Impunity in the Northern Ireland Conflict and an adjunct professor at the National University of Lanús (UNLa). She was the director of the Rights Protection and Legal Affairs Section of the Ombudsman’s Office for Audiovisual Media Services from 2013 to 2018 and Head of that institution from 2016 to 2018. She was director of the CELS Memory, Truth and Justice Program. Nowadays, she contributes to CELS’ work on memory, truth and justice for crimes of state terrorism and on the rights to freedom of expression and to communication. She also represents CELS on the Board of Directors of Memoria Abierta.
Paula Abal Medina
Vice President
Sociologist, Master in Labor Social Sciences and Ph.D. in Social Sciences. Adjunct researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). She specializes in the relationship between capital and labor and in the labor movement. She studies the labor, territorial and union organization of the informal sector in Argentina. Paula teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the Interdisciplinary Institute of Higher Social Studies (IDAES -UNSAM), in different courses organized by unions and at the Latin American University of the Peripheries (ULPe). She is the author and compiler of books, and the author of chapters and magazine articles. She contributes to CELS’ work on economic, social and cultural rights, particularly in relation to work and the popular economy.
Damián Loreti
Secretary
Attorney with a Ph.D. in Information Sciences, he has taught information rights and freedom of expression since 1988 at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Full professor at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). He was director of Communication Sciences at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the UBA from 2002 to 2006 and vice dean from 2006 to 2010. He directs the Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies on Audiovisual Media Services (UBA). He was vice president of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) and has been the Secretary of CELS’ Board of Directors since 2012. He provides legal advice to CELS and contributes his experience and connections with people and institutions related to the university, unions, freedom of expression, and information and communications rights both nationally and in the Inter-American System.
Gonzalo Conte
Treasurer
Architect from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), he coordinates the Topography of Memory program at Memoria Abierta. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Founding Line, as wells as the Board of Directors of the Provincial Commission for Memory and the group Spaces, places and territorial marks of political violence and state repression of the Memory Nucleus of the Institute of Social Studies. He has dedicated himself to documentary investigation of the circuits of repression and the buildings where there were clandestine detention centers. His brother, Augusto María, was kidnapped in 1976 by the dictatorship and is still missing. Gonzalo lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and contributes to CELS’ work on memory, truth and justice policies for the crimes of state terrorism.
Clarisa Gambera
Member
Trade unionist and feminist, she serves as the Secretary of Gender and Diversity on the national leadership team of the State Workers’ Association (ATE) and the Buenos Aires City branch of the Central of State Workers (CTA-Autónoma). She is also a member of the feminist inter-union collective. Gambera is a teacher and childhood worker at the Council of Girls, Boys, and Teens of the Buenos Aires City Government. She co-founded the Nora Cortiñas School of Popular Feminism in 2016 and the ATE Trade Union Observatory of Gender and Labor Relations in 2023. Clarisa joined the CELS Board of Directors in September 2024 and contributes to the transversal feminist agenda and relations with the union world.
Manuel Garrido
Member
Graduated in Law from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and Master in Evidentiary Reasoning from the Universities of Girona and Genoa, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at several Argentine universities. He was a National Deputy from 2011 to 2015 and has accumulated extensive local and international experience investigating corruption. From 1999 to 2001 he served as Director of Investigations of the Anti-Corruption Office and from 2002 to 2003 he was Head of the Office. He was also National Prosecutor for Administrative Investigations until 2009. He participated in international missions for the UN and the OAS, including in Guatemala (1997 and 1998), where he was Head of Investigations and Litigation of the International Commission Against Impunity in 2011, and in Honduras (2017). He has also served as Director of Justice and Transparency at CIPPEC. Currently, he directs Innocence Project Argentina. Manuel joined the CELS Board of Directors in September 2024 and collaborates with the judicial agenda and litigation strategies.
Diego Montón
Member
He is a leader of the National Indigenous Peasant Movement-Somos Tierra (MNCI-ST), a member of the Argentine Agro-Food Table, and Secretary of the Council of the Federation of Peasant and Family Agriculture Cooperatives (FeCoCAF). He is an agronomist and teaches secondary and adult education. Montón was part of the National Council of Indigenous Peasant Family Agriculture at the Ministry of Agriculture in 2020 and is a member of the International Collective for Peasant Rights of La Vía Campesina. He has authored several publications and was part of the editorial team for the “Atlas de sistemas alimentarios del cono Sur” (Atlas of Food Systems of the Southern Cone), published by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in 2022. He also contributed to the book “Cartografía de Conflictos en Territorios Indígenas del Cuyum” (Cartography of Conflicts in the Indigenous Territories of Cuyum), among other academic works. Diego joined the Board of Directors in September 2024 and contributes to the CELS agenda on habitat.
Gustavo F. Palmieri
Member
Lawyer graduated from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Since 2017, he has been a member of the National Committee for the Prevention of Torture, representing social organizations. He is a Professor and Director of the Institute of Justice and Human Rights of the National University of Lanús. He was Secretary of Coordination, Planning and Training and Undersecretary of Management and Well-being of the Police and Security Forces Personnel of the Ministry of National Security between 2011 and 2013. Between 1999 and 2009 Gustavo directed the CELS Institutional Violence and Citizen Security Program. He contributes to the CELS justice, security and access to justice agenda.
Sofía Tiscornia
Member
Anthropologist with a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology, she is a Professor and director of the Political and Legal Anthropology Team at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). She is a professor in the Doctoral Program Human Rights at the National University of Lanús (UNLa). She also directs research programs on justice, police violence and human rights. She has served as an expert witness in anthropology before the Inter-American Human Rights Court. Sofia has published books and numerous scientific articles on institutional violence and human rights, both in Argentina and abroad. She directed the CELS Research area. Nowadays, she contributes to the CELS research methodology.
Juan Gabriel Tokatlian
Member
Sociologist, Master and Ph.D. in International Relations from The Johns Hopkins University. He is a Professor of International Relations at the Di Tella University, where he was dean of the Department of Political Science and International Studies between 2011 and 2016 and vice provost between 2019 and 2023. He lived 18 years in Colombia, where he was an associate professor at the National University of Colombia and principal researcher at the Institute of Political Studies and International Relations (IEPRI). He was co-founder of the Center for International Studies (CEI) of the Los Andes University. He has published several books, essays and opinion articles on relations between the United States and Latin America, the contemporary global system and on drug trafficking, terrorism and organized crime. He collaborates with the international agenda.
Verónica Torras
Member
Graduated in Philosophy from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), she has specialized in Collective Memories, Human Rights and Resistance at the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO). She is executive director of Memoria Abierta. She was communication secretary of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires between 2000 and 2004, and director of the Memory in Motion Program of the Communication Secretariat of the Nation, between 2011 and 2015. She was director of the communication area of CELS. Nowadays, she contributes to CELS’ work on memory, truth and justice policies for the crimes of state terrorism.