Jaime Prieto Mendez

Jaime Prieto Mendez (born 1 January 1954[1]) is a Colombian human rights activist. The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights describes him as "internationally regarded as a founder of the modern Colombian human rights movement",[2] and in 1998 awarded him its Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award along with fellow Colombian activists Berenice Celeyta, Gloria Florez, and Mario Calixto.[3]

Jaime Prieto Mendez
Born1 January, 1954
NationalityColombian
OrganizationCommittee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners
Known forhuman rights activism
AwardsRobert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award

Prieto began his career as a teacher in a poor area of Bogotá. Feeling that lack of "human rights literacy" increased the abuses against the poor, he began a human rights education program for which authorities later imprisoned him. In 1976, he joined the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners, and in 1990 he became its executive director, a position he held until 1998. He then took a teaching position at a university in Bogotá.[2]

References
  1. "Four Activists Deplore Tide of Violence". The Miami Herald. 10 November 1998. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  2. "Colombia: Jaime Prieto Mendez". Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human rights. Archived from the original on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  3. "1998: Berenice Celeyta, Gloria Florez, Jaime Prieto & Mario Calixto, Colombia". Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Archived from the original on 21 May 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2012.


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