The International Criminal Court  (ICC) has appointmented Juan E. Méndez as special adviser on crime prevention.

The ICC's mission is to end impunity for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole - war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide - and to contribute to the prevention of such crimes in the future.

Mr. Méndez’s role will be to advise chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo on how to maximise the impact of the court's work and to prevent the commission of massive atrocities.

Former President of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Juan Méndez was the Special adviser to the UN Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide until 31 March 2007.

Prior to that, he was director of the Americas division (1982-1993) and later General Counsel (1994-1996) of Human Rights Watch, and Executive Director of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights in Costa Rica (1996-1999).

From 2000 to 2003, he was a member – and, in 2002, the President – of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Organization of American States.

Mr Mendez was born in Argentina, where he was detained and tortured in 1975-1977, and has practiced law there and in the United States. During his detention, Amnesty International adopted him as a “Prisoner of Conscience.”