Naomi Roht-Arriaza is a globally recognized attorney and expert in transitional justice, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. Her deep knowledge and extensive experience focus on post-conflict processes in Latin America and Africa. Since November 2012, she has been a member of DPLF’s Board of Directors and has served as its President since May 2013.

Throughout her distinguished career, Roht-Arriaza has played a pivotal role in the defense of human rights through legal advocacy, her prominent academic career, and her prolific scholarly work. Among her most notable publications are Impunity and Human Rights in International Law and Practice (1995), The Pinochet Effect: Transnational Justice in the Age of Human Rights (2005), Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth versus Justice (co-editor, 2006), and The International Legal System: Cases and Materials (co-authored with Mary Ellen O’Connell and Dick Scott, 2009).

She currently holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law and continues to work on key issues such as state accountability for human rights violations, international criminal law, reparations, environmental law, and corporate responsibility.

Naomi earned both her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, where she later became the law school’s first international law fellow from 1991 to 1992. Early in her career, she advised non-profit organizations and served as law clerk to Judge James Browning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, California.