Santiago A. Canton

Prof. Santiago A. Canton is the Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS). Previously he was the OAS Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression. Mr. Canton holds a law degree from the University of Buenos Aires and a Master degree in International Law from the Washington College of Law of the American University. During 1998 he was Director of Public Information for the OAS. From 1994 to 1998 Dr. Canton was Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), a democratic development institute based in Washington, D.C. Mr. Canton was a political assistant to Mr. Carter in the election processes in Nicaragua and Dominican Republic. In 2005, Mr. Canton was awarded with the Chapultepec Grand Prize, for his significant contributions to the effort to promote, develop, strengthen and defend the principles of press freedom set forth in the Declaration of Chapultepec, created in 1994 as an instrument for freedom of speech in the Western Hemisphere