Friday, December 14, the University of San Francisco (USF) presented an honorary doctorate in humane letters to Me Mario Joseph, the managing attorney of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti’s (IJDH) Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI).

"As a human rights lawyer in Haiti, Mario Joseph has devoted his career to standing up for victims of injustice [...] His deep and personal commitment to providing a legal voice to those silenced by oppression will inspire our graduates and the entire USF community," declared USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J., who confered the honorary degree during the graduation ceremony for more than 300 undergraduate and graduate students of USF’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Joseph has co-managed or managed BAI since 1996, helping to defend political prisoners and victims of political violence, training Haitian lawyers, and speaking out on justice issues. He has practiced human rights and criminal law since 1993.

Prior to joining BAI, Joseph worked on human rights cases for the Catholic Church’s Peace and Justice Commission. In 2000, Joseph was the lead lawyer for BAI’s most successful case, defending the victims during the Raboteau Massacre trial, in which the jury convicted 53 defendants for a 1994 attack on a pro-democracy neighborhood in Haiti.

The most prominent case of Me Mario Joseph was his defense of Catholic priest and human rights activist, the late Father Gérard Jean-Juste, who was wrongfully imprisoned and forced into exile several times for his opposition to the 2004-2006 interim government of Haiti.

Since 2006, the USF School of Law’s Center for Law and Global Justice has worked with Joseph and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH). The partnership includes an immersion course in which USF law students work in Port-au-Prince at the offices of BAI and in refugee camps. The program aims to assist Haitians in enforcing their basic human rights to housing, food, water, sanitation, health, and personal security.

HL/ HaïitiLibre