Dr. Adolfo Pérez Esquivel

Dr. Adolfo Pérez Esquivel was born in Argentina in 1931. He is married and has three children. After studying art and architecture, he embarked on a successful career as a sculptor and professor at the Academy of Art. The economic decline and ensuing impoverishment of large parts of the population as well as the radicalisation of the political scene plus increasing state repression inspired him to get involved in the human rights movement.

Important dates:

The end of military dictatorship in 1984 also brought the end of systematic suppression and persecution of dissidents in Argentina. Since then Pérez Esquivel has been fighting for better living conditions for the poor, the socially underprivileged, and the exploited. In this context he has not only been striving for a fairer distribution of “life chances” such as income, land ownership and social mobility, but he has also been an untiring advocate of a new, fairer world economic system.

It was on Pérez Esquivels initiative that in 1998, the Nuremberg based “Coalition against Impunity” was formed – an association which is committed to bringing to justice those members of the military who were responsible for the disappearance of German nationals and people of German origin during the military dictatorship in Argentina. At the end of 2003 the “coalition” had an important success, when the „Amtsgericht Nürnberg“ (Nuremberg district court) issued an arrest warrant for the former president and head of the military junta, Jorge Videla.

[June 2011]