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For Immediate Release

Hans Hogrefe to be Honored for Contributions to Human Rights

Media Contact

Megan Prock

Senior Press Officer
Tel: 617-301-4237
Cell: 617-510-3417

Cambridge, Mass - 07/11/2011

Physicians for Human Rights today announced that Hans Hogrefe, PHR’s Chief Policy Officer and Washington Director, will be honored by the Stewart Mott Foundation and the Open Society Foundation for his contributions to human rights. A reception will be held in Hogrefe’s honor on Tuesday, July 26, to thank him for his tireless efforts on behalf of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and human rights victims.

Hogrefe joined PHR in March. Previously, Hogrefe was the Democratic Staff Director for the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the House of Representatives, serving Commission Co-Chairman James P. McGovern. While at the Commission, Hogrefe grew the group from a 13 member voluntary organization in 1995 into a bicameral 240-member entity in 2006. The Commission was formally institutionalized by the Speaker of the House of Representatives as the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in 2008.

To learn more about the reception, please contact PHR’s Senior Press Officer, Megan Prock.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is an independent organization that uses medicine and science to stop mass atrocities and severe human rights violations against individuals. We are supported by the expertise and passion of health professionals and concerned citizens alike.

Since 1986, PHR has conducted investigations in more than 40 countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, the United States, the former Yugoslavia, and Zimbabwe.

  • 1988 — First to document Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Kurds
  • 1996 — Exhumed mass graves in the Balkans
  • 1996 — Produced critical forensic evidence of genocide in Rwanda
  • 1997 — Shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
  • 2003 — Warned of health and human rights catastrophe prior to the invasion of Iraq
  • 2004 — Documented and analyzed the genocide in Darfur
  • 2005 — Detailed the story of tortured detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay
  • 2010 — Showed how CIA medical personnel sought to improve waterboarding and
                  other interrogation techniques that amount to torture
  • 2011 — Championed the principle of noninterference with medical services
                  in times of armed conflict and civil unrest during the Arab Spring

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