| Jared Genser | |
| Birth Date: | 17 June 1972 |
| Birth Place: | New Haven, Connecticut |
| Occupation: | Human Rights Lawyer, Special Advisor to the Organization of American States |
| Education: | University of Michigan (JD) Harvard University (MPP) Cornell University (BA) |
| Awards: | Charles Bronfman Prize (2010) ABA International Human Rights Award (2013) Tällberg/Eliasson Global Leadership Prize (2020) |
Jared Genser (born June 17, 1972) is an international human rights lawyer who serves as managing director of the law firm Perseus Strategies, LLC, Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect to the Organization of American States, and Co-Founder and General Counsel to the Neurorights Foundation.[1] Genser is U.S. Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, where he was previously a Senior Fellow. Referred to by the New York Times as "The Extractor,"[2] he has served as pro bono counsel to five Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, including the last three Laureates who won their Prize while imprisoned- Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma, 2006-2010), Liu Xiaobo (China, 2010-2017), and Ales Bialiatski (Belaruse, 2023-Present) -- as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Elie Wiesel. Other former clients have included former Czech Republic President Václav Havel, Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Venezuelan politician Leopoldo López, and former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed. He was previously an associate of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University from 2014 to 2016 and a visiting fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy from 2006 to 2007.[3] Coming from his experience freeing a political prisoner as a law student in 2001, he founded the non-profit Freedom Now[4] and earlier in his career was named by the National Law Journal as one of "40 Under 40: Washington's Rising Stars."[5]
Genser was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in suburban Maryland. Genser received a B.S. from Cornell University. He subsequently earned a Master in Public Policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he was an Alumni Public Service Fellow and a J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. He was also a Raoul Wallenberg Scholar at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[6] [7]
Genser began his career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. He later joined the global law firm DLA Piper, where he was elected a partner.[8] In 2011, he left DLA Piper to found Perseus Strategies, a human-rights law firm.[9] Genser has previously been an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center,[10] the University of Michigan Law School and University of Pennsylvania Law School. In October 2020, Genser was appointed by OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro as Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect for the Organization of American States.[11]
Genser is the author of The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: Commentary and Guide to Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2019;). He was also co-editor with Canadian Member of Parliament Irwin Cotler of The Responsibility to Protect: The Promise of Stopping Mass Atrocities in Our Time (Cambridge University Press, 2012;) and he is co-editor with former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica Bruno Stagno Ugarte for The UN Security Council in the Age of Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2013;).
Genser has authored or co-authored numerous major human rights reports, including:
Genser has published numerous law review articles and more than 130 op-eds on human rights topics in major newspapers around the world. Among law review articles, he has published them on a diverse array of topics including the UN Security Council's application on the responsibility to protect,[12] the Future of the UN Human Rights System,[13] and the EU trade sanctions on Burma, among other topics.
He has published op-eds in such newspapers as The Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, The Chosun Ilbo (Seoul), Far Eastern Economic Review, The Huffington Post,[14] [15] [16] The Independent (UK), International Herald Tribune,[17] The Jakarta Post, Los Angeles Times,[18] South China Morning Post,[19] The Sydney Morning Herald,[20] The Nation (Thailand), The Star (South Africa), The Times (UK), The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
Genser is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was elected in 2008 as a Fellow to the British American Project. In 2009 he was elected as a delegate to the Asia Society's Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit and also as a U.S.-Japan Young Leadership Fellow. Genser was a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum from 2008 to 2013 and a Member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council for Human Rights (2010–2011). In 2011, he was selected among the Young Leaders of the French-American Foundation.[21] He is a recipient of the Charles Bronfman Prize and Liberty in North Korea's Freedom Fighter Award. In addition to being qualified to practice law in Maryland and the District of Columbia, he is also a solicitor of England & Wales. Genser is also an avid ice hockey player, playing on both the Titans and the Crunch through Hockey North America.[22]