Michael Reed Hurtado

Michael Reed-Hurtado is the Chief of Programs and Operations at Guernica 37 Centre.  He is based in the Washington DC metropolitan area.

Michael is a Colombian/US lawyer and journalist with 30 years of experience in the fields of human rights, criminal justice, and humanitarian action, mainly in Latin America, with sporadic work in Asia and Africa.  He is recognized as an outstanding Latin American practitioner and academic, with specialization in international humanitarian law applicable to non-international armed conflict, international and comparative criminal law, and various areas of international human rights law (particularly tied to the operation of the criminal justice sector and the prosecution of state crime).

Throughout his career, Michael has strived to combine research and advocacy, to ensure evidence-based practice and leverage the potential of information technology in documenting atrocities.  In addition to legal and institutional reform work, he has extensive experience in humanitarian protection in active conflict areas.

He also teaches at Georgetown University, focusing on state crime, dynamics and causes of collective violence, denialism, the sociology of lying, and practical dimensions of human rights, transitional justice and negotiated peace settlements.

He is a regular contributor of written Op Eds in Spanish-language news media.

Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Texas, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Minnesota.