Nizar El Fakih is a Venezuelan lawyer, with an MPA and an LL.M. from Harvard University and Notre Dame University in the United States.

He is the founder of Proiuris, a Venezuelan-based human rights organization that has been providing assistance to victims of arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial executions and forced migration in the southern country over the last years. Before founding Proiuris, Nizar combined his law practice providing pro bono assistance to victims of arbitrary detention with the Centre for Human Rights at the Andres Bello Catholic University in Caracas, the same university where he also worked as a professor in the faculty of law.

His work on human rights includes the litigation of hundreds of cases before both national and international jurisdictions, as well as advocacy work on the UN Human Rights Council, the OAS, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and several political bodies in Latin-America, US and Europe.

Among the recognitions for his work, Nizar has received the Medal of Honor from the Venezuelan Bar Association, the Amnesty International Award for outstanding activism, the special mention of the human rights award granted by the Government of Canada, and the Rhita Bar granted by Notre Dame University.

Nizar has been a fellow at Harvard University, co-chair of the Venezuelan Caucus at the same University, and is Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum.

Twitter: @nizarUCAB