Portal U de A

By: Carlos Olimpo Restrepo SA. Journalist at UdeA Communications Department 

His professional dedication to defending human rights and fighting impunity has made Federico Andreu Guzmán an international figure. The Colombian-French lawyer has taught at UdeA, and his academic work, translated into several languages, examines topics such as access to justice, historical memory, state responsibility, and crimes against humanity. The University awarded him an honorary master's degree in law for his distinguished career. 

Federico Andreu, left, has worked with various international non-governmental organizations to develop mechanisms that contribute to the defense of human rights. Photo: UdeA Communications Department / Alejandra Uribe F.  
 
On Wednesday, August 13, 2025, Universidad de Antioquia awarded an honorary master's degree in law to Colombian-French lawyer Federico Andrés Paulo Andreu Guzmán. With this recognition, the institution highlighted his contributions to the defense of human rights and the fight against impunity, which have made him an international figure. 

Andreu Guzmán has a professional career that spans more than four decades, during which he has worked as a lawyer, professor, and expert witness in landmark cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and other international courts. His work has influenced global doctrine, jurisprudence, and regulations through his participation, for example, in debates and the drafting of mechanisms against forced disappearances or the investigation of potentially unlawful deaths, such as extrajudicial executions.  This has guided domestic and continental courts in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe.
 
Although he always maintained contact with members of the UdeA community during his more than 41 years of professional practice, he formally joined the University in 2018 when he was invited to teach in the Specialization in Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, a postgraduate program offered by the Faculty of Law and Political Science.  
 
After expressing his gratitude for the honoris causa, the jurist and academic recalled his experience in the UdeA classrooms. “Coming here to teach these courses was wonderful, not only because of the topic of international justice and enforced disappearances, but because I found very good students,” he emphasized. “These are people eager to gain new perspectives, new dimensions of law, and learn about experiences from other countries. The classes have been very active, with very high-quality participation from all the students.”  
 
Andreu Guzmán cited a class on enforced disappearances, where three students were serving as ombudsmen in Antioquia municipalities at the time. “With their participation in the discussions, we grounded general topics of international law and the international system for the protection of human rights in concrete realities, something unusual in universities, and it resulted in something wonderful,” he emphasized.  
 
During the recognition ceremony, Universidad de Antioquia president John Jairo Arboleda Céspedes praised Andreu’s work. "It has been instrumental in paving the way for hundreds of stories that, through his contributions to the creation of impactful legal tools, are now global benchmarks by helping transform human rights doctrine and jurisprudence, thereby promoting truth, justice, and reparation." 

Arboleda Céspedes added, "Beyond international conventions, treaties, declarations, or interventions before courts of justice, his leading role has been played in a profoundly humanistic exercise with the communities, who have found a banner of memory, non-repetition, and social defense." 

The UdeA president also praised Andreu Guzmán's teaching. "He has been able to teach by transmitting knowledge with ethical principles and linking theory and practice beyond an abstract concept of justice," said the executive after recalling Andreu Guzman’s work as a professor of the Faculty of Law and Political Science. 

The reasons for recognition 

Among other contributions, Andreu Guzmán's role in the development of key instruments such as the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the Principles Governing the Administration of Justice Through Military Tribunals stands out. 

The decision to award the honoris causa considered Andreu Guzmán’s leadership in the creation of organizations such as the Colombian Commission of Jurists and the International Office for Human Rights Action on Colombia (OIDHACO). His leadership in denunciation and strategic litigation processes in cases of enforced disappearance, extrajudicial executions, and torture, which led to death threats that forced him to leave the country three times, was also a contributing factor in this tribute. 

The academic juries that evaluated the nomination for the honoris causa —Sandra Gamboa, Camilo Umaña and Gabriella Citroni— highlighted his ability to integrate legal work with a humanistic approach, his academic output, which has been translated into several languages, and his impact on the training of generations of human rights defenders around the world. 

The Italian jurist Gabriella Citroni highlighted that his career "has brought victims of serious human rights violations closer to enjoying their rights to justice, truth and reparation". At the same time, Colombian Sandra Gamboa described him as a "builder of hope in contexts of vulnerability", and fellow Colombian Camilo Umaña highlighted his work and career, which "reveal a transversal mastery of law, his solvency as a jurist, but also his depth in the area of human rights and public international law". 

Juan Pablo Acosta Navas, coordinator of UdeA’s Faculty of Law and Political Science Postgraduate Programs, highlighted Professor Andreu Guzmán's connection with that academic unit and emphasized, "He has shared with the academic community of our University the process of approval of international conventions for the respect, promotion, and guarantee of human rights." 

"The distinction he receives from the University Council is a recognition of his commitment to defending the human rights of victims, as well as a tribute to all the victims of the Colombian armed conflict," Acosta Navas remarked.