Francisco Rivera is a human rights attorney and law professor specializing in the Inter-American Human Rights System, public international law, and international courts. He was a senior staff attorney at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of the Organization of American States, seated in Costa Rica. Francisco is the Founding Director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Santa Clara University.
Francisco has been a consultant for multiple nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), as well as for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (IIHR). In the late 1990s, he served as executive director of the Amnesty International Section in Puerto Rico.
Francisco is an Every Woman Treaty Cofounder. He served on the Steering Committee during the public launch and chaired the Expert Special Committee on Governing Bodies. He co-authored Every Woman’s Safer Sooner and the Safer Now reports. Francisco authored an op-ed on the need for a global treaty in 2021. He has conducted high-level diplomatic meetings on the need for a treaty to end violence against women and girls and serves as a senior advisor and activist.