Vincent Iacopino

Bio

Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD, is a Senior Research Fellow with the Human Rights Center. He is Medical Director at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and Adjunct Professor of Medicine with the University of Minnesota Medical School. He has participated in health and human rights research, investigations and advocacy for more than twenty years. Dr. Iacopino has represented PHR and/or supervised medical fact-finding investigations to Afghanistan, Albania, Botswana, Burma, Chad, Chechnya, Iraq, Kashmir, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Mexico, Nigeria, Punjab, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Sudan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, the United States, and Zimbabwe, and documented the health consequences of a wide range of human rights violations. He is the former Medical Director of Survivors International of Northern California, a non-profit organization providing medical and psychological assistance to survivors of torture from around the world. Dr. Iacopino was the principal organizer of an international effort to develop UN guidelines on effective investigation and documentation of torture and ill treatment (the Istanbul Protocol) and has served as a consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. He has been one of the pioneers in conceptualizing the relationship between health and human rights. He has taught health and human rights courses at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health since 1995 and is the author of more than sixty health and human rights publications. In 2004, Dr. Iacopino received the Center for Victims of Torture’s Eclipse Award for extraordinary service on behalf of torture survivors. In 2005, he also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Medicine of the University of Minnesota.