Felice D. Gaer

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Felice Diane Gaer (June 16, 1946 – November 9, 2024) was an American human rights defender and advocate. She worked on human rights matters and was a longstanding member and the former chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. She was a member of the US National Commission to UNESCO.

Felice Gaer
Gaer in 2013
Personal details
Born(1946-06-16)June 16, 1946
Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedNovember 9, 2024(2024-11-09) (aged 78)
New York City
EducationWellesley College (BA)
Columbia University (MA, MPhil)

Gaer directed the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee, which conducts research and advocacy to strengthen international human rights. Gaer served on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom from 2001 to 2012, having been nominated by the Clinton administration and renominated by the Bush administration and Obama administration, and later by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Gaer was the first American to serve as an Independent Expert on the United Nations Committee Against Torture. There, she had been Vice Chair. Gaer was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Early life and education

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Gaer was born in Englewood, New Jersey, on June 16, 1946.[1][2] She graduated Wellesley College with an A.B. in Political Science (1968). From Columbia University, she received a Master of Arts degree in 1971 and a Master of Philosophy degree in Political Science in 1975.

Career

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Gaer's career has involved human rights both nationally and internationally, working in different committees and commissions.

United Nations

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Since 2000, she has been an independent expert on the UN Committee Against Torture. She became the committee's vice-chair in 2009. Furthermore, she was a rapporteur on Gender on the same committee from 2001 to 2006; and follow-up rapporteur on country compliance from 2003 to 2014.

United States

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Gaer was a public member and/or public advisor of different US delegations:

She was a commissioner of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (2001–2012). During that period she served as the commission's chair (2002-2003), then vice-chair (2003-2006), then chair again (2006-2009).

Gaer became a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1976 until 1981 and later she became a life member (1991). She was a commissioner of the US National Commission to UNESCO from 2012.

She served on many other committees, associations and councils, including:

She testified before numerous US Congressional committees on International Relations, Human Rights, Justice, and the Tom Lantos Commission.

Beyond public service

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Gaer participated on various committees, organizations and associations.

She was a program officer from the international division of the international organizations of the Ford Foundation (1974–1981). She was the executive director of the International League for Human Rights (1982–1991), followed by the executive director of the European programs of the United Nations Association of the US (1991–1992).

She was the director of the American Jewish Committee's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights from 1993. In 2010, she was a regents professor in the Department of History of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Gaer died from metastatic breast cancer in New York City, on November 9, 2024, at the age of 78.[3]

Publications (selected)

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Books

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  • Gaer, Felice D.; Broecker, Christen L., eds. (2013). The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: Conscience for the World. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Journal articles

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Encyclopedia entries

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References

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  • Biography from the American Jewish Committee
  • Biography from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
  • Biography from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
  • Felice Gaer's CV, United States Mission to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva