Remembering Peter Weiss: Legendary Human Rights Lawyer Dies at 99
New York, NY – peter weiss, a pioneering human rights lawyer who spent decades challenging U.S. foreign policy adn advocating for victims of state-sponsored violence, has died at teh age of 99. weiss was renowned for his innovative use of the 1789 Alien Tort Statute in human rights cases, opening new legal avenues for holding individuals and governments accountable for abuses committed abroad.
Weiss gained prominence representing U.S. victims of the U.S.-backed Contras in Nicaragua during the 1980s. He also represented the family of human rights activist Charles Horman,who was disappeared and killed in Chile following the U.S.-backed September 11th, 1973, coup. His pursuit of justice in the Horman case, which included legal action against Henry kissinger and others, was hampered by government secrecy.
“Our case was dismissed because we couldn’t conduct discovery,” Weiss explained on Democracy Now! in 2013.”When you bring any kind of case, civil or criminal, you have to look for the evidence and produce the evidence to the judge or the jury. And everything that we wanted, we were told, was classified and would not be made available to us. So, eventually, the case had to be dismissed.”
Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National security Archive, remembered Weiss as “the beautiful and conscientious and activist” who, alongside his wife Cora Weiss, supported numerous progressive institutions, including the Center for Constitutional Rights. “There’s not enough words to describe how significant Peter was to the progressive movement, to human rights over these last decades, since the late ’50s, early 1960s,” Kornbluh said on Democracy Now!. “And it’s sad to say goodbye to him, but we all continue to be inspired and guided by every deed, good deed, that he did over his entire life.”
Weiss’s work established crucial legal precedents and inspired generations of human rights advocates. His legacy continues to shape the fight for accountability and justice in the face of powerful interests.
