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Eradicate Hate:
2021

Cristina Finch is an internationally recognized human rights lawyer leading and working with organizations that make a difference. Finch is the Head of the Gender and Security Division at DCAF – Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, and previously served as the Head of the Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Department at the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) where she focused on prevention and response of hate crime and discrimination.

Before joining the ODIHR, Finch was the Managing Director of the Identity and Discrimination Program at Amnesty International USA, where she led the organization’s efforts to advance women’s and LGBT human rights, economic, social and cultural rights, and to support human rights defenders. Her experience also includes serving as Senior Counsel to the Human Rights Campaign, helping to pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crime Prevention Act.

Finch has served as legal counsel to the Congresses of both the United States and the Republic of Palau. She is a former adjunct law professor at George Mason University School of Law and has provided expert testimony on legal and policy issues before the UN Human Rights Council, U.S. Congress, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the World Bank. She is also a frequent media commentator on human rights and foreign policy issues.

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The effort to eradicate hate requires the active participation of every component of our society, to include governments, the private sector, communities of faith and indeed every aspect of civil society. There is no more urgent task in front of us. The organizers of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit are doing the United States and the world an enormous service by tackling hatred and extremism with a focus on honest dialogue and conversation, genuine learning and practical solutions. This will not happen overnight, but the Pittsburgh community’s leadership in this effort is genuinely inspiring and motivating.

Nick Rasmussen
Nicholas Rasmussen Counterterrorism Coordinator, Department of Homeland Security