Berenice Celeita

Biography

Berenice Celeita Berenice Celeita Alayon (sometimes spelled 'Celeyta') is a Colombian human rights activist. She is the president of the Asociacion Para la Investigacion y Accion Social (NOMADESC), which investigates regional human rights abuses. In 1998, she won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award along with fellow Colombian activists Gloria Florez, Jaime Prieto, and Mario Calixto. Celeita attributes the beginning of her activism in human rights to the 1985 Palace of Justice siege, in which M-19 guerrillas took the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia hostage, killing 11 of its 25 justices. Celeita was at the time a freshman in college, and had several professors among the dead. She later founded NOMADESC, which is based in Valle del Cauca province in southern Colombia. NOMADESC offers human rights training...

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