Cruz Melchor Eya Nchama (born 6 January 1945) is an Equatorial Guinean

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

at the Court of Geneva. Justice Eya Nchama currently serves as a "judge assessor" at the ''Conciliation Commission for Leases and Rents'', which is where rental and lodging/housing matters are adjudicated. Prior to his current role, he was an elected

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

politician. He is also a writer and well-known

Human Rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

activist within the international human rights community as well as being a prominent person within the Swiss/Geneva Canton. Eya Nchama studied at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

.Un guineano es elegido alcalde en el cantón de Ginebra
by J. M. Bacheng, El Periódico de Suiza, nr. 35, June 2005 (Spanish) He was head of the research department of the

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attached to the

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and an advisor to the Special Rapporteur of the

United Nations Commission on Human Rights The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the United Nations System, overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a ...

. He is head of the Anti-Racism Information Service (ARIS)Geneva Humanitarian Forum
While in exile in the early 1970s, Eya Nchama, J.B. Mbia Mbida Essindi and others founded the ANRD (''Alianza Nacional por la Restauración Democrática de Guinea Ecuatorial''), which would be the main opposition to the Equatorial Guinean dictatorship. He was a fervent opponent of

Macías Nguema Macías (also spelled Macias) is a Spanish surname found to varying degrees in Europe and Latin America. The first Equatoguinean President had that surname and was sometimes mononymously called Macías. Within Spain, its frequency is highest in Ex ...

, succeeding in 1976 in breaking the forced silence on the subject by then

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government, presenting a detailed report to the UN Human Rights Commission. After the fall of Macías Nguema and the succession by Obiang in September 1979, he coined the phrase "it's the same dog with a different collar", which gained him considerable notability. Some years after his naturalisation, Eya Nchama was appointed head of the municipal council of

Grand-Saconnex Le Grand-Saconnex () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. Several international organizations and permanent missions to the United Nations are located in Grand Saconnex. Consequently, the populat ...

near

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, being the first black person to reach such a position in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Works (selection)

* ''Développement et droits de l’homme en Afrique'', édition Publisud, Paris, 1991 * ''El mundo en los acrósticos, y otros temas'', Pentalfa, Oviedo, 2001 * ''Misceláneas Guineo Ecuatorianas 1: del estado colonial al Estado dictatorial'' with Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel et al., Editorial Tiempos Próximos, Madrid, 2001

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nchama, Cruz Melchor Eya 1945 births Living people 21st-century Equatoguinean politicians Swiss writers Complutense University of Madrid alumni Academic staff of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Equatoguinean emigrants to Switzerland 20th-century Swiss politicians 21st-century Swiss politicians 21st-century Swiss judges People from Centro Sur Recipients of the Order of May