Center for Legal and Social Studies
An Argentine human-rights organization that documents abuses, provides legal advocacy, and promotes democratic and institutional reform.
Last updated August 26, 2026
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Overview
The Center for Legal and Social Studies, commonly known by its Spanish name Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales and the acronym CELS, is an Argentine nongovernmental human-rights organization based in Buenos Aires. It emerged during the final years of Argentina's military dictatorship, a period marked by systematic repression, forced disappearances, torture, imprisonment, and the appropriation of children. The organization was developed from 1978 and formally established around 1979–1980 by a group of lawyers and researchers including Alfredo Galleti, Augusto Conte, Boris Pasik, Emilio Mignone, and José Westerkamp. Its formation took place alongside the growth of other Argentine human-rights organizations, including the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. In its first period, CELS concentrated on documenting state violence and preserving evidence concerning violations committed during the dictatorship. It also offered legal assistance and support to relatives of people who had been forcibly disappeared. Emilio Mignone, whose daughter Mónica was forcibly disappeared, became the organization's founding president and one of its most prominent public representatives. The work of CELS and related organizations helped make disappearances, unlawful detention, torture, and child appropriation central subjects of public debate and legal action in Argentina. Following the restoration of democratic government, CELS broadened its agenda. It continued to pursue accountability for dictatorship-era crimes while also working on police violence, prison conditions, torture prevention, social and economic rights, housing access, mental-health institutions, migration, discrimination, and the protection of the right to protest. Its approach combines research, litigation, public advocacy, policy analysis, institutional monitoring, and publishing. Rather than functioning as a conventional consumer-facing brand, CELS is an advocacy and professional research institution whose outputs include legal briefs, investigations, practical guides, books, public statements, and submissions to domestic and international bodies. The organization has been especially associated with cases involving forced disappearance, police arbitrariness, custodial violence, and the relationship between state institutions and vulnerable communities. Its work has also examined the operation of bureaucracies in cases concerning the appropriation of children during the dictatorship and the treatment of people held in prisons or psychiatric institutions. Through these activities, CELS seeks both to defend individual rights and to strengthen democratic institutions so that abuses are less likely to recur. CELS participates in international human-rights networks and is identified as a member of organizations including the International League for Human Rights, the International Commission of Jurists, the World Organisation Against Torture, and the International Federation for Human Rights. It has received the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award and the Gruber Prize for Justice. The organization's leadership has included founding president Emilio Mignone, Horacio Verbitsky, who served as president from 2000 to 2021, and social anthropologist Sofía Tiscornia, identified in the cited reference material as its current president. CELS remains an active Argentine civil-society organization focused on human-rights defense, accountability, and democratic governance.
History
CELS was created in the context of Argentina's military dictatorship and the wider development of human-rights organizations in the country between the 1970s and 1980s. The dictatorship's practices included forced disappearance, torture, unlawful detention, political repression, and the appropriation of children. These conditions generated a need for organizations capable of collecting testimony, preserving documentation, assisting affected families, and presenting rights claims through legal and public channels. The organization developed from activities begun in 1978 and was formally established around 1979–1980. Its founders included lawyers Alfredo Galleti, Augusto Conte, Boris Pasik, and Emilio Mignone, together with scientist José Westerkamp. The Westerkamp family was active in documenting repression and studying the mechanisms through which the state carried out abuses. Emilio Mignone became CELS's first president. His daughter had been forcibly disappeared, giving a particularly direct personal dimension to his advocacy. During its initial stage, CELS focused on identifying and documenting violations committed by the dictatorship. It worked with relatives of disappeared people and provided legal support in cases involving forced disappearance. This work contributed to the broader Argentine human-rights movement, which also included the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and later HIJOS. CELS's emphasis on evidence, legal analysis, and institutional accountability helped transform individual cases into documented patterns of state repression. The return to democratic government did not end the organization's work. Instead, CELS expanded from documenting dictatorship-era crimes to examining the operation of democratic institutions and the continuing treatment of vulnerable groups by public authorities. Its program came to include police violence and arbitrariness, torture, prison conditions, social protest, housing, mental-health institutions, child appropriation, and broader social and economic rights. The organization has used research, strategic litigation, legal assistance, public advocacy, and publishing to influence courts, legislators, government agencies, journalists, and international human-rights bodies. CELS's publications reflect this expanded mission. Its output has included a guide to fair access to housing, a study of the right to social protest in Argentina, an analysis of torture and violence-prevention policies in prisons, research on police harassment in working-class neighborhoods, and proposals concerning the closure or transformation of psychiatric institutions. It has also published or edited scholarly and activist work on the so-called Dirty War, the Walter Bulacio case, police brutality, and the state's role in the appropriation of children. Leadership has changed over time while the organization has retained its central focus on rights protection and democratic accountability. Emilio Mignone was the founding president. Horacio Verbitsky served as president from 2000 through 2021, and the cited reference identifies social anthropologist Sofía Tiscornia as the current president. CELS also works through international networks, including affiliations with the International League for Human Rights, the International Commission of Jurists, the World Organisation Against Torture, and the International Federation for Human Rights. Its recognition through the 1983 Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award and the 2011 Gruber Prize for Justice reflects the international visibility of its work.
- 2021
End of Verbitsky presidency
[1]Horacio Verbitsky's period as president concluded after two decades of leadership.
- 2011
Gruber Prize for Justice
[1]CELS received the Gruber Prize for Justice.
- 2000
Horacio Verbitsky begins presidency
[1]Horacio Verbitsky became president of CELS, a position he held through 2021.
- 1983
Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award
[1]CELS received the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award.
- 1980
Formal establishment
[1]The organization was formally established and continued its documentation and legal-support work concerning dictatorship-era abuses.
- 1979
CELS founded
[1]The Center for Legal and Social Studies was founded in Argentina during the final period of military rule.
- 1978
Organizational development begins
[1]The group's activities began to take shape amid efforts to document repression and support relatives of people subjected to forced disappearance.
Products and positioning
An independent Argentine human-rights NGO combining evidence-based research, legal advocacy, strategic litigation, public education, and institutional reform. CELS is positioned as a specialist civil-society organization working at the intersection of human-rights protection, accountability for state abuses, and democratic strengthening.
Research and documentation
Human-rights documentation
CELS documents forced disappearances, torture, police violence, prison conditions, and other abuses involving state institutions. Its documentation supports public advocacy, legal proceedings, institutional monitoring, and efforts to establish patterns of violations rather than treating cases as isolated incidents.
Legal services and advocacy
Strategic legal advocacy
The organization provides or supports legal action concerning human-rights violations, particularly cases involving forced disappearance, police arbitrariness, torture, social protest, and state accountability. Its legal work is intended both to assist affected people and to encourage broader legal and institutional reform.
Legal guide · 2017
Law of Fair Access to Housing: Guide for its Application
A 2017 practical publication addressing the application of fair-access-to-housing law. It represents CELS's work translating legal standards and social-rights principles into material useful for affected communities, advocates, and practitioners.
Rights research · 2017
The Right to Social Protest in Argentina
A 2017 publication examining the legal and human-rights dimensions of social protest in Argentina, including the relationship between public-order measures and the protection of participation and expression.
Prison and torture research · 2017
Torture in Prisons
A 2017 study asking why violence-prevention policies have not effectively prevented torture and other abuse in Argentine prisons. It reflects CELS's emphasis on institutional accountability and the practical effectiveness of rights protections.
Police-violence research · 2016
Harassed
A 2016 publication focused on violence and police arbitrariness in working-class neighborhoods, addressing how policing practices affect communities that are especially exposed to coercive state power.
Mental-health rights research · 2015
Crossing the Wall
A 2015 publication examining challenges and proposals related to the transformation or closure of psychiatric institutions, reflecting CELS's work on institutional confinement and the rights of people subject to mental-health systems.
Sources2 sources
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