Robert Alexander Neve, OC (born May 24, 1962 [1] ) is a Canadian human rights activist and international human rights lawyer. He served as the secretary general of Amnesty International Canada from January 2000 until October 2020. [2]
Robert Alexander Neve, OC (born May 24, 1962 [1] ) is a Canadian human rights activist and international human rights lawyer. He served as the secretary general of Amnesty International Canada from January 2000 until October 2020. [2]
Neve was born in Calgary, Alberta, to Robert Rex Neve and Jean Elizabeth Taylor. Neve received a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1984 and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1987, both from Dalhousie University. He later studied international human rights law at the University of Essex, and received a Master of Laws degree in 1991. [1]
He is married to Patricia Goyeche [1] and they have three children.
Neve practiced law in Ottawa with a focus in the areas of refugee and immigration law.[ citation needed ]
He has been a member of Amnesty International since the mid-1980s and has worked for the organization nationally and internationally in a number of different roles, including missions to Tanzania, Guinea, Mexico, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Honduras, Zimbabwe, Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa, South Sudan, Bangladesh, and Ghana. [3] [4] He has authored and contributed to reports and studies for Amnesty International, as well as legal submissions to parliamentary committees and United Nations human rights bodies, including the Maher Arar Commission. [4] He became secretary general of Amnesty International in January 2000. [5]
Prior to becoming secretary general, Neve served as a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. [3]
In Toronto, he has also been affiliated with the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University and has taught international human rights and refugee law at Osgoode Hall Law School. [4] Neve has also been involved with the issue of Alberta's Lubicon Cree.[ citation needed ]
Neve is currently a visiting and adjunct professor of international human rights law at the University of Ottawa and Dalhousie University, and a Senior Fellow with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. [6] [7] He regularly posts on a range of human rights topics on his blog, Moving Rights Along. Neve frequently lectures, participates in conferences, and speaks and writes in the national media on a range of human rights topics. [8]
Neve was the 2025 lecturer for the Massey Lectures, a lecture series cohosted by CBC Radio, House of Anansi Press, and Massey College at the University of Toronto, and author of the accompanying book, Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World. [9]
In December 2025, Alex Neve was appointed as one of three expert members of the United Nations Human Rights Council's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela.
On December 28, 2007, Neve was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, in honour of his human rights work. [10]
In May 2009, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree by the University of New Brunswick. [11]
In June 2016, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree by the University of Waterloo. [12]
In May 2017, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from St. Thomas University. [13]
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