Patricia Murphy Derian

On 9 August 1978, Patricia Derian appeared before the House Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs during hearings on arms sales in the Western Hemisphere. Asked by Representative Gus Yatron about an Export-Import Bank loan for Argentina, she explained that the State Department had advised against the transaction because of torture, summary executions, disappearances, and detention without charge. She also criticized Argentina’s failure to admit the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Her prepared statement had not discussed Argentina; these criticisms came in answers to members’ questions. The next day, the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires reported the resulting objections from Argentine officials and newspapers. ^{1, 5}

Derian had trained as a nurse before entering civil rights work in Mississippi. She helped organize opposition to school segregation, worked with Head Start, and helped build the Loyalist Democratic organization that challenged the state's segregationist party leadership. After working in Jimmy Carter's 1976 campaign, she became the State Department's human rights coordinator. Congress elevated the position to assistant secretary in 1977. ^{2, 3}

Her term ended in January 1981. Argentina later awarded her the Order of the Liberator General San Martín. In its 2016 tribute, the Argentine foreign ministry credited her advocacy for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights' 1979 visit. ^{3, 4}