Cruz Melchor Eya Nchama is a Swiss politician, writer and Human Rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 activist.

Eya Nchama studied at the Complutense University of Madrid

Complutense University of Madrid

The Complutense University of Madrid is a university in Madrid, and one of the oldest universities in the world. It is located on a sprawling campus that occupies the entirety of the Ciudad Universitaria district of Madrid, with annexes in the district of Somosaguas in the neighboring city of...

. He was head of the research department of the Graduate Institute of Development Studies

Graduate Institute of Development Studies

The Graduate Institute of Development Studies was a graduate school in Geneva, Switzerland focusing on development studies...

 attached to the University of Geneva

University of Geneva

The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...

 and an advisor to the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights

United Nations Commission on Human Rights

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

. He is head of the Anti-Racism Information Service

Anti-Racism Information Service

The Anti-Racism Information Service is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1992 by Kati David. ARIS was accorded Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 1997...

 (ARIS)

While in exile in the early 1970s, Eya Nchama 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

Francisco Macías Nguema

Francisco Macías Nguema was the first President of Equatorial Guinea, from 1968 until his overthrow in 1979.-Rise to power:...

, succeeding in 1976 to break the forced silence on the subject by then fascist

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 government, presenting a detailed report to the UN Human Rights Commission. After the fall of Macías Nguema and the succession by Obiang

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is an Equatoguinean politician who has been President of Equatorial Guinea since 1979. He ousted his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in an August 1979 military coup and has overseen Equatorial Guinea's emergence as an important oil producer, beginning in the 1990s...

 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

Grand-Saconnex

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

 near Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

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

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

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