Prior to coming to Santa Clara University School of Law as founding director of the law school’s International Human Rights Clinic, Francisco was an adjunct professor of international law and human rights at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico. He is a former senior staff attorney at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of the Organization of American States seated in Costa Rica, where he was also director of that court’s internship program. In the late 1990s, he also served as Executive Director of the Amnesty International Section in Puerto Rico. He has been a consultant for a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as for the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (IIHR).

Francisco has worked on a number of high-profile cases involving grave human rights violations, particularly throughout Latin America. His publications include issues such as indigenous land rights, as well as corporate and individual responsibility for human rights violations before both domestic and international fora. He has directed the law school’s Costa Rica summer program and has previously taught courses on Public International Law, International Courts, and International Human Rights Law.

Francisco writes regularly for Corte IDH Blog (corteidhblog.blogspot.com/) on recent developments before the Inter-American Human Rights System.