Cecilia Medina Quiroga

Cecilia Medina Quiroga is one of the most prominent human rights lawyers in Latin America.  Currently, she is a professor of International Human Rights Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Chile and Director of its Human Rights Centre, where she works to educate lawyers from all over Latin America as to the way women’s human rights should be integrated in the mainstream of international law.  Medina has published extensively in the field of International Human Rights Law and has also taught at several European and North American universities.  In 1997, she was appointed to the Robert F. Kennedy Chair for distinguished Latin American Academics at Harvard Law School. Medina is a former member (1995-2002) and Chairperson (1999-2001) of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) and, in 2003, was elected to serve as a judge (2004-2009) and President (2008-2009) on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights – the first woman to be elected to the position.  While chairing the UNHRC in 2000, she authored its groundbreaking general comment 28 on Article 3 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, calling for nations to not only adopt measures of protection, but also to take positive measures so as to achieve the effective and equal empowerment of women.  In 2004 she also became a member of the International Commission of Jurists. She has received numerous rewards in recognition of her work, including:  the 2002 Equality Now award for lifelong commitment to human rights, the 2004 American Society of International Law’s Prominent Women in International Law Award, the 2006 Gruber Women’s Rights Prize, the Elena Caffarena Award and a Ridder (Knight) of the Order of Oranje-Nassau (a decoration of the Kingdom of the Netherlands).  Medina holds a master’s degree from the University of Chile in Santiago, where she studied law and social sciences, and doctorate in law from the University of Utrecht in Holland.