I am a 33 year old Peruvian lawyer, born in Lima. I graduated from the Law School from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica in 1999. In 2000 I was awarded the Chevening Scholarship by the British Council to pursue postgraduate studies in the UK. I hold a degree in Law in Development from the University of Warwick.
Most of my professional experience is related to the Ombudsman Office where I worked for seven years at the Women's Affairs Office. I did in-depth research and worked on reports regarding women's issues such as violence against women, sexual and reproductive rights, gender and discrimination and political participation of women.
I have been a teaching assistant at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica and I have been invited as a speaker to various seminars on women's rights, particularly on sexual and reproductive rights. For the last two years I have worked as a consultant for the United Nations Population Fund, government institutions and various national and international organizations.
New anti-domestic violence law in Guatemala classifies denying a woman the right to use contraceptive methods or STI prevention measures as a violent sex crime.
One year after legalization of abortion in Mexico City, the procedure has proven to be both necessary and safe.
Since the nineties, international donor aid has shifted priority away from family planning programs in Latin America. Now women’s advocacy groups are trying to bring attention back to their region.
Despite shocking maternal health indicators, Brazil’s Congress recently voted down a bill that would have legalized abortion.
A new report assessing poverty reduction in Peru analyzes socioeconomic status through many lenses — except gender.
Most Latin American countries do not explicitly acknowledge sexual and reproductive rights in their Constitutions. But some Constitutional Courts have still been able to find protection for legal abortion and other reproductive health issues.
For indigenous women in the Andean and Amazonian areas of Peru, giving birth at health care facilities, in the presence of strangers and lying down, is unbearable. New standards in health care delivery better respect their rights and traditions.
After more than a hundred years of legally allowing women access to a therapeutic abortion, in October 2006 the Nicaraguan National Assembly banned this procedure in all circumstances. Now women’s health groups are working to mitigate the damage.
