Book Launch: Women, Gender, and Constitutionalism in Latin America

Francisca Pou Giménez is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She is also Lecturer at Law at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). She holds a Doctorate and an LLM from Yale Law School and a Law Degree from Pompeu Fabra University in Spain. She has been a visiting professor in Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, Canada, Belarus, and Italy.

Before entering her academic positions, she was a law clerk in the Mexican Supreme Court for eight years, where she had the opportunity to delve deep into regional practices of constitutional adjudication. She is a member of the Mexican National System of Researchers in the highest category (Level III) and of several academic networks, such as the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S), the American Society of Comparative Law (ASCL), the Yale Latin American Seminar of Political and Constitutional Theory (SELA), or the Network of Latin American Scholars on Gender, Sexuality and Legal Education (Red Alas).

Her scholarship and teaching focus on courts (judicial review, judicial communication, institutional design), constitutions (constitutional change, comparative study of Latin American constitutionalism), and fundamental rights. In this latter domain, she has focused on mechanisms of rights protection, anti-discrimination law, reproductive rights, freedom of speech, and multi-level rights protection in Latin America. She is co-editor of Women, Gender and Constitutionalism in Latin America (Routledge, 2024) and of Proportionality and Transformation: Theory and Practice from Latin America (CUP, ASCL Comparative Series, 2022).

Ruth Rubio Marín is a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sevilla, adjunct professor at the School of Transnational Governance of the European University Institute, and florence and director of the UNIA UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Interculturalism. She has taught at New York University (where, since 2003, she is has been a Global Professor), Columbia Law School and Princeton University, where she was part of the first cohort of fellows in the Law and Public Affairs Program.

Rubio-Marín’s research, focused on comparative constitutionalism, law and gender, immigration and citizenship and transitional justice, represents an attempt to understand how public law creates categories of inclusion and exclusion around different axes including gender, citizenship, nationality and ethnicity.

Rubio-Marín is the author of over 50 articles and is the author, editor and co-editor of the following books: “Immigration as a Democratic Challenge” (Cambridge University Press, 2000), “The Gender of Constitutional Jurisprudence” (editor with Baines, Cambridge University Press, 2004), “What Happened to the Women? Gender and Reparations for Human Rights Violations” (editor, Social Science Research Council, New York, 2006), “The Gender of Reparations: Subverting Sexual Hierarchies while Redressing Human Rights Violations” (editor, Cambridge University Press, 2009); “The Battle for Female Suffrage in the EU: Voting to Become Citizens” (editor with Rodriguez Ruiz, Brill, 2012), “Human Rights and Immigration” (editor, Oxford University Press, 2014); “Transforming gender citizenship: The irresistible rise of gender quotas in Europe” (editor with Lépinard, Cambridge University Press, 2018); “Gender Parity and Multicultural Feminism: Towards a New Synthesis” (editor with Will Kymlicka, Oxford University Press, 2018); “Women as Constitution Makers: Case Studies from the New Democratic Era” (editor with Helen Irving, Cambridge University Press, 2019); “Global Gender Constitutionationalism and Women's Citizenship” (Cambridge University Press, 2023); “Gender, Sexuality and Constitutionalism in Asia” (editor with Chang, Malagodi & Loper, Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2023); “Women, Gender and Constitutionalism in Latin America” (editor with Pou and Undurraga, Routledge, 2024).

As a consultant and activist, Rubio-Marín has worked for several national and international institutions and agencies including with the United Nations and the European Union, as well as with several nongovernmental organizations, including the International Center for Transitional Justice. She has extensive in-country experience in dealing with reparations in post-conflict societies, including in Morocco, Nepal and Colombia. She assisted U.N. Special Rapporteur Rashida Manjoo in drafting her report “Violence Against Women: On Reparations for Women Subjected to Violence.”

Rubio-Marín has given talks and keynote speeches in over 25 countries around the world. She speaks five languages fluently. She is an occasional contributor to public opinion formation through editorials in national and international press. 

Verónica Undurraga Valdés (LAW’95) is a prominent Chilean lawyer and legal scholar. She studied Law at Universidad de Chile, pursued an LLM at Columbia Law School, and holds a PhD in Law as well as a Diploma in Modern Institutions of Family Law from Universidad de Chile. Her main areas of study include constitutional law, human rights, diversity and inclusion, and gender studies, particularly focusing on issues related to sexual and reproductive rights, health, and non-discrimination.

Last year Undurraga stood out as the President of the Expert Commission during Chile’s second constitutional process. Elected unanimously by all commission members, she, along with Vice President Sebastián Soto (LAW’13), led the development of a preliminary draft of a 14-chapter constitutional text, which was submitted to a Constitutional Council elected by popular vote. On the day of the Commission's installation, she reminded her colleagues: “We are here to serve, through actions and not just words. We are 24 men and women to whom our representatives in Congress have entrusted a very specific task for a limited time.” She also called on citizens to be “protagonists in the ongoing construction of democracy.”

Since 2011, Undurraga has taught at the School of Law at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez. Prior to that, she served as the director of the Women and Human Rights program at Universidad de Chile’s Human Rights Center and was a visiting scholar at the University of Toronto. She has also worked as a consultant for international organizations such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) and Human Rights Watch (HRW). Additionally, she is an active participant in various civil society organizations, serving as a board member of Fundación Pro Bono and the think tank Espacio Público, and as advisor at Comunidad Mujer. She is also part of the Latin American Network of Scholars of Law (ALAS), and was a founding member of the Chilean Society of Public Policies

Kate O'Regan is the inaugural Director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and a former judge of the South African Constitutional Court (1994 – 2009). In the mid-1980s she practiced as a lawyer in Johannesburg in a variety of fields, but especially labour law and land law, representing many of the emerging trade unions and their members, as well as communities threatened with eviction under apartheid land laws.  In 1990, she joined the Faculty of Law at UCT where she taught a range of courses including race, gender and the law, labour law, civil procedure and evidence. Since her fifteen-year term at the South African Constitutional Court ended in 2009,  she has amongst other things served as an ad hoc judge of the Supreme Court of Namibia (from 2010 - 2016), Chairperson of the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry into allegations of police inefficiency and a breakdown in trust between the police and the community of Khayelitsha (2012 – 2014), and as a member of the boards or advisory bodies of many NGOs working in the fields of democracy, the rule of law, human rights and equality.

Barbara Havelková holds degrees from Charles University in Prague (Mgr - Master in Law; summa cum laude), Europa-Institut of Saarland University (LLM) and the University of Oxford (Mst in Legal Research, DPhil). 

Barbara is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law and a Tutorial Fellow at St Hilda's College. She was previously the Shaw Foundation Fellow at Lincoln College and held other posts at the University of Cambridge (Emmanuel College) and Oxford (Balliol). She worked for Clifford Chance Prague, trained at the Legal Service of the European Commission and in the Chambers of AG Poiares Maduro at the Court of Justice of the European Union. She was an academic visitor at several law schools, including Harvard University and University of Michigan as a Fulbright scholar and the Jean Monnet Center of NYU Law School as an Emile Noël Fellow. 

Barbara’s research and teaching interests include gender legal studies and feminist jurisprudence, equality and anti-discrimination law, constitutional law, EU law and law in post-socialist transitions. She is a senior member of the Law Faculty's Feminist Jurisprudence Discussion Group.  Barbara teaches Constitutional Law, EU Law and Feminist Jurisprudence to undergraduates and Comparative Equality Law on the BCL/MJur programme. She also convenes the undergraduate third year option Feminist Perspectives on the Law.

Her book, 'Gender Equality in Law: Uncovering the Legacies of Czech State Socialism', was published by Hart/Bloomsbury in 2017 and received an honourable mention from the judges of the BASEES Women’s Forum Prize for 2019. A volume Barbara co-edited with Mathias Möschel on ‘Anti-Discrimination Law in Civil Law Jurisdictions’ came our with Oxford University Press in 2019.

Barbara has also been active as an expert and an academic in the Czech Republic. Between 2014 and 2017, Barbara acted as an Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic on issues of gender and law. She is the author of a monograph ‘Equality of women and men in remuneration’ (Rovnost v odměňování žen a mužů; Auditorium, 2007), co-author of the leading 'Commentary on the Czech Anti-Discrimination Act' (Antidiskriminační zákon. Komentář, with P Boučková et al; C.H.Beck, 1st edition 2010, 2nd edition 2016) and co-editor and co-author of the edited volume What to do with prostitution? Public policies and the rights of persons in prostitution (Co s prostitucí? Veřejné politiky a práva osob v prostituci, with B Hančilová; SLON, 2014). A collection of essays on gender and the law, 'Men’s Laws: Are Legal Rules Neutral?' (Mužské právo. Jsou právní pravidla neutrální?), which Barbara co-edited and co-authored, came out in 2020 with WoltersKluwer.

Rosario Grimà Algora is a DPhil Candidate at the Faculty of Law under the supervision of Prof Shazia Choudhry and Dr Barbara Havelková. Her DPhil research focuses on constitutional and human rights remedies in cases of gender-based violence. Rosario is the Graduate Teaching Assistant for the course of Feminist Perspectives on the Law (2023/2024), and a convenor of the Feminist Jurisprudence Discussion Group. She is also a Deputy Chair of the OPBP Committee.

Before coming to Oxford, Rosario worked at UN Women, and at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She holds a LLM from Columbia University (2021/2022) and LSE ( 2016/2017), and graduated in Political Science and Law from the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Mónica Arango Olaya is reading for a DPhil in Law at the Faculty of Law at Oxford University. She is a Graduate Research Resident at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights for the year 2020. Her research focuses on sexual harassment in the workplace and the #MeToo movement. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from Los Andes University in Colombia, where she is from, and an LL.M. from Harvard University.

Before coming to Oxford she was Deputy Justice at the Colombian Constitutional Court and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Mónica has taught public interest law procedure at the Faculty of Law at Los Andes University in Colombia as well as access to justice for women at FLACSO Argentina. She has published articles on reproductive rights, children's rights and constitutional law.

Carlos is currently pursuing a DPhil in Law degree at the University of Oxford. His research is centered around the examination of sexual violence against men and non-cisgender women in the judgments of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Carlos holds the position of Associate Professor at the School of Law at the Universidad del Pacífico in Peru, where he also serves as the chair of the Public International Law program. His educational background includes degrees from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (LL.B.) and Harvard Law School (LL.M.), where he was a Fulbright scholar. Carlos is internationally recognized for his expertise in the convergence of law and dissident sexualities.

His academic contributions about discrimination faced by LGBTIQ+ communities have been presented at numerous global forums and are frequently cited by governmental bodies and civil society organizations. Carlos led the legal team representing Crissthian Olivera in the case of Olivera Fuentes v. Peru (2023), a landmark regional ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights involving public displays of affection by LGBTIQ+ individuals and the extent of anti-discrimination obligations for corporations. He also played a crucial role as expert witness in the Inter-American Court’s case of Vicky Hernández et al. v. Honduras (2021), which marked the tribunal’s first application of the Convention of Belém do Pará to a transfemicide. Before joining the Universidad del Pacífico, Carlos served for almost a decade in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights handling cases related to freedom of expression and access to information. He was also a part of the legal team at the Pan-American Health Organization, where he contributed to shaping the strategy for advocating health as a fundamental human right across the Americas. In his earlier career, Carlos engaged in local transitional justice initiatives with Peruvian non-governmental organizations, collecting testimonies for submission to Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Natalia Morales Cerda holds an LLB from the University of Chile (summa cum laude), an LLM from the University of Chile (summa cum laude), and a MA in Gender Studies from the University of Sussex (distinction).

Natalia joined the UCL Faculty of Laws as a PhD student in September 2021. Her research project contributes to the literature on women’s political participation and representation in constitution-making through examining the ongoing Chilean constituent process. Adopting a theoretically-informed socio-legal methodology, her research critically assesses women’s direct participation in constituent processes in both democratic and feminist theory. Through this examination, her research also provides a feminist critique of the ‘crisis’ of democratic representation.

Natalia has worked as a legal advisor to the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity (Chile), where she worked on legislative reforms to decriminalise abortion in Chile. She has been a visiting researcher at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), after being awarded the Red Alas – Network of Latin American Feminist Scholars Fellowship (2018). She has also been a legal advisor to NGOs in Chile and Mexico.

She is currently working in the FLACSO Chile (Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences – Chile) advocacy programme, in the area of gender and feminism, whose objective is to provide technical assistance to the members of the constitutional convention.

Luz Helena Orozco y Villa is a nonresident scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy (Center for the U.S. and Mexico) and a DPhil candidate at the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford. Her current research lies at the intersection of constitutional law and emerging technologies. Her thesis, under the supervision of Prof Jacob Rowbottom, focuses on the constitutionalization of the digital environment and content moderation on online platforms. She is a research assistant at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and a teaching assistant at the Oxford Internet Institute.

Before joining Oxford, Orozco y Villa served as a career clerk for the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice and as a research advisor at the Gender Equality Program of the Federal Judicial Council. She has taught International Human Rights Law, Philosophy of Human Rights, Family Law, and Gender Justice to undergraduate and graduate students at various universities.

Orozco y Villa earned an LLM from Columbia Law School as a Fulbright grantee and Bretzfelder scholar. She holds an LLB from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.

Aparna Chandra is a Professor of Law at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, where she also heads the M.K. Nambyar Chair on Constitutional Law. She researches and writes on constitutional law, comparative law, gender and the law, and judicial process reform. Aparna was one of the coordinators of the Indian Feminist Judgments Project. She is currently heading a project on women in the legal profession in India. She is also an editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to the Constitution of India.