 | This article contains translated text and the factual accuracy of the translation should be checked by someone fluent in Spanish and English. (October 2022) |
Sonia Picado Sotela (born 20 December 1936) is a Costa Rican jurist, politician and university professor with experience in the field of human rights.
Picado was born in San José, Costa Rica. She has held positions in the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (IIDH), including Internal Director (1983-1984), Assistant Executive Director (1984-1987) and Executive Director (1987-1994).
At present[ when? ] she occupies the Presidency of the IIDH, the first woman to hold this appointment. Previously she formed part of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, where she was a judge and, from 1988 to 1994, vice-president. Likewise, she is member of the Managerial Council in Human Security of the United Nations, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, and of the Inter-American Dialogue.
She has also been ambassador of Costa Rica in the United States between the 1994 to 1998 and Legislator in 1998-2002 for the National Liberation Party. From here she carried out important fights to incorporate the perspective of gender to the distinct law projects and promoted other benefits for Costa Rican women. She was president of the party from 1999 to 2001. [1]
She has a recognized path as defender of human rights, especially in the promotion and fight for improving the human rights for women.
In addition to numerous articles published at a national and international level, her opinions have been expressed in the following works: “Political Participation of Woman: A challenge yesterday, today and always” (2001), “Woman and Politics” (2002) and “Human Security and Human rights” (2003).
For her recognized path as defender of human rights, especially in the promotion and fight for improving the human rights of women, she has been credited with three doctorates honoris cause - Elmhurst University, (2000), University of Miami, (2002) and Colby College, (2003) - and to several awards of international organisms such as the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights (1993) and the Prize of the United Nations Development Programme (1995).
At the national level her contributions in the advance of the equality and the rights of women received the following recognitions: Recognition by the Humanitarian and Cultural Efforts (1987), the Federation of Professional Women and of Businesses of Costa Rica, Recognition by the Collaboration in Problems Related with the Women, (1986), of the Inter-American Commission of Women, and Recognition by the Professional Work with the Women, of the Organisation of Citizen Costarricenses (1986).
Likewise, the National Institute of the Women inducted her to La Galería de las Mujeres de Costa Rica (The Women's Gallery of Costa Rica) in 2005. [2]
The United Nations Prizes in the Field of Human Rights were instituted by United Nations General Assembly in 1966. They are intended to "honour and commend people and organizations which have made an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of the human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in other United Nations human rights instruments".
Elizabeth Odio Benito is a lawyer and politician from Costa Rica. She served as President in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights from 2018 to 2020. She was a Vice-President of the International Criminal Court. She previously served as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and in her home country of Costa Rica was twice appointed Justice Minister, later becoming Vice-President of the Republic. Her background is as an academic lawyer, specialising in the administration of justice and human rights, in particular the rights of women.
Carmen Naranjo Coto was a Costa Rican novelist, poet and essayist. She was a recipient of the Aquileo J. Echeverría Award.
Carmen Lyra was the pseudonym of the first prominent female Costa Rican writer, born María Isabel Carvajal Quesada. She was a teacher and founder of the country's first Montessori school. She was a co-founder of the Communist Party of Costa Rica, as well as one of the country's first female worker's unions. She was one of the earliest writers to criticize the dominance of the fruit companies. She won many prizes.
Laura Chinchilla Miranda is a Costa Rican political scientist and politician who served as President of Costa Rica from 2010 to 2014. She was one of Óscar Arias Sánchez's two Vice-Presidents and his administration's Minister of Justice. She was the governing PLN candidate for president in the 2010 general election, where she won with 46.76% of the vote on 7 February. She was the eighth woman president of a Latin American country and the first and so far only woman to become President of Costa Rica. She was sworn in as President of Costa Rica on 8 May 2010.
Epsy Alejandra Campbell Barr is a Costa Rican politician and economist who served as the Vice-president of Costa Rica from 8 May 2018 to 8 May 2022. She is the first woman of African descent to be vice president in Costa Rica and in Latin America.
Manuel María de Peralta y Alfaro was a Costa Rican diplomat and historian. De Peralta y Alfaro was born in Taras, Cartago, Costa Rica, on July 4, 1847. He was the only Costa Rican to ever be given the designation of "Hero of the Motherland" twice.
Abortion in Costa Rica is severely restricted by criminal law. Currently, abortions are allowed in Costa Rica only in order to preserve the life or physical health of the woman. Abortions are illegal in almost all cases, including when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest and when the foetus suffers from medical problems or birth defects. Both social and economic factors have led to this legal status. It remains unclear whether abortions are legal to preserve the mental health of the woman, though the 2013 United Nations abortion report says Costa Rica does allow abortions concerning the mental health of a woman.
María Odilia Castro Hidalgo (1908–1999) was a Costa Rican teacher, communist and feminist. She founded the parent organization which would become the National Association of Educators. Exiled for her communist activities after the Costa Rican Civil War, Castro later returned and founded several social welfare programs. She taught for 32 years and served as a nurse in Costa Rica and Venezuela. Castro was admitted to the Costa Rican National Institute for Women (INAMU)'s Gallery of Women in 2006.
Graciela Quan Valenzuela was a Guatemalan lawyer and activist. She campaigned for women's suffrage, writing a draft proposal for Guatemala's enfranchisement law. She was also a social worker, adviser to the President of Guatemala, delegate to the United Nations and the President of the Inter-American Commission of Women.
Ángela Acuña Braun, also known as Ángela Acuña de Chacón,, a Costa Rican lawyer, women's rights pioneer and ambassador, was the first woman to graduate as a lawyer in Central America. Orphaned at the age of 12, she was raised by her maternal aunt and uncle, attending elementary school and beginning high school in Costa Rica. She continued her education in France and England, gaining exposure to the ideas of women's rights. Returning to Costa Rica in 1912, she published articles in support of women's equality. She attended the boys' lyceum or high school where she passed the bachillerato, a prerequisite for entering law school. She embarked on law studies in 1913, leading to a bachelor's degree in 1916. As women were barred from entering the profession, Acuña immediately presented a reform to the civil code allowing this, which was adopted.
Maureen Cecilia Clarke Clarke is a Costa Rican attorney and women's rights leader. She was president of the Inter-American Commission of Women.
Emilia Prieto Tugores was a graphic artist, educator, singer, composer, and scholar of folklore from the Central Valley of Costa Rica, one of the few women to enter the field of artistic satire in the first half of the 20th century. Her work was recognized with a Joaquín Monge Prize for cultural periodism in the 1984. Studying her native folklore, Prieto's collection of songs "influenced [a] generation of troubadours". The Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial Emilia Prieto Tugores was named for her, and awarded for the first time, in 2015.
Calvo Fajardo Yadira Calvo Fajardo
María Teresa Obregón Zamora (1888-1956) was a teacher, suffragist and politician in Costa Rica. She was part of the group that formed the Asociación Nacional de Educadores (ANDE) and fought for women's enfranchisement. After winning the vote, she helped found the National Liberation Party of Costa Rica and was one of the first three women elected as a Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica. In 2002, Obregón was honored as one of the inaugural group of women inducted into La Galería de las Mujeres de Costa Rica.
Alda Facio Montejo is a Costa Rican feminist jurist, writer, teacher and international expert in gender and human rights in Latin America. She is one of the founding members of the Women's Caucus for Gender Justice at the International Criminal Court. Since 1991, she has been the Director of Women, Justice and Gender, a program within the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (ILANUD) and vice president of the Justice and Gender Foundation. She was also one of the founding members of Ventana in the 1970s, one of the first feminist organizations in her native Costa Rica. Since 2014, she has been one of five United Nations special rapporteurs for the Working Group against Discrimination against Women and Girls.
Alejandra Mora Mora is a Costa Rican jurist, lawyer, professor, and politician. She has been a human rights activist, especially in the area of women's rights. She served as her country's Minister of Women's Affairs from 2014 to 2018, was president of the National Institute for Woman (INAMU), and director of the women's section of the Ombudsman's Office of Costa Rica.
Montserrat Sagot Rodríguez is a Costa Rican sociologist especially known for her work on violence against women and girls. She was a pioneer in research on femicide in Central America. In 2010, she published the first research on femicide in Costa Rica.
Iris Lam Chen is a Chinese-Costa Rican arts manager and curator known for her work in visual arts project management at the Cultural Center of Spain in Costa Rica, y artistic strategy in Global Metro Art (GMA), organization in which she is director and founder. Her work emphasizes themes related to feminism, the LGBTIQ+ community, migration, strategy, the artistic market, and inter-institutional alliances between public, private, independent and academic entities.
Thelma Curling Rodríguez is a jurist and politician from Costa Rica. She is a defender of women's rights and was the first woman of Afro-Costa Rican descent to become a member of the Parliament of Costa Rica.
| Preceded by:Edelberto Castiblanco Vargas1994-1998 | Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica (9º place of the province of San José 1998-2002 | Sucedido By:Epsy Campbell Barr2002-2006 |
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