Women and the Rule of Law: A View from the Americas

Harriet Babbitt (United States) is an attorney at the firm Jennings Strouss & Salmon. From 1997 to 2001, she served as deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). She was the US ambassador to the Organization of American States from 1993 to 1997. She served as chair of the American Bar Association –Latin America Rule of Law program from about 2001-2007.

Desiree Bernard (Guyana) was the first female judge to be named to the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2005. Prior to that, she served on Guyana’s Court of Appeals, was chief justice of the Supreme Court, and was chancellor of the judiciary of Guyana and the Caribbean. She has served on the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and is a member of the International Association of Women Judges.

Catalina Botero (Colombia) is the special rapporteur for freedom of expression of the Organization of American States. Before assuming this position, she was acting magistrate and auxiliary magistrate on the Constitutional Court of Colombia for eight years. She was also national director of the Office for the Promotion of Human Rights in the Office of the People’s Defender of Colombia.

Muni Figueres (Costa Rica) is the ambassador of Costa Rica to the United States. Between 1982 and 1986, Figueres served as director of Costa Rica’s Investment and Trade Promotion Agency. In 1986 she was named minister of foreign trade, and subsequently became special presidential trade representative, her two-year mission being to bolster support in the US Congress for approval of the Caribbean Basin Initiative. She has also served as the InterAmerican Development Bank’s division chief for trade and integration.

María del Carmen Alanís Figueroa (Mexico) serves as a justice on the Electoral Court of Mexico, which she headed from 2007 to 2011. She previously served as executive director of the Federal Electoral Institute. She is currently Mexico’s representative to the European Commission for Democracy through Law, where she coordinates the Sub-Commission on Latin America. In 2011, she was appointed head of the OAS Working Group on American Electoral Jurisprudence.

María Eugenia Hirmas Rubio (Chile) was director of sociocultural affairs for the Presidency of Chile from 2007 to 2010 under President Michelle Bachelet. Previously, she was executive director of the Fundación Todo Chilenter. She was also head of communications and public relations for the Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (SERNAM).

Roberta Jacobson (United States) is assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. Previously, she served as principal deputy assistant secretary of state and coordinator of citizen security initiatives as well as deputy assistant secretary of state for Canada, Mexico, and NAFTA. She was also deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Peru.

Vanessa Ruiz (United States) is a senior judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she was appointed to the Court of Appeals by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Ruiz was previously corporation counsel (now District of Columbia attorney general) for the District of Columbia and an attorney in private practice. Ruiz is active in numerous organizations, including the International Association of Women Judges, and serves as immediate past president of the National Association of Women Judges.

Macarena Sáez (Chile) is a fellow in the International Legal Studies Program and professor at Washington College of Law at American University. Her main areas of research are gender discrimination in Latin America, and comparative family law. She is also member of the Executive Committee of the Network of Latin American Scholars on Gender, Sexuality and Legal Education.

Janet Tello Gilardi (Peru) was appointed justice on the Supreme Court of Peru at the beginning of 2013. She previously presided over Lima’s drug trafficking court and also led Lima’s Superior Family Court. She is president of the Board of Directors of the Federation of Associations of Judges for Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (United States) is former lieutenant governor of Maryland. Before being elected to that post she served as deputy assistant attorney general of the United States. She taught foreign policy at the University of Pennsylvania and founded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

Gabriela Vega (Peru) is the lead specialist for the Gender and Diversity Unit at the InterAmerican Development Bank. Vega has over 25 years of experience in socioeconomic research and project analysis in the fields of poverty, labor markets and gender issues. Before joining the IDB she was a consultant on social safety nets for the World Bank and a researcher at the Central Reserve Bank of Peru.

María Eugenía Villaseñor (Guatemala) is a judge on Guatemala’s Fifth Court of Appeals on drug trafficking and environmental crimes in the department of Quetzaltenango. She served as president of the court from 2004 to 2009. She has presided over a number of human rights cases, among them the killing of forensic anthropologist Myrna Mack. In 2000, she published a book on domestic violence and social aggression in Guatemala. She is a member of the International Association of Women Judges.

María Francisca Zapata (Chile) is a judge on the First Supervisory Court of Santiago. She is a professor at the University Andrés Bello and has written widely on penal reform in Chile. Since 2004, she has served on the National Association of Magistrates promoting structural reforms to the judicial branch. She belonged to the Lawyers’ Group of Chile, through which she promoted a gender perspective within public and private spaces of power. She is a member of the International Association of Women Judges.