Panama | Member, United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture
Former Minister of Government of Panama
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María Luisa Romero is a human rights advocate with a broad range of international experience in multilateral institutions, government roles, and civil society. Romero served as minister of government and vice-minister of government of the Republic of Panama (2014-2018). She currently sits as independent expert in the United Nations (UN) Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture (2019-2026) where she acts as vice-chair, rapporteur and head of the Jurisprudence Working Group.
In the Ministry of Government, Romero oversaw issues related to justice, governance, civil protection, refugees and indigenous peoples. She spearheaded a widely recognized prison reform effort centered on human rights that included professionalizing the prison system and improved rehabilitation of detained individuals to promote more human prison environments and support successful reintegration into society. Before entering public service, Romero worked as an independent human rights consultant; as a litigator in Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York City, where she advised clients with respect to regulatory, anti-corruption and human rights matters; and as an attorney at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica. At the beginning of her professional career, she served as a diplomatic attaché at the Embassy of Panama in the United States and as a law student she was awarded an international public service fellowship to intern at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Romero started her human rights field work as a student member and later as a pro bono contributor to the International Human Rights Clinic of Harvard Law School. She has consulted for regional bodies, academic institutions and civil society organizations and has contributed to several publications on human rights abuses, international standards and public policy in Latin America, most recently regarding prisons during the pandemic and the use of force in social protest. Throughout her diverse career, Romero has visited scores of places of deprivation of liberty across Latin America and Europe.
Romero is a board member of the local chapter of Transparency International in Panama, a fellow of the Central America Leadership Initiative and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Romero earned her juris doctor degree, graduating cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2008, and her bachelor’s degree in government, graduating magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 2004.
Romero joined the Dialogue as a Member in 2019.
This report from the Peter D. Bell Rule of Law Program posits that policy reforms adopted out of necessity during the pandemic in regards to prison policy, some of which were considered politically unpalatable before the Covid-19 emergency, offer important lessons and in some cases proof of concept for overdue shifts in prison policy.
