Alejandra Mora Mora (born 1970) is a Costa Rican jurist, lawyer, professor, and politician. She has been a
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
activist, especially in the area of
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
. 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 .
Education
Alejandra Mora Mora earned a law degree from the
University of Costa Rica
The University of Costa Rica (Spanish: ''Universidad de Costa Rica,'' abbreviated UCR) is a public university in the Republic of Costa Rica, in Central America. Its main campus, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, is located in San Pedro Mo ...
in 1989. She completed specialization courses at
Lund University
, motto = Ad utrumque
, mottoeng = Prepared for both
, established =
, type = Public research university
, budget = SEK 9 billion Raoul Wallenberg Institute in 1997, a master's degree in
constitutional law
Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a State (polity), state, namely, the executive (government), executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as th ...
from the
Distance State University
The Distance State University () (UNED), is one of five public universities in the Republic of Costa Rica. It is in Sabanilla, Montes de Oca. UNED is the second university in number of students, and it is the largest coverage in the country. It ha ...
of Costa Rica in 2004, and a postgraduate degree in human rights from the
University of Chile
The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.
in 2007.
Career
Mora began her professional career in 1989, at the Ministry of Justice of Costa Rica headed by Odio Benítez. From 1989 to 1993, she was national chief of the legal department, national chief of advocacy, member of the National Institute of Criminology, and advisor to the women's section of the General Human Rights Ombudsman.
Between 1993 and 2002, she was the director of the women's section of the . From 2002 to 2006, she was the director of the advisory team of the Citizens' Action Party in the Legislative Assembly. From 2007 to 2014, she returned to her previous position as director of the women's section of the Ombudsman's Office. In 2013 she conducted an investigation on the rights of women for the state of the nation.
From 2012 to 2018, Mora was executive president of the INAMU, and from 2014 to 2018 she was Minister of Women's Affairs in the Solís Rivera administration and a member of the Governing Council. At this stage, she focused on the design and governance of
public policies
Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and Social issue, real-world problems, guided by a co ...
regarding discrimination and violence against women. In 2018, she returned to her position as director of the women's section of the Ombudsman's Office.
In the field of international representation, she was coordinator of the
International Federation for Human Rights
The International Federation for Human Rights (french: Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme; FIDH) is a non-governmental federation for human rights organizations. Founded in 1922, FIDH is the third oldest international h ...
in 2000, and coordinator of the Ibero-American Ombudsman Federation's Network for Women in 2012. From 2012 to 2016 she was president of the
Inter-American Commission of Women
The Inter-American Commission of Women ( es, Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres, pt, Comissão Interamericana de Mulheres, french: Commission interaméricaine des femmes), abbreviated CIM, is an organization that falls within the Organization of ...
(CIM) and of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Convention of Belém do Pará (MESECVI) of the
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...
(OAS), as well as women's advisor to the UN's High-level Panel for Empowerment. In July 2019, she returned to the CIM as its executive secretary.
Mora is a professor of family law at the University of Costa Rica. She has taught at various universities since 1998, such as the University of La Salle, University of Costa Rica, and the Distance State University. Since 2000, she has been invited to national and international forums as an expert on women's rights, for the elaboration, advocacy, and lobbying for the approval of laws against harassment and violence, and promoting responsible parenthood.
Awards and recognitions
* In 2018 she was designated by the Apolitical Group as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in gender policies in its "Gender Equality Top 100".
* In 2019 she received the Women's Institution Award from the Chamber of Commerce in the framework of the Program for the Development of Women Entrepreneurs.
Works
* 2009: Co-author of ''Haciendo visible lo invisible'', compilation of cases of the defense of women's rights
* 2010: Article "El derecho de familia y los derechos Humanos" in ''Derecho de Familia en Latinoamérica'', Editorial Nuevo Enfoque Jurídico, Córdoba, Argentina
* 2011: ''Ley contra el Hostigamiento Sexual en el Empleo y la Docencia'', commented and annotated, Editorial Juritexto, 1st edition, San José, Costa Rica
* 2012: Article: "La progresividad y el Derecho de familia" in ''El derecho de Familia en Latinoamérica'', Editorial Nuevo Enfoque Jurídico, Argentina
Periodicals
* 1991, 1992, 1995: Co-author of brochures ''Jurisprudencia Constitucional sobre el Derecho Penitenciario'', ''Hostigamiento Sexual: Algunas Reflexiones Teóricas-Jurídicas'', ''Violencia en las relaciones de Pareja''
* 1996: "¿Quién ejerce la Patria Potestad de los hijos extramatrimoniales en Costa Rica?" in ''IVSTITIA'' No. 114-115, June–July
* 2000: "Ley contra el Hostigamiento sexual: Comentarios a la ley y un análisis desde el principio de igualdad jurídica", ''IVSTITIA'' No. 159, March
* 2000: "Compilación de Jurisprudencia de la Defensoría de la Mujer", booklets of the Ombudsman's Office
* 2002: "El mundo jurídico como instrumento para el adelanto de las condiciones y situaciones de las mujeres: Una aproximación a la Ley de Paternidad Responsable", ''Parlamentaria'' No. 3, Volume 10, December 2002, Legislative Assembly