Carmelita Pires (born November 16, 1963) is a

Bissau-Guinean Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...

lawyer and politician. She was the Minister for Justice. She was the third woman to be a minister in her country.

Life

Pires was born in

Bissau Bissau () is the capital, and largest city of Guinea-Bissau. Bissau had a population of 492,004. Bissau is located on the Geba River estuary, off the Atlantic Ocean, and is Guinea-Bissau's largest city, major port, and its administrative and m ...

in 1963. She studied law at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coi ...

before going to the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...

where she obtained a master's degree in legal and political sciences. She became the Minister for Justice on 13 April 2007. In July 2008 she received death threats by phone which she believed was because of progress made against drug dealers with the assistance of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. She ceased to be a minister in 2009. She believed that a thorough review was required of the justice system was required. The USA described Guinea Bissau as a narco state. 200 to 300 tonnes of cocaine pass though the state whereas the estimated value of the country's gross domestic product is equal to just 6 tonnes of cocaine. In November 2012 she stopped three years work advising the President of the

Economic Community of West African States The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as in French and Portuguese) is a regional political union, political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an ...

about drug trafficking. She noted that trafficking drugs infiltrated even the top levels of government in Guinea-Bissau. In October 2013 she was elected leader of the

United Social Democratic Party The United Social Democratic Party ( pt, Partido Unido Social Democrático, PUSD) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Guinea-Bissau. History The party was established on 30 May 1991 and legalised on 6 June 1992.Peter Karibe Mend ...

(PUSD) by 264 votes out of the 274. Pires said that she did not intend to run for President of the country. The party had no representation in parliament but it had 17 deputies at the National People's Assembly. Her party's priorities would be Education, Health and Social Security. In May 2020 President,

Umaro Sissoco Embaló Umaro Mokhtar Sissoco Embaló (born 23 September 1972) is a Bissau-Guinean politician serving as the president of Guinea-Bissau since 27 February 2020. He is a political scientist and military officer who previously served as prime minister bet ...

announced that she had been appointed to join the five person constitutional review committee led by Carlos Joaquim Vamain.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pires, Carmelita 1963 births Living people People from Bissau Bissau-Guinean politicians Female justice ministers Justice ministers of Guinea-Bissau