Gisèle Côté-Harper, (born 1942) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

lawyer and professor. She is the 1995 recipient of the

Pearson Medal of Peace The Pearson Medal of Peace is an award given out annually by the United Nations Association in Canada to recognize an individual Canadian's "contribution to international service". Nominations are made by any Canadian for any Canadian, excluding sel ...

for her work as a

human rights Human rights are moral principles or 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 certain standards of hu ...

activist. She is the first Francophone woman to receive such an honor.

Education

She graduated from

Université Laval Université Laval is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university was founded by royal charter issued by Queen Victoria in 1852, with roots in the founding of the Séminaire de Québec in 1663 by François de Montm ...

(B.A. and LL.L.) and Harvard Law School (LL.M.).

Career

Côté-Harper was appointed

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

in 1987. She is a professor at the Faculté de droit de l'Université Laval, specializing in criminal law and human rights. In 1997, she was made an officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

. Côté-Harper also served as board chair of the

International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development The International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (Rights & Democracy), was created to be a non-partisan, independent Canadian institution. It was established by an act of the Canadian parliament in 1988 to "encourage and suppor ...

. In 1998, she was awarded the médaille du Barreau de Québec.

References

External links

Pearson Medal of Peace - Gisèle Côt
https://web.archive.org/web/20040330225508/http://unac.org/en/news_events/pearson/1995.asp é-Harper] 1942 births Living people Lawyers in Quebec Canadian legal scholars Harvard Law School alumni Officers of the Order of Canada Academics in Quebec Academic staff of Université Laval Université Laval alumni United Nations Human Rights Committee members Canadian human rights activists Women human rights activists Canadian women lawyers Canadian King's Counsel Canadian officials of the United Nations Women legal scholars {{canada-academic-bio-stub