Isabel Moreira (born 1976) is a Portuguese jurist and politician. A Deputy in the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal, as a representative of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS), she is known for her campaigns in favour of LGBT rights.

Early life

Isabel de Lima Mayer Alves Moreira was born in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, Brazil on 2 April 1976, the fourth of six children of

Adriano Moreira Adriano José Alves Moreira, ComC GCC GOIH GCSE (6 September 1922 – 23 October 2022) was a Portuguese lawyer, professor and a leading political figure in Portugal throughout the second half of the 20th century. Education Adriano Moreira ...

and Isabel Mónica Maia de Lima Mayer. Her father had been an influential politician in Portugal in the mid-20th century, who was close to the repressive '' Estado Novo'' government and was for two years Minister of Overseas Territories. When the government was overthrown in 1974 by the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...

, he and his family moved to Rio de Janeiro for two years. Isabel Moreira was educated at the Mira Rio college in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, a school linked to

Opus Dei Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei ( la, Praelatura Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei), is an institution of the Catholic Church whose members seek personal Christian holiness and strive to imbue their work an ...

. She has said that this led to her being distanced from religion. She then did undergraduate studies in law at the Faculty of Law of 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 ...

, followed by a master's degree in constitutional law. In 1997, she married Tiago de Ayala Martins Barata in

Sintra Sintra (, ) is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 377,835, in an area of . Sintra is one of the most urbanized and densely populated ...

. They are divorced and had no children.

Early career

Moreira started her professional life as a lecturer in constitutional law and public international law at the University of Lisbon, having been admitted to take a PhD. At the same time, she worked as a lawyer in the area of public law and later provided consultancy and legal advice, particularly to Portugal's Minister of Foreign Affairs,

Luís Amado Luís Filipe Marques Amado, GCC (born 17 September 1953) is a portuguese politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2011 in Portugal's XIII Government led by the Socialist Party. Before replacing Diogo Freitas do Amaral ...

. She also worked for the Agha Khan Foundation

in Portugal.

Political life

Moreira was elected as a Deputy in the Assembly of the Republic in the 2011 legislative elections on the Socialist Party's list for Lisbon, although she did not join the PS until around 2013. She was re-elected to the Assembly in 2015, 2019 and 2022. She is a member of the parliamentary committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees. As a member of the Assembly, she has supported LGBT rights, such as same-sex marriage, the right to adoption by homosexual couples, and the recognition of different rights for transgender people. Moreira has published several publications on the topic of fundamental rights. She writes frequently in newspapers and has frequently participated in a political debate program on the channel '' RTP Informação''. She is also a writer.

Publications

*''Cela'' (Cell). 2018. *''Apátrida'' (Homeland). 2014. *''Ansiedade'' (Anxiety). 2011. *''O Casamento entre Pessoas do Mesmo Sexo'' (The marriage of people of the same sex). 2008. (with Carlos Pamplona Corte-Real and Luís Duarte D`Almeida) * ''A Solução dos Direitos: Liberdades e garantias e dos direitos económicos, sociais e culturais na Constituição Portuguesa''. (The Rights Solution: Freedoms and guarantees and economic, social and cultural rights in the Portuguese Constitution). 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moreira, Isabel 1976 births Living people Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians Members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Women members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Portuguese women writers University of Lisbon alumni University of Lisbon faculty