Teresa Pizarro Beleza (born 1951) was the first woman to head the Faculty of Law at

NOVA University Lisbon NOVA University Lisbon ( pt, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, ), or just NOVA, is a Portuguese public university whose rectorate is located in Campolide, Lisbon. Founded in 1973, it is the newest of the public universities in the Portuguese capital ...

, between 2009 and 2018. She is a feminist and an outspoken activist against discrimination against women, as well as an advocate of abortion and euthanasia.

Family

Maria Teresa Couceiro Pizarro Beleza was born in Portugal's second city of

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

on 23 August 1951. She is the daughter of Maria dos Prazeres Lançarote Couceiro da Costa and José Júlio Pizarro Beleza. One sister Leonor Beleza, is a former health minister and president of the

Champalimaud Foundation The Champalimaud Foundation ( pt, Fundação Champalimaud) is a private biomedical research foundation. It was created according to the will of the late entrepreneur António de Sommer Champalimaud, in 2004. The complete name of the foundation ...

. Her other sister, Maria dos Prazeres Beleza, was the first woman to be nominated as vice president of Portugal's

Supreme Court of Justice A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Training

Beleza graduated in law from the Faculty of Law of the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The u ...

in 1976. She obtained a master's in criminology from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

in England in 1982, and a PhD in legal sciences from 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 ...

in 1993. Her thesis on women in law was considered exceptionally innovative. For her master's and doctoral study she obtained scholarships from the

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One ...

and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Foundation for Science and Technology).

Career

Beleza was an assistant professor at the University of Lisbon from 1993 until 1998, when she joined the Faculty of Law at NOVA University Lisbon. There she created the discipline of women's law and social equality, which was included in the list of options for the law degree. She became a full professor of criminal law in 2010, having been elected as the first female dean of the law faculty in 2009. In this faculty, she also held the position of president of the pedagogical council and was also responsible for the university's contribution to the Erasmus Programme, which promotes student exchange within the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

. Between 1999 and 2003, Beleza represented Portugal on the European

Committee for the Prevention of Torture The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment or shortly Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) is the anti-torture committee of the Council of Europe. Founded to enforce the Europ ...

, carrying out missions to monitor the conditions of detention of prisoners. She also represented the European Union in human rights dialogues with the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and the Islamic Republic of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. From 2002, Beleza represented her university at the

European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation The European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC) is an interdisciplinary centre covering the area of human rights education and research formed by 41 universities from all European Union member states. The EIUC's a ...

, headquartered in

Lido di Venezia The Lido, or Venice Lido ( it, Lido di Venezia), is an barrier island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy; it is home to about 20,400 residents. The Venice Film Festival takes place at the Lido late August/early September. Geography Th ...

, Italy. This is a network of 41 European universities that specialize in teaching, training and research in the areas of human rights and democracy. From 2008 she was part of its board of administrators. In 2014, she joined several colleagues from other faculties at NOVA University to develop a PhD in globalization studies. In 2018, she became coordinator of a PhD in Gender Studies, together with the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas of the University of Lisbon.

Awards and honours

*2021 - Prémio Maria Barroso 2020/2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beleza, Teresa Pizarro 1951 births living people University of Lisbon alumni Portuguese women lawyers Portuguese women academics Academic staff of NOVA University Lisbon