Vera Valentina Benrós de Melo Duarte Lobo de Pina (born October 2, 1952), also known as Vera Duarte Martins, is a
Cape Verdean
human rights activist
A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing cam ...
,
government minister
A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, ...
and
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
.
Biography
Duarte was born in
on the
island of São Vicente. She spent her first years of school in
Cape Verde. She studied abroad in
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
at 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 ...
.
She returned to
Praia in Cape Verde and became a counsellor judge at the Supreme Court. She later became an advisor to the President of the Republic.
Duarte was the recipient of the inaugural
North–South Prize
The North–South Prize is awarded annually by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe to two public figures who are recognised for their deep commitment, outstanding achievements and hope they have generated in the field of protection of h ...
in 1995, along with musician,
Peter Gabriel.
The North–South Prize is awarded annually to recipients in the field of human rights by the
North–South Centre of the
Council of Europe. She is also a founding member of the Lisbon Forum.
[
Duarte is the only Capeverdean to have the U Tam'si Prize for African Poetry won in 2001.
Duarte co-founded and chaired the National Commission for Human Rights and Citizenship of Cape Verde in 2003.][ Most recently, Duarte has served as the Cape Verdean Minister of Education.][
]
Works
Poems
* 1993 – ''Amanhã amadrugada''
* 2001 – ''O arquipélago da paixão''
* 2005 – ''Preces e súplicas ou os cânticos da desesperança''
* 2010 – ''Exercícios poéticos''
Novels
* 2003 – ''A candidata'' (''The Candidate'')
Essays
* 2007 – ''Construindo a utopia'' (''Constructing Utopias'')[Corréa, Cláudia Maria Fernandes; Pereira, Érica Antunes]
Vera Duarte: retratos do cotidiano feminino
Revista Educação e Linguagens, Campo Mourão, v. 2, n. 2, Jan.-Jun. 2013
References
Cape Verdean human rights activists
Government ministers of Cape Verde
Cape Verdean poets
1952 births
Living people
Cape Verdean women writers
People from Mindelo
Cape Verdean women poets
Cape Verdean novelists
Women novelists
20th-century poets
21st-century poets
21st-century novelists
Women essayists
21st-century essayists
20th-century women writers
21st-century women writers
21st-century judges
21st-century women politicians
Women government ministers of Cape Verde
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