Verónica Undurraga
Verónica Undurraga | |
|---|---|
| Expert Commissioner and President of the Constitutional Council | |
| In office 6 March 2023 – 7 November 2023 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 5 October 1967 |
| Party | Party for Democracy |
| Alma mater |
|
| Occupation | Academic |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Verónica Undurraga Valdés (born 5 October 1967) is a Chilean lawyer and university professor. From March to November 2023, she served as a member and president of the Expert Commission, the body in charge of drafting a preliminary constitutional text later discussed by the Constitutional Council, within the framework of the 2023 Chilean constitutional process.
Biography
Early life and education
She was born in Santiago in 1967, the daughter of lawyer Claudio Undurraga Abbott (1940–2022), co-founder of Prieto Abogados, and essayist Adriana Valdés, the first woman elected as director of the Chilean Academy of Language and of the Institute of Chile.[1]
She studied law at the University of Chile, earning her bachelor’s degree in legal and social sciences in 1990 and qualifying as a lawyer before the Supreme Court of Chile in 1996.[2][3]
In 1995, she obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M) from Columbia University.[2][3][4] In 2001 she completed a diploma in modern institutions of family law at the University of Chile.[2]
On 6 September 2012, she obtained her doctorate in law from the University of Chile, with a thesis titled Propuesta interpretativa del mandato de protección del que está por nacer bajo la constitución chilena en el contexto de la regulación jurídica del aborto, supervised by professor Cecilia Medina Quiroga, former president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.[4]
Professional career
Between 1992 and 2002, she was an associate lawyer at the Chilean law firm Prieto y Compañía (now Prieto Abogados), specializing in corporate law.[2][3]
She then served as academic secretary of the Doctoral Program of the University of Chile (2002–2003), and as director of the “Women and Human Rights” program at the Center for Human Rights of the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile (2007–2011).[2][3][4]
In 2010, she was a visiting instructor and visiting scholar with a Ford Global Fellowship at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto (Canada), co-teaching the course Women’s Rights in Transnational Law with professor Rebecca J. Cook.[3]
Since 2011, she has been a professor of constitutional law at the Faculty of Law of the Adolfo Ibáñez University.[2][3] She also served as judge of the Ethics Tribunal of the Chilean Bar Association (2012–2015).[2]
In 2017 she worked as a consultant for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and for Human Rights Watch (2017–2018).[3]
Political career
On 23 January 2023, the Chamber of Deputies of Chile confirmed her nomination, sponsored by the Party for Democracy, as a member of the Expert Commission of the 2023 Chilean constitutional process.[2][5]
On 6 March 2023, at the installation of the Expert Commission, she was unanimously elected its president, alongside Sebastián Soto as vice president.[6]
Works
- Aborto y protección del que está por nacer en la Constitución chilena (2013)
References
- ^ "Plumas por Plumas: Verónica Undurraga por Adriana Valdés". Diario Financiero. 7 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Verónica Undurraga Valdés". Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Verónica Undurraga Valdés". Portal del Investigador. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
- ^ a b c "Nueva doctora en derecho de la Universidad de Chile". El Mercurio. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
- ^ "Comisión estará encargada de redactar el anteproyecto de nueva Constitución". El Mercurio. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
- ^ "Proceso constitucional: Comisión Experta designa a Verónica Undurraga como presidenta y a Sebastián Soto como vicepresidente". La Tercera. 6 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.