Members of the Civil Society Advisory Group in Latin America and the Caribbean

Gia Gaspard Taylor

 

Gia Gaspard Taylor is a national of Trinidad and Tobago, who continues to devote herself tirelessly to national service particularly working with young people, women and the disadvantaged.

She holds a BSc in Social Work from the School of Continuing Studies University of the West Indies; and has had many years of experience in working in both the public and private sector in Trinidad and Tobago, regionally, and internationally.

Gia’s wealth of experience in the areas of education, entrepreneurship, the advancement of women, opportunities for youth development and climate change, bring to bear fruitfully on the numerous committees and associations on which she serves.

She currently serves as president of the Network of Rural Women Producers, Trinidad and Tobago which holds Special Consultative Status on the United Nations Social and Economic Council and is part UN Women Advisory Group for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Trinidad & Tobago

Rural producers / Youth 

Ruth Spencer

 

Ruth Spencer, a national of Antigua and Barbuda is a 3-time Award Winner in Energy, Climate Change and the Environment. Her passion, dedication and commitment has enabled integrated people centered development using bottom up approaches. Ruth builds the capacities of the local community groups that brings visibility and empowerment to their work ensuring that women and gender concerns are mainstreamed across many of the SDG’s, the Escazu Agreement and the Multilateral Environmental Conventions Namely Waste Management, Biodiversity, Climate Change and Mercury. She connects the local to global processes though sharing case studies, presentations, and knowledge management products.

Her belief is that the skill sets, capabilities and knowledge of the local people skill sets that exists in the various communities must become a part of the overall decision-making process, so she advocates for good governance processes. Her values drive her work.

Ruth has been nominated and appointed to many national and international working groups. She received her Master's Degree in international Development Economics also post graduate studies in project appraisal from Yale University.

Antigua & Barbuda

Enviorment, Climate Change, local organizations 

Marilyn Ramón Medellín

 

Marilyn is a Young lawyer and indigenous youth and women’s human`s rights defender. From the Mazahua People, she is cofounder of the “KE’GUA RERICHEJUI A.C.” (Human Rights Center). She is part of the Mexican National Indigenous Women Coordination (CONAMI). She is also part of ECMIA (Continental Indigenous Women of the America Network. She has experience defending and promoting women’s, youth and children human rights, especially on issues related to prevention of gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, access to justice for indigenous women and peoples. She has been a researcher in different projects on political participation of indigenous women, gender based violence against indigenous women, among others.

Mexico

Youth, Indigenous people 

Andrea Avilez Ortega

 

Andrea Avilez Ortega is a young feminist from Mexico City. She studied psychology at UNAM. During her career she focused her interests on social psychology with an emphasis on feminisms, sexuality, human rights and social transformation. She developed her graduate work on the analysis of the role of sexuality in the processes of human mobility, as well as the situation of LGBT migrants and refugee applicants.

In 2019, she was a member of the first women's parliament in Mexico City, where she presented an initiative to make the implementation of protocols for the prevention, care, punishment and eradication of sexual and gender-based violence in schools mandatory.

For the past three years, she has been coordinating the research area of the Arcoiris Foundation for respect for sexual diversity and has participated in political advocacy processes. She is part of the Dignas Hijas Collective.

Mexico

Youth, community LGTBI 

Waldistrudis Hurtado Minotta

 

Master in Public Administration and Specialist in Social Management Consultant in Gender, Public Policies and Organizational Strengthening. Committed to women's rights in their ethnic and intercultural diversity. She has excelled in training processes for gender equality, the elimination of gender violence, women's political participation and the formulation and implementation of public gender policies. Delegate, Lecturer and Participant for Colombia in different international processes of Civil Society before the OAS, Inter-American Conference of Mayors and Local Authorities, Gender and Diversity Dialogue, Public Policies for Ethnic and Racial Inclusion carried out by the IDB, World Meeting of Afro-descendants and in the V Meeting of Municipal Women UNMUNDO is part of the Social and Political Movement of Black Women, She interacts with organizations and networks in the framework of the inclusion of the ethnic gender approach in the implementation of the Peace Accords. She is currently a member of the Regional Civil Society Advisory Group of the Spotlight Project to eliminate violence against women and girls.

Colombia

Afro-Colombian rights activist / Working with rural women 

Quiteria Franco

 

Degree in Education, mention in Languages, University of Zulia. Translator by the Universidad Metropolitana. Master in Applied Linguistics, Universidad Simón Bolívar. Coordinator of the Asociación Civil Unión Afirmativa de Venezuela. Advisor, trainer, and researcher on the human rights of LGBTI people.

Venezuela

Sexual diversity activist 

Mónica Mendizabal

 

Born in La Paz, Bolivia, she is a professional with more than 30 years of experience. Mother of a young woman who discovers the world in her early career. She made an incursion into feminism in an empirical way and later, along with her studies, she internalized feminist theory. Thus she understood that feminism is a reflexive practice rooted in life and its empiricism and in studies, the academy.

She worked in institutions such as PROMUJER, the Gregoria Apaza Center for the Promotion of Women against gender violence, and UNIFEM (now UN Women) where she began her work in public policy. She then continued with SIPPASE at the Ministry of Justice. She supported with the certificate of non-violence for public officials, the constitutional sentence in favor of unpunished abortion, the inclusion of gender violence content for judges and prosecutors. It has also contributed to the implementation of the Electoral ISO for the Plurinational Electoral Body. She is a feminist woman, a doer and very committed to her country.

Bolivia

Political participation, peace and security 

Givania Da Silva

 

GIVÂNIA MARIA DA SILVA, educator and quilombola. Graduated in Literature and specialized in Teaching Programming and Local Sustainable Development. Master in Public Policies and Education Management at the University of Brasilia-UnB and doctoral student in Sociology at the same University. Research quilombola school education, quilombola women's organization and land issues in quilombos. She served as coordinator of land regularization of quilombola territories at the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform - INCRA. She is a founding member of the National Coordination of Quilombola Communities - CONAQ. Former National Secretary of Policies for Traditional Communities of SEPPIR. Member of the Brazilian Association of Black Researchers - ABPN and coordinator of the Scientific Committee: Quilombos, territorialities and emancipatory knowledge of the ABPN and member of the Fiscal Council of the same Association. She served as a consultant to FAO and UN Women and as a teacher trainer for the pedagogical curriculum The Brave are Not Violent. Author of the book Educação e Luta do Quilombo de Conceição das Crioulas, and several texts related to quilombola education, maintenance and preservation of quilombola territories. Currently substitute teacher at UnB and member of the Women and Education Collectives of CONAQ. She is a member of the Committee Black Women Towards a Planet 50-50 in 2030, Coordinated by CONAQ, the Research Racism and Violence against quilombolas in Brasilia.

Brazil

Afro, quilombola, rural Women. 

Marcella Zub

 

Marcella Zub Centeno, Paraguayan lawyer, teacher of fundamental rights and specialist in women's human rights. She works on issues related to political participation, parity and the eradication of violence against women in Paraguay, with several works and publications on the subject. She currently coordinates the Sumamos Mujeres Project, which seeks to promote active citizenship for women in Paraguay. She is a member of the Grupo Impulsor de la Paridad Democrática, the Red de Mujeres del Sur and the feminist organization Kuña Róga, from where she carries out her feminist activism promoting the women's movement at the local, national and regional levels, from a democratic, pluralist, egalitarian and fair practice.

Paraguay

Human Rights, violence against women, political participation 

Mariana Salomón

 

Young feminist activist from the Northwest of Argentina, Bachelor in Social Communication (UCSE) and Diploma in Gender and Feminist Movements (Sholem-FiloUBA). She worked as a university teacher, participated in two research teams, and currently works in the Institutional Communication Office of the Public Ministry of Defense of her province. Focusing on working for gender equity, she formed the founding committee of the organization Agenda de Género(s) where she served as editorial coordinator of its magazine, carried out various communication and training activities with adolescents, especially in the area of sexual and (non-)reproductive rights, and also worked in coordination with various social organizations until 2019. She was a scholarship holder for the Fundación Carolina and Banco Santander's Young Latin American Leaders Program, Edition XVI, which focused on the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. She is currently studying for a Diploma in Social Sciences, Gender and Public Policy in the Master's Program in PRIGGEP at FLACSO, and was admitted to the Official Master's Program in Gender Studies at the Complutense University of Madrid with a scholarship from the UCM and Fundación Carolina.

Argentina

Youth, communication, sexual and reproductive rights 

María José Guerrero

 

She has a Master's degree in Gender Studies, mention in Humanities, from the University of Chile and is a Sociologist from the University of Playa Ancha. She will soon begin doctoral studies in Governance at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom.

She was president of the Fundación Observatorio Contra el Acoso Chile (OCAC), within which she has had a great deal of experience with feminist demands in Chile. In academic terms, she has collaborated as a professor in various Chilean universities for undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate studies, and her line of research is directly linked to sexual violence and political analysis from a gender perspective.

Chile

Academic and activist, violence against women