Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona's affiliation with UNRISD started in early 2013. Based at UNRISD in Geneva through June 2015, she was the impetus behind the web-based resource platform Linking Social Protection and Human Rights; contributed to the project inception workshop for New Directions in Social Policy with a paper on "Human Rights, Poverty, and Social Policy"; and assisted the Director with partnerships and external relations.
Ms. Sepulveda was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights between May 2008 and June 2014. She is a Chilean lawyer who holds a Ph.D in International Human Rights Law from Utrecht University in the Netherlands; an LL.M in human rights law from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom and a post graduate diploma in comparative law from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile.
Ms. Sepúlveda has worked as a researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, as a staff attorney at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and as the Co-Director of the Department of International Law and Human Rights of the United Nations-mandated University for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica. She also served as a consultant to the Division of International Protection of UNHCR and to the Norwegian Refugee Council in Colombia. More recently she has been Research Director at the International Council on Human Rights Policy in Geneva.
Recent publications:
- 2015 "It's Time for Companies to Lead the Fight Against Tax Dodging", The Huffington Post, 24 November.
- 2015, with José Antonio Ocampo, "Tax avoidance by corporations is out of control. The United Nations must step in", The Guardian, 30 September.
- 2015 "Beyond Legal Empowerment: Improving Access to Justice from the Human Rights Perspective" in The International Journal of Human Rights", Vol. 19, Issue 3, pages 242-259.
- 2014 "The rights-based approach to social protection in Latin America. From rhetoric to practice", In Social Policy Series No. 189, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Santiago, December.
- 2014 “Alternatives to Austerity: A Human Rights Framework for Economic Recovery”. In Aoife Nolan (ed.) Economic and Social Rights after the Global Financial Crises, Cambridge University Press.
- 2014 (with Kate Donald) “What does care have to do with human rights? Analysing the impact on women’s rights and gender equality”, In Gender & Development Journal, Vol. 22 No. 3.
- 2014 “Translating human rights rhetoric into practice: cash transfer programs and gender in Latin America”, Harvard International Review, vol. XXXV, No. 4, Spring 2014
- 2014 “De la retórica a la práctica: el enfoque de derechos en la protección social en América Latina (From Rhetoric to Practice: Rights-Based Approach Social Protection in Latin America)”. In Social Policies Series No. 189, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Santiago.
- 2014 “From Undeserving Poor to Rights Holder: A Human Rights Perspective on Social Protection Systems”. In Development Pathways Working Paper No. 1, February 2014.
- 2014 (with Kate Donald) “Access to Justice for Persons Living in Poverty: A Human Rights Approach”, In Elements for Discussion Series, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Erweko Oy.
- 2014 “La pobreza extrema y los derechos humanos: una lucha social contra un flagelo global”. In Martínez Garza, Minerva and Cantú Rivera, and Humberto F. (eds.) El futuro es hoy: construyendo una agenda de derechos humanos, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León y Comisión Estatal de Derechos Humanos de Nuevo León, Nuevo León, Mexico.