Liliana Silva Miguez LLM’14

Liliana Silva Miguez is a women’s rights lawyer from Colombia with over 16 years of experience working in governance and democracy. She has worked to support the advance of women’s empowerment, rights, and justice by lobbying legislative bodies, drafting legislation, leading major policy initiatives, securing grants and donations from renowned international organizations like UN Women, The U.S. Department of State, UN Women, Oxfam, the European Union, and working directly with women victims of violence in several municipalities hit hard by armed conflict. The communities she has served include Afro-descendant, indigenous, and mestizo women living under challenging conditions of violence, poverty, and exclusion. Since 2002, she has served as in-house counsel for Casa de la Mujer, one of Colombia’s most prominent and influential women’s rights groups. She was a member of the committee formed by Colombian legislatures and women’s organizations to draft the first law in Colombia that sought to eradicate violence against women (Law 1257/08), which was hailed as a landmark piece of legislation. At Casa de la Mujer, as a member of the work team, Liliana has also worked to promote women’s empowerment before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She has co-written and submitted reports about the security situation of women leaders who are beneficiaries of precautionary measures in Colombia. Liliana received her LL.M from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2014, where she was awarded the Human Rights Scholarship, was associate editor of the Journal of International Law, and was honored with the Rule of Law and Human Rights Fellowship. She earned her B.A. in Law from the National University of Colombia in 2001.