de Albuquerque, Catarina

As Special Rapporteur, Ms. de Albuquerque monitors the right to water and sanitation worldwide, offering advice to Governments, UN agencies and civil society, among other stakeholders. She prepares thematic research on issues of concern to her mandate and she undertakes country missions. She reports annually to the UN Human Rights Council on the work she has accomplished under her mandate. She has been working on this mandate since November 2008. De Albuquerque is an invited Professor at the Law Faculties of the Universities of Braga and Coimbra and a Senior Legal Adviser at the Office for Documentation and Comparative Law, an independent institution under the Prosecutor General’s Office. Between 2004 and 2008 she presided over the negotiations of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which the UN General Assembly approved by consensus on 10 December 2008. She was awarded the Human Rights Golden Medal by the Portuguese Parliament (10 December 2009) for outstanding work in the area of human rights. Her work in human rights was also honoured by the Portuguese President of the Republic (October 2009) with the Order of Merit, which is a recognition of an individual's personal bravery, achievement, or service to Portugal. She holds a Law Degree from the Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and a DESS from the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes.