Speakers

Gina Romero

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association

Gina Romero (Colombia) is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association SINCE May 2024. She works to promote and protect these rights worldwide and to advance their development in response to today’s civic space challenges.

With nearly two decades of experience in human rights, democracy, and civic participation, Gina has focused on marginalized groups, gender, and youth. She co-founded and served for almost 10 years as Executive Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy (Redlad), also acting as Secretariat of the Civil Society Pillar of the Community of Democracies.

She has collaborated with regional and international human rights mechanisms, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and various UN bodies, amplifying the voices of social movements, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. Gina has authored and overseen numerous reports on civic space, repression, and democratic backsliding across Latin America and beyond.

She holds a degree in Government and International Relations from Externado University in Colombia and a Master’s Diploma from the Institut des Hautes Études d’Amérique Latine (IHEAL – Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3).