Ms Magdalena Sepúlveda

Ms. Sepúlveda is currently Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). Her 22-year career has focused on the intersection of poverty, development and human rights and has bridged research and policy formulation.

She worked as a Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, a staff attorney at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, as the Co-Director of the Department of International Law and Human Rights of the United Nations-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica (2002-2004) and as a Research Director at the International Council on Human Rights Policy, in Geneva (2006-2012).

Ms. Sepúlveda was United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council (2008-2014), Member of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (2013-2017) and Member of the United Nations High Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda.

She holds a Ph.D. in International 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 on comparative constitutional law from the Universidad Católica de Chile. She speaks English, French and Spanish.