PhD Student
University of Arizona
International Law and Indigenous People
from Colombia
With a solid academic grounding in history and law, Colombian native Carmen Mestizo-Castillo, a 2018 grantee, expects to graduate with a Doctorate degree in mid-2019 from University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. Carmen’s dissertation examines International Law and Indigenous People.
Carmen has a demonstrated passion for defending human rights. As a lawyer, she won important procedural protections for rape victims in the Colombian Constitutional Court. She has led a law clinic on the rights of victims of armed conflict, and of child soldiers. Her law clinic incorporated studies of the legal protections and rights of child soldiers into the Law School curriculum at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Future goal is to continue work, as a university professor, on the human rights of vulnerable groups such as women, children, and indigenous peoples. Carmen also aims to utilize her broad expertize in International Law and activism to influence the Colombian legal system.
