On 4 October 2010, Professor Paula Ventura de Carvalho Escarameia passed away.  Paula was on the International Advisory Council of the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and was an eminent scholar of international law, women’s rights and gender equality.

Paula was the first woman to be elected to the United Nations International Law Commission and was recently re-elected for another five year term (2007-2011) as Under-Secretary General of the ILC.  She was a member of the list of Judges of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and an honorary member of the Portuguese Association of Women Lawyers.  In honour of all her work, in 2002 she was awarded the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator (Grand Officer).  At the time of her passing, she was a Professor of International Law at the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences of the Technical University of Lisbon and Vice President of the International Centre for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, based in Lisbon.  She had previously taught at the Superior Institute for Naval Warfare, Portugal; the University of East Asia, Macau; Portuguese Catholic University; and the Higher Institute of Business, Portugal.  She was a founder of the International Platform of Jurists for East-Timor.

Paula was an important advocate for women’s rights, ‘a valued figure in all circles where humanitarian causes and the causes of peoples, especially those disadvantaged, were a priority’ (Publico) and played an important role in the adoption of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.  We honour her life and extend our sympathies to her family.