Jacqueline Pitanguy

Founder and Director, WLP Brazil/Cidadania, Estudo, Pesquisa, Informação e Ação (CEPIA)
Brazil
Jacqueline Pitanguy

WLP Board of Directors

Pitanguy (Brazil) is a sociologist and political scientist. She is Founder and Director of WLP Brazil/Cidadania, Estudo, Pesquisa, Informação e Ação (CEPIA), an NGO based in Rio de Janeiro. At Cepia, Pitanguy coordinates research on gender issues and facilitates advocacy and educational programs related to violence against women and reproductive health. She held a cabinet position in the Brazilian government as President of the National Council for Women's Rights (1986-1989), where she designed and implemented public policies to improve women's condition in Brazil. Pitanguy serves on a number of international boards including Inter-American Dialogue, UNESCO's Institute for Education, Society for International Development, the Global Fund for Women, and the Carter Center's International Human Rights Council. She is also on the editorial board of several health journals and has published numerous articles and co-authored four books. She has been awarded the Medal of Rio Branco, the highest decoration of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Authored Content

The Beijing Generation: Upholding a 30-Year Legacy of Gender Equality

I arrived in Beijing in 1995 as part of a small international group of women called HERA, organized by the International Women’s Health Coalition, IWHC. We were all quite experienced in doing advocacy in the UN arena, from Prep Coms to Conferences themselves. We were particularly influenced by the 1994 Cairo Population and Development Conference where women’s organizations were the main protagonists and where, against strong opposition from conservative and religious groups, we succeeded in introducing the concepts of reproductive rights, reproductive and sexual health, and gender in a UN document for the first time.