Mercedes de Freitas
| Mercedes de Freitas | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| 🏳️ Nationality | Venezuelan |
| 🎓 Alma mater | Central University of Venezuela |
| 💼 Occupation |
|
| Known for | Executive director of Transparencia Venezuela |
Mercedes de Freitas is a Venezuelan historian and civil-society leader. She is the founder and executive director of Transparencia Venezuela, the Venezuelan chapter of Transparency International, and sits on the latter's international board.[1]
Education
De Freitas trained as a historian at the Central University of Venezuela.[1] She holds a postgraduate specialisation in management and organisational development from the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) and a certificate in the effective management of non-governmental organisations from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.[1][2]
Career
Civil-society work
De Freitas has founded or led a series of Venezuelan non-governmental organisations focused on governance, transparency and accountability, among them Fundación Venezuela 2020 (1997), Momento de la Gente (2000), Cívitas Venezuela (2001) and Mirador Democrático (2002).[1] In 2002 she helped create the Red Acuerdo de Lima, a regional network spanning twelve Latin American countries, and in 2006 she co-founded, with Ricardo Uceda, the Instituto Prensa y Sociedad Venezuela (IPYS Venezuela).[1]
Later projects include Crea Resultados (2006), its Colombian sister organisation Crea Resultados Innovación y Resultados (2014) and the training initiative Campus Transparencia (2018). She helped launch the Coalición Proacceso in 2005 with support from the Open Society Foundations; the Coalición Monitor Legislativo in 2012; the Alianza por la Salud in 2013, bringing together more than fifteen unions, professional associations, academics and NGOs; and the Red Justicia in 2016. She has been a director of Civitas Venezuela since 2005, vice-president of the Fundación Tierra Viva since 2010 and director of Vendata, an organisation she co-founded, since 2016.[1]
Election observation and Transparency International
In 2002 De Freitas coordinated Venezuelan election-observation programmes for the Carter Center, and has since served as an observer for the Organization of American States (OAS), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the Centro de Asesoría y Promoción Electoral (CAPEL) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI). She is an Ashoka fellow and was named the network's Champion ChangeMaker in 2006.[1]
She joined the international board of Transparency International in 2014, and continues to head Transparencia Venezuela.[1][2][3]
Advocacy and publications
De Freitas has filed cases on human-rights abuses, abuse of power and electoral offences before the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela, other Venezuelan courts and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She has presented human-rights reports to the OAS and its General Assemblies since 2001, to the United Nations Human Rights Council since 2013 and to the United Nations Convention against Corruption review process. She contributed to drafting Venezuela's Organic Law of Municipal Public Power (2001–2002), the Electoral Power Law (2000), reforms to the Anti-Corruption Law and a proposed Transparency and Access to Public Information Law, as well as legislative proposals on whistleblower protection and anti-impunity criteria.[1]
Her published work includes El acceso a la información pública en Venezuela: transparencia vs opacidad (2010), Monitoreando la Asamblea Nacional 2011-2013, the Manual de rendición de cuentas municipales, the Manual de presupuesto participativo municipal and Memorial de agravios: corrupción en Venezuela (2017).[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 "Mercedes de Freitas". Human Rights Defenders World Summit 2018 (in español). Retrieved 22 April 2023.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Mercedes de Freitas". Mujeres Referentes (in español). Retrieved 13 April 2023.
- ↑ "Al sistema venezolano lo quebró la corrupción: Mercedes De Freitas". PROVEA (in español). Retrieved 13 April 2023.
External links
- "Mercedes de Freitas". Escuela Convoca (in español).
- ""Desde hace 17 años en Venezuela existe un patrón sostenido e indolente de corrupción": Mercedes de Freitas". Politika UCAB (in español). 2 July 2020.
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