Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation

Ms Catarina de Albuquerque, Independent Expert

Catarina de Albuquerque is the Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation. She is a Portuguese lawyer, currently working as a senior legal adviser at the Office for Documentation and Comparative Law (an independent institution under the Portuguese Prosecutor General’s Office) working in the area of human rights. She holds a DES in international relations with a specialization in international law from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.  She lectures at several universities in Portugal (e.g. Lisbon Autonomous University, Law Faculty of the Coimbra University) and has extensively published in the area of human rights.

For over ten years she has represented her country in international negotiations and conferences in the area of human rights at the UN, Council of Europe and European Union (more specifically in the domain of economic, social and cultural rights and the rights of the child), having participated in the drafting of the two optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Participation of Children in Armed Conflict and on the Sale of Children and Child Prostitution. Between 2004 and 2008 she was the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

She has also worked as a consultant for several international and European organisations (UNDP, UNICEF and the European Union), namely advising national authorities in the area of drafting national legislation in conformity with international human rights standards. She was the Agent of the Portuguese State before the Council of Europe’s Social Rights Committee. She has been a member of the Committee for the Jean-Pictet Competition for the past 10 years.

Ms. De Albuquerque has also worked as a Senior Legal Adviser on International Affairs to the Portuguese Secretary of State for Justice.

She was appointed Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation by the Human Rights Council in September 2008 and assumed her functions on 1 November 2008.