Guest Blogger: Carmen Márquez Carrasco

It's IntLawGrrls' great pleasure to welcome Dr. Carmen Márquez Carrasco (left) as today's guest blogger.
The Professor holding the Chair in International Law and International Relations at Spain's University of Seville, Carmen is the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the European Master's Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation at the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights in Venice, Italy. Having directed the program in 2005-2006, in 2007 she became the 1st woman elected as Chairperson, the position that had been held by Dr. Manfred Nowak, currently the U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture. Centre projects that Carmen has spearheaded include a photo competition, "visualising democracy," and an international conference on human rights diplomacy.
Carmen earned her Ph.D. in law from the University of Seville, and she also holds diplomas from the Research Centre of the Hague Academy of International Law and the Erik Castrén Institute on Human Rights at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Coimbra in Portugal and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
She received the Award Rafel Martínez Emperador, Consejo General del Poder Judicial (Madrid), for her contribution to a book entitled La criminalización de la barbarie (2000). Her publications concentrate on human rights, peace and security, and the codification and development of international law and international criminal law. In her guest post below, Carmen analyzes proposed legislation that would cut back on Spain's universal jurisdiction law.
For reasons she explains in a 2d post below, Carmen dedicates her work to the Spanish essayist and philosopher María Zambrano Alarcón. Zambrano joins other IntLawGrrls transnational foremothers in our list just below the "visiting from ..." map at right.
Heartfelt welcome!

Guest Blogger: Deborah Popowski

Today IntLawGrrls welcomes its 2d guest blogger, Deborah Popowski, author of the above post on accountability, in Argentina and in the United States.
A 3d-year law student at Harvard, Deborah (left), along with fellow student Fernando Delgado, cofounded Stop Torture: The Harvard Anti-Torture Coalition. This Anti-Torture Group's a division of HLS Advocates for Human Rights, a student organization of which Deborah's also co-president. The group provides volunteer support to the Harvard International Human Rights Clinic, coordinates its own projects under faculty supervision, and engages in public education, lobbying, and direct action. Additionally, Deborah's worked on human rights issues in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. She interned for Manfred Nowak, the United Nations' current Special Rapporteur on Torture; for Gitanjali Gutierrez, staff attorney for the Guantánamo division of the Center for Constitutional Rights; and for Justiça Global, a Brazilian NGO that litigates before the Inter-American human rights system.
After receiving a degree in political science and social though from the University of Virginia, Deborah worked in journalism and in international development -- including 2 years' service with the Peace Corps. An Argentina-born naturalized U.S. citizen, she is proficient in 5 languages.
Deborah dedicates her post to her own IntLawGrrls inspiration, the suffragist Alice Paul.
Heartfelt thanks for your contribution, Deborah!