Bio Ana María Suárez Franco

Bio - Ana María Suárez Franco

Ana María Suárez Franco holds degrees in law from the Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá), as well as in public policies from the Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá). Originally from Colombia, she moved to Germany in 1999, where she has received the titles LL.M. from the University of Heidelberg and Doctor Juris from the University of Mannheim. During its dissertation she developed her main research at guest of the Max Plank Institute for Comparative International Law and International public law, being member of the “Coloquio Iberoamericano” of this Institution. Her main topics of research have been the Justiciability of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the monitoring of public policies related to the Human Right to Food. In the practice she has committed her work mainly to case advocacy, public policy monitoring, the gender dimension of the right to food and nutrition and extraterritorial obligations of human rights. Moreover she is a regularly invited lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Mannheim, the Department on Gender and Nutrition of the University of Hohenheim, The European Master on Human Rights - EIUC and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, the Geneva Academy for Human Rights as well as at some Latin American Universities.

As practitioner, Suárez Franco has been responsible for justiciability, country and case work at FIAN International, and currently she is the Permanent Representative of this organization at the UN Human Rights System, in Geneva as well as coordinator of the accountability work of the organization. In the framework of this position Ana María has participated in processes as the adoption of the ETO Maastricht Guidelines, the process towards the adoption of an International Declaration of Peasants Rights, the discussions on human Rights and transnational companies, the debates on nutrition and food security and has been supporting preparation of parallel reports to the CESCR and CEDAW. She has also facilitated the bridge between regulation processes in Rome and Geneva and supported the participation of social movements and community representatives in international debates in the frame of the UN Human Rights System. Moreover Suarez Franco has been working very close to diverse communities affected by right to food violations around the world supporting them on case advocacy and capacity building.