President

ALICIA VERÓNICA GUTIÉRREZ

 

Alicia Verónica Gutiérrez is a dentist specializing in orthodontics and maxillofacial orthopedics, who graduated from Rosario National University in Argentina. She holds a degree in cell biology and human physiology from the University of Grenoble in France and is also an elementary school teacher.

Public activities:

She began her legislative career as a National Deputy in the 2001-2003 Legislature, sitting on the parliamentary committees for health, seniors, and population and migration. She was also the Vice-Chair of the committee on culture.

In 2003, she was elected a Deputy for the Province of Santa Fe, an office she will hold throughout the2015-2019 Legislature. In the Chamber of Deputies, she has sat on numerous parliamentary committees: health, rights and guarantees, impeachment, culture, public works, ombudsman and community advocacy. She is currently the Vice-Chair of the health committee.

She was the first woman President of the Ateneo Odontológico de Rosario, an institution of higher education, and of the Student Centre of the Faculty of Dentistry in Rosario.

She was the Secretary of culture at Rosario National University and a delegate of the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI) in Rosario, where she gave training on discrimination based on gender, sexual identity and disability.

Since 1995, she has held several political positions within her party, notably as party President for two terms. In 2002, she set up the ARI party’s national health committee.

She currently belongs to the Partido SolidaridadeIgualdad en el Frente Progresista Cívico y Social (Solidarity and Equality Party of the Progressive, Civic and Social Front).

During the last military dictatorship, she went into exile in France, where she campaigned to free political prisoners and search for children who had been stolen from their parents. Since then, she has fought to ensure that justice is served for the crimes against humanity committed during this period, and lobbied in favour of legislation giving victims access to archives to help them discover their original identities. More generally, she champions human rights for all members of society. For years now, she has demanded that legislation be passed to stop torture and all other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in accordance with the UN Convention against Torture.

She has been a guest speaker at many national and international forums and seminars on the following themes: sexual and reproductive rights; trafficking of women, girls and boys; comprehensive, free health care; sexual assault of women during the military dictatorship; theft of babies born in captivity during the dictatorship.

Since her first term as a Deputy, she has introduced numerous bills defending women’s rights, notably on the following subjects: creating a register of  conscientious objectors among healthcare professionals; providing a prenatal allowance to public servants, regardless of gender; providing comprehensive care to pregnant adolescents; establishing a quota for women on the Supreme Court; establishing a day to celebrate the fight against human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation; appointing prosecutors who specialize in cases of violence against women; drafting guidelines for care in case of a legal abortion; protecting and raising awareness of the right to give birth humanely; instituting standards governing care for hospital births; establishing a pension plan for the children of victims of femicide; banning and closing down bars, cabarets and other establishments where sexual exploitation occurs; prohibiting all official advertising promoting sexual exploitation or prostitution; protecting the right to gender identity.

She would now like to work with legislators throughout the Americas to have essential legislation for the protection of women’s rights passed in all parliamentary assemblies on the continent.

 

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