Andrea Catalina León Amaya (Lead National Researcher) received her legal education at the Universidad Externado de Colombia (2008), where she earned her postgraduate diploma in Public Law in cooperation with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2010). She also received her Master Degree in Law and Sociology from the Fluminense Federal University’s Program of Sociology and Law (Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sociologia e Direito da Univeridade Federal Fluminense – PPGSD/UFF) (2015). During her master’s degree, she joined the Fluminense Laboratory of Process Studies (LAFEP). She is currently a doctoral researcher at the Graduate Program in Law, Institutions and Business at the same university (PPGDIN / UFF), and her research focus on the Judiciary, Justice and Citizenship. She has professional experience as a legal advisor in the Judiciary and in the Defensoria del Pueblo in Colombia. She has also worked as a consultant and researcher in public institutions, social organizations and international cooperation agencies, on the following topics: protection and promotion of human rights, institutional approaches to gender-based violence, public policies, access to justice, transitional justice, empirical socio-legal research, victims’ rights in contexts of armed conflict and feminist legal activism.
LOCAL RESEARCHERS - COLOMBIA
Johana Rocha Gómez is lawyer at the Universidad Externado de Colombia, with postgraduate studies in Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, and Latin American Political Studies. She has 12 years of professional experience in the promotion and protection of rights, the construction of peace and university teaching. She also has solid knowledge in constitutional law, international law, transitional legislation, environmental and agrarian law, and public policies for territorial administration. Experience in designing formal and informal educational curriculum; monitoring, construction, implementation and constitutional control of public policies; implementing differential protection approaches and, especially, the harmless action approach for peacebuilding (ASD-CP). She is skilled in coordinating teams and in the design, monitoring and execution of projects; versatile job development in non-governmental organizations, judicial corporations, state institutions, international cooperators and academia.
Leonel Mauricio Peña Solano is Assistant Magistrate of the Superior Council of the Judiciary of Colombia (Consejo Superior de la Judicatura de Colombia), Technical Secretary of the Subcommittee on Restorative Justice of the Criminal Responsibility System for Adolescents (Subcomité de Justicia Restaurativa del Sistema de Responsabilidad Penal para Adolescentes) and Member of the Technical Committee of the Higher Council for Criminal Policy (Comité Técnico del Consejo Superior de Política Criminal). He is also Coordinator of the working groups for the creation of the restorative and therapeutic justice law in Colombia and the formulation of the reform to the Code for Children and Adolescents. He is Vice Chair of the Colombian Association of Therapeutic Justice (Asociación Colombiana de Justicia Terapéutica), Former Director of the Judicial School “Rodrigo Lara Bonilla” and researcher at the HAKI Foundation. Leonel is academic researcher, postgraduate teacher and lecturer in Colombia, Argentina and Mexico. He is lawyer at the National University of Colombia (Universidad Nacional de Colombia). He holds a Master Degree in Human Rights and Democratization from the Carlos III University of Madrid (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) and the Universidad Externado de Colombia. He is PhD Candidate in Constitutional Law from the National University of Mar del Plata and PhD Candidate in Criminal Law from the National University of Colombia.