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Rapporteur
Rapporteur
Commissioner Arif Bulkan
Rapporteur on the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Bisexual, and Intersex Persons
Arif Bulkan was elected by the General Assembly of the OAS during its 53th Regular Period of Sessions, for a four-year term from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2027. He is a lawyer and academic, who has taught, published and practised in the areas of constitutional law, human rights and criminal law. He has contributed towards law reform on behalf of various communities including indigenous peoples, LGBTI persons, persons with disabilities and persons living with HIV/AIDS. He was a co-founder of the University of the West Indies Rights Advocacy Project (U-RAP), which successfully led two ground-breaking Caribbean cases on SOGI rights. He was an expert member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, serving as a Vice-Chair. For his work in human rights, Arif was conferred with the Anthony Sabga Caribbean award for Public and Civic contributions, and was named a PANCAP/CARICOM Champion for Change. He was a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies, serving as Deputy Dean, and Interim Dean at the St Augustine Campus, and is an ad hoc judge on the Court of Appeal of Belize. He is a citizen of Guyana.
Former Rapporteurs
Roberta Clarke
2022 - 2025
Commissioner Roberta Clarke was elected by the General Assembly of the OAS during its Regular Period of Sessions, on November 12, 2021, for a period of four-year term, from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2025. An activist for social justice and gender equality, Roberta Clarke has led UN Women Regional Offices in East and Southern Africa, Asia Pacific, the Caribbean and Libya. Prior to her career at the United Nations, she practiced as a lawyer in Trinidad and Tobago. She has been engaged in civil society and the national and international levels including as the Chair, Executive Committee, International Commission of Jurists and President of the Coalition against Domestic Violence, Trinidad and Tobago. She is the Chair, Harassment Committee of the Caribbean Court of Justice. She is a citizen of Barbados.
Flávia Piovesan
2018 - 2021
Commissioner Flávia Piovesan was elected on June 21, 2017, by the General Assembly of the OAS, for a period of four years which began on January 1, 2018, and ends on December 31, 2021. She is a professor of Constitutional Law and Humans Rights at the Catholic University of São Paulo since 1991. She is also a PhD professor at the University of Buenos Aires, and a professor at the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law of the American University, in the United States. She conducted postdoctoral research in Harvard Law School, Oxford University and Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, where she studied the regional human right protection systems. She has been a professor of human rights in the post-graduate programs of the Catholic University of Paraná and the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, Spain. Commissioner Piovesan worked as Special Secretary of Human Rights in Brazil and chaired the National Commission for the Eradication of Slave Labour. She is the author of numerous academic publications and has worked as a consultant for international organizations. She also has given hundreds of lectures and made presentations at universities in several of countries. She is a citizen of Brazil.
Francisco José Eguiguren Praeli
2016 - 2018
The Rapporteur on the Rights of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Trans and Intersex Persons was Francisco José Eguiguren Praeli. He was elected on June 16, 2015, by the OAS General Assembly, for a 4-year mandate that starts on January 1, 2016 and ends December 31, 2019. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights designated him for this function on January 28 of 2016. The Commissioner is citizen of Peru. He has a law degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, with a master's degree in Constitutional Law and a PhD in Humanities. He was Ambassador of Peru to the Kingdom of Spain from 2012 to 2014 and Minister of the Office of Justice. He is currently a legal consultant and adviser at both the national and international level, specializing in issues related to Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, and Human Rights.
Tracy Robinson
2011 - 2015
Tracy Robinson was the Rapporteur on the Rights of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Trans and Intersex Persons. Robinson is a citizen of Jamaica and was in charge of this Thematic Unit from its creation in November 2011, and the Inter-American Commission designated her Rapporteur when it took the decision, in November 2013, to convert the Unit in Rapporteurship. Her mandate as Rapporteur finished when her term as Commissioner ended, on December 31, 2015. The Rapporteurship on the right of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Trans and Intersex commenced functioning on February 1, 2014. She was elected at the 41st OAS General Assembly in June 2011 for the standard four-year term, which began on January 1, 2012. She was elected Chair of the Commission during the 150th Period of Sessions, in March 2014. She is a lawyer and teaches Gender and Law, Constitutional Law and Commonwealth Caribbean Human Rights, among other law subjects, at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. She has been a consultant for international agencies such as the United Nations Fund for Women and UNICEF, and she has advised Caribbean governments on topics related to legislation on gender and children rights, among others. Robinson has been an editor for the Caribbean Law Bulletin and she has written and published reports on a range of topics, including gender, the rights of LGTBI persons, sexual harassment, sexual rights, sex work and the law, and the rights of children, among other topics. She has a Bachelor of Law from University of the West Indies and an LLM from the University of Yale, as well as a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) from Oxford University.