Albertina Almeida

Albertina Almeida is a lawyer, human rights activist and independent researcher. She has co-founded several rights initiatives and groups interrogating ‘development’, including Bailancho Saad, Citizens’ Initiatives for Communal Harmony, Saad Aangan, and SEZ Watch.  She has a doctorate in law and has taught at Government College, Khandola, and Salgaonkar College of Law, and also a course on Gender, Human Rights and Law for MA Women’s Studies, Goa University. She has also conducted visiting lectures for National Law School of India University Bangalore, National Law University Delhi, Tamil Nadu National Law University and University of Arizona. A former member of the Permanent Lok Adalat for North Goa District, Goa, and a member of internal complaints committees of various workplaces to deal with sexual harassment, such as the Directorate of Art and Culture, Central Library, Doordarshan, Directorate of Forests, Directorate of Education, Institute of Nursing Education, she is also a legal consultant to various organizations working on gender and child rights issues, migrant concerns, transgender rights, and human rights. She has been a part of official and civil society committees for advocacy and drafting of laws for women and children, including the Family Law Review Committee, the Committee to frame rules under the Goa Children’s Act, 200 constituted by the Government of Goa. She is also a gender trainer and has been a co-trainer at several Feminist Legal Theory and Practice Programmes and human rights-based approach programmes for lawyers, judges, attorneys, and paralegals in the Asia Pacific region. Presently, she is a member of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, besides being a member of the Intercontinental Alliance for Women, Law and Development. She has attended numerous international, and national conferences, including the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations. She also regularly writes opinion pieces for the local and national press and is the author of Tug and Tear: Dealing With Child Sexual Abuse (2008).