She was elected by the Organization of American States (OAS) to serve from 2018 to 2021 as a Commissioner of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

[1] She conducted long term human rights research at Harvard Law School, Oxford University and the Max Planck Institute after she gained her doctorate.

[2] In 2009 her name was discussed as a candidate to sit on Brazil's Supreme Court but she said that her expertise was in human rights and she needed to learn about other areas of the law.

Other candidates elected were Chilean human rights lawyer Antonia Urrejola Noguera and Mexican diplomat Joel Hernández García.

[2] In 2020 the "Research Handbook on International Law and Social Rights" was published and Piovesan was one of the four editors together with Prof. Christina Binder, Dr. Jane A Hofbauer and Amaya Úbeda de Torres.