Sonia Picado Sotela

Sonia Picado Sotela (born 20 December 1936) is a Costa Rican jurist, politician and university professor with experience in the field of human rights.

Likewise, she is member of the Managerial Council in Human Security of the United Nations, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, and of the Inter-American Dialogue.

From here she carried out important fights to incorporate the perspective of gender to the distinct law projects and promoted other benefits for Costa Rican women.

In addition to numerous articles published at a national and international level, her opinions have been expressed in the following works: “Political Participation of Woman: A challenge yesterday, today and always” (2001), “Woman and Politics” (2002) and “Human Security and Human rights” (2003).

For her recognized path as defender of human rights, especially in the promotion and fight for improving the human rights of women, she has been credited with three doctorates honoris cause - Elmhurst University, (2000), University of Miami, (2002) and Colby College, (2003) - and to several awards of international organisms such as the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights (1993) and the Prize of the United Nations Development Programme (1995).