María Luisa Romero

María Luisa Romero is a human rights advocate with extensive international experience across multilateral organizations, government, and civil society. Romero served as Minister of Government and Vice-Minister of Government of the Republic of Panama (2014-2018). She currently sits as independent expert in the United Nations (UN) Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture (2019-2026) where she held the position of Head of the European Regional Group and now acts as Vice-Chair, Rapporteur and Head of the Jurisprudence Working Group.

In government, Romero oversaw issues related to prisons, juvenile justice, governance, refugees, and indigenous peoples. She spearheaded a widely recognized prison reform effort centered on human rights that included professionalizing the prison system and improved rehabilitation of detained individuals to promote more human prison environments and support successful reintegration into society. Before government, Romero also worked as an attorney in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica and consulted for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. At the beginning of her professional career, she served as a diplomatic attaché at the Embassy of Panama in the United States and as a law student she was awarded an international public service fellowship to intern at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Romero started her human rights field work as a student member and later as a pro bono contributor to the International Human Rights Clinic of Harvard Law School. Her consulting clients have included the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic at Stanford Law School, Global Freedom of Expression at Columbia University and civil society organizations. She has contributed to several publications on human rights abuses, international standards and public policy in Latin America, most recently regarding prisons during the pandemic and the use of force in social protest. Throughout her diverse career, Romero has visited scores of places of deprivation of liberty across her native Panama and in various countries throughout Latin America and Europe.

Romero sits on the board of directors of the local chapter of Transparency International in Panama and is a Member of the Inter-American Dialogue. Romero earned her juris doctor degree, graduating cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2008, and her bachelor’s degree in government, graduating magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 2004.