Nancy R. Tapias Torrado is a doctor in sociology (University of Oxford) and human rights lawyer (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana-PUJ). She also holds master’s degrees in international human rights law (University of Essex), philosophy (PUJ) and education (University of Barcelona). For over two decades, Dr. Tapias Torrado has been dedicated to working with and for human rights defenders at risk and some of the most vulnerable persons and communities, mainly in Latin America. Dr. Tapias Torrado is a former Law Professor at PUJ and a former Amnesty International’s Americas Regional Researcher (International Secretariat, London, UK). She is the 2023-24 Barry Pashak Postdoctoral Fellow of Concordia University’s Social Justice Centre and a former Postdoctoral Fellow at the UQAM. Dr. Tapias Torrado has consulted for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and several non-governmental organizations, including OXFAM, CEJIL and PBI. She is a member of the Advisory Council on Restorative Justice for the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in Colombia. She has also done extensive pro bono work with and for Colombian refugees, mainly women human rights defenders in exile.
Dr. Tapias Torrado’s main research program is dedicated to understanding the impact of Indigenous women-led mobilizations defending their dignity, territory and rights from human rights abuses committed in connection to mega-projects affecting their ancestral territories in the Americas. She has received several recognitions for her work, including the International Studies Association (ISA) Best Human Rights Dissertation Award in 2023 for her PhD thesis. Her thesis and all publications are available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nancy-Tapias-Torrado-2/
Selected Publications:
Nancy R. Tapias Torrado, ‘Wet’suwet’en women leading the defence of rivers and water from abuses committed in connection with megaprojects. The persistent legacies of the past. Canada.’ in Tatiana Acevedo, Margreet Zwarteveen et al. (eds.), Gender and Water Governance Routledge Handbook (London: Routledge, 2024). https://bit.ly/4h5JDxG.
Nancy R. Tapias Torrado, ‘The Violent Rollback of Indigenous and Environmental Rights: The Emblematic Case of Lenca Leader Berta Cáceres in Honduras’ in Simón Escoffier, Leigh Payne and Julia Zulver (eds.), The Right Against Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023). https://bit.ly/3X20MxV.
Nancy R. Tapias Torrado, ‘Overcoming silencing practices: Indigenous women defending human rights from the abuses committed in connection to megaprojects in the Americas – a case in Colombia’ (2022) Business and Human Rights Journal – Gender Special Issue (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). https://bit.ly/3MeOe01.
Nancy R. Tapias Torrado, ‘Honduras: !Berta vive, la lucha sigue! Corporate accountability for attacks against human rights defenders’ in Leigh Payne, Gabriel Pereira, Laura Bernal-Bermúdez (eds.), Economic Actors and the Limits of Transitional Justice: Truth and Justice for Past Business Complicity in Human Rights Violations. (Oxford: Oxford University Press). [2022, https://bit.ly/3nkQitB].
Nancy R. Tapias Torrado, ‘Acción trenzada. Indigenous women leading the defence of human rights from abuses related to megaprojects: impacting corporate behaviour - overcoming silencing practices’ (2022) Quebec Journal of International Law – ‘Opening to the Americas’ Special Issue (Montreal: Société Québécoise de Droit International - SQDI). https://bit.ly/3UYQ4JB
Bernard Duhaime and Nancy R. Tapias Torrado, ‘The Inter-American System’s Recent Contributions to the Development of Women’s Human Rights Standards’ (2022) Quebec Journal of International Law – ‘Opening to the Americas’ Special Issue (Montreal: SQDI). https://bit.ly/40Ualn6