Global Freedom of Expression

Spanish Database

About The Spanish Case Law Database

Columbia Global Freedom of Expression has joined forces with the UNESCO Montevideo Office and Dejusticia to create a Spanish language version of the Global Case Law Database on freedom of expression and access to information.  FLIP (Fundacion para la Liberdad de Prensa) and the Externado University (Colombia) contributed case analyses of some of the most prominent Latin American freedom of expression jurisprudence.

 The Spanish language database is the result of extensive consultations with Judges from Latin America, as part of a UNESCO program of work to strengthen the legal protection of freedom of expression on the continent. The process cumulated in the Ibero-American Summit of Judges held in Paraguay in April 2016, when twenty-three Chief Justices from Latin America welcomed the Spanish court database and committed to contribute decisions to foster an exchange of knowledge and jurisprudence across the region on issues of freedom of expression, transparency and access to public information.

Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression’s Case Law Database is supported by a network of international experts. It surveys Latin American jurisprudence, reviews exemplary cases, and engages in comparative analysis. The Database aims to identify national, regional and global trends as well as the influence of international standards.

This project has been under the direction of Catalina Botero Marino, former special rapporteur for freedom of expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The team has been coordinated by Sofia Jaramillo Otoya and has been composed by Liliana Torres Jimenez, Salomé Gómez Upegui, Camilo de la Cruz Arboleda and Mariana García Jimeno. Also, a group of graduate students from the Externado University have collaborated in the analysis of jurisprudence: Laura Marcela Rubiano Olivares, Carlos Arturo Duarte Martinez and Carolina Herrera Restrepo. This project has also benefited from the expert collaboration of Ramiro Alvarez Ugarte, Helena de Souza Rocha, Elisa Franco and Alejandra Negrete.

Latin American Partners

English Version

Catalina Botero Marino

Catalina Botero Marino

Director of the UNESCO Chair on Freedom of Expression at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia

Catalina Botero Marino is a lawyer, director of the UNESCO Chair on Freedom of Expression at the Universidad de Los Andes, co-chair of the Oversight Board of Facebook and Instagram, member of the external transparency panel of the Inter-American Development Bank, commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists and member of the Advisory Board of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. She is an adjunct professor at American University’s Human Rights Academy and an expert member of Columbia University’s Columbia Global Freedom of Expression. She was Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the Universidad de Los Andes, and an Associate Judge of the Constitutional Court and of the Council of State in Colombia.

Sofía Jaramillo

Sofía Jaramillo

Editor, Columbia Global Freedom of Expression

Senior Staff Attorney for Civic Space, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

Sofia Jaramillo-Otoya is the Senior Staff Attorney at RFK Human Rights were she leads, coordinates and supports the organization’s work partnering with human rights defenders to protect civic space through advocacy, strategic litigation, and technical assistance. Sofia has devoted much of her career to international human rights mechanisms. She served as legal advisor to the David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom expression while also lecturing and co-supervising the International Justice Clinic at the University of California, Irvine. There, she coordinated the litigation efforts and focused on a wide range of digital rights issues related to freedom of expression and privacy, including surveillance, content moderation and oversight, online hate speech, online gender-based violence, artistic and academic expression. Sofia also served as legal advisor to Agnes Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions while working as a legal officer at Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression. At the regional level, she served as a human rights specialist for two Special Rapporteurs for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. There, she addressed issues related to violence against journalists, protest, surveillance and access to information, and led the capacity building efforts of the office. Sofia has also worked with regional and local organizations including Dejusticia, Civitas, the Foundation for Free Press (FLIP) and the Inter-American Press Association.

Sofia completed her initial legal degree at Rosario University in Colombia, and earned an LLM from Columbia Law School in New York, where she was a Human Rights Fellow. Sofia graduated from Columbia University with the academic recognition of Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a Certificate in International and Comparative Law.

Liliana Torres Jiménez

Liliana Torres Jiménez

Researcher

Liliana graduated as a lawyer from Externado University (Colombia) where she teaches Law & Math in the Law and Economics Deparment. Liliana has done research regarding legal applications of Game Theory and wrote an article about the matter. Currently, she works as an assistant researcher at the Center for Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia), among other thing, analyzing Latin-American decisions to support Columbia University’s freedom of expression initiative.

Salomé Gómez Upegui

Salomé Gómez Upegui

Researcher

Salomé Gómez Upegui is a lawyer from the University of Los Andes (Colombia). She has a minor in Comparative Politics from the same institution. Currently, she is the assistant lawyer of Catalina Botero Marino and works at the Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP) among other things, analyzing Latin-American decisions to support Columbia University’s freedom of expression initiative. The second semester of 2016 she will teach the course “The Right to Freedom of Expression” at the Faculty of Law of the University of Los Andes.

Camilo De la Cruz Arboleda

Camilo De la Cruz Arboleda

Researcher

Camilo De la Cruz graduated as a lawyer at the top of his class from Externado University (Colombia). Currently, he works as an assistant researcher at the Center for Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia), among other things, analyzing Latin-American decisions to support Columbia University’s freedom of expression initiative. Moreover, Camilo teaches Law & Math in his alma mater. He is interested in the fields of Law & Economics, Behavioral economics and Innovation. He is currently engaged in graduate studies in new technologies, innovation and cities management.

Mariana García Jimeno

Mariana García Jimeno

Researcher

Mariana graduated as a Lawyer Cum Laude from University of Los Andes, and she is currently completing her LL.M studies in the same University, where she is writing her thesis on Family Law from a gender perspective. She completed a research internship at Cornell University in the summer of 2015. The second semester of 2016 she will teach the course “The Right to Freedom of Expression” at the Faculty of Law of the University of Los Andes. Mariana worked at the Center for Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia), among other thing, analyzing Latin-American decisions to support Columbia University’s freedom of expression initiative.

María Elisa Franco

María Elisa Franco

Expert Consultant

Maria Elisa currently is a doctoral student of the Division of Graduate Studies of the Faculty of Law of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Fellow of the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT). Master in Law from UNAM and her law degree from the Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESO). Professor of the Faculty of Law of UNAM and ITESO.

As for her work experience, she has been a consultant on human rights (particularly on gender, childhood and freedom of expression) for various national and international organizations such as UNESCO, the Human Rights Commission of the Federal District, the Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination in Mexico City, among others. Coordinator monitors and monitor of the two versions of the online course “International legal framework on freedom of expression, access to public information and protection of journalists” for judiciary officials in Latin America and Spain. From July 2013 to October 2014 she served as an advisor to the Human Rights Coordination and Advisory of the Presidency of the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico. She has several publications regarding human rights.

Helena de Souza Rocha

Helena de Souza Rocha

Expert Consultant

Helena is a researcher and professor on Human Rights in Brazil. She has legal training and a Master´s Degree in International Human Rights Law from Essex University in the UK. She currently works in the Tuiuti University of Parana and is vice-president of the Committee for the Study of Gender Violence in the Order of Attorneys of Brazil Parana.

Helena has extensive experience with civil society organizations and the Inter-American Human Rights System. She was a human rights specialist at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression. For five years she was the principal advocate of the Brazilian office of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL). She has also worked in the Platform for Human Rights – Dhesca Brazil on issues regarding sexual and reproductive health.

Ramiro Álvarez Ugarte

Ramiro Álvarez Ugarte

Expert Consultant

Ramiro is a professor of Constitutional Law and Social Movements at the University of Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is currently conducting field-work in Buenos Aires for his JSD dissertation at Columbia Law School.

Previously, he worked as a human rights lawyer at the Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and at the Office of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. He has done consulting work for national and local governments in several countries of Latin America and civil society organizations from the United States, Colombia, Venezuela, the United Kingdom and Argentina.