Elizabeth España Gonzales is a lawyer, graduate of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, with many years of experience in the field of human rights. She is a member of the Barreau du Québec with a Juris Doctor from the University of Montreal as well as an Interdisciplinary master’s degree in children’s rights from the University of Geneva. She is particularly interested in access to justice and the protection and promotion of children’s rights.
In 2016, Elizabeth worked as a volunteer legal advisor in Colombia and Mali in different projects, implemented by IBCR and Lawyers Without Borders Canada, aimed at protecting and defending the rights of children, women and other communities in vulnerable situations. Until 2018, she carried out several mandates in capacity building and supported different local human rights organisations. In 2019, she worked as a research assistant, for a member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which allowed her to learn about current issues in this area.
Beginning in June 2020, she supported the development of training modules for different actors of the child protection system and provided technical advice as a child justice consultant for IBCR.
Elizabeth is fluent in French, English and Spanish.
She joined the IBCR team in May 2021 as a child protection advisor.