Miriam Estrada Castillo is a lawyer, and was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador. She is the daughter of Pablo Estrada Valle, one of the founders of CFP (Concentración de Fuerzas Populares), which was one of the most important political parties of Ecuador in the fifties. She graduated from the American School of Guayaquil with honours and studied Law in the Faculty of Law and Social and Political Sciences of the University of Guayaquil, Ecuador, getting her academic degrees as a Doctor in Jurisprudence and a Bachelor in Social and Political Sciences as a Valedictorian. Her PhD thesis: "Revolution, Art, and Human Rights" was considered a contribution for the legal culture of Ecuador, receiving the honour of being published by the University of Guayaquil. She was awarded, amongst 1200 other graduates, with the "University of Guayaquil" Award, for obtaining the highest scores during her student life and for the contributions she made as an academic. She was married to the founder of the Choral Movement of Ecuador, Maestro Enrique Gil Calderon, with whom she had her three children, Abogado Alfredo Antonio Gil Estrada, Maestro Fernando Gil Estrada and Magister and International Consultant, Alba Gil Estrada.
Professional life
Estrada-Castillo is known as the first Ecuadorian woman ever deployed to a UN peace keeping operation Mission of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations as a member of the first Civilian Support Group of Advisers elected by the UN Security Council as "the one hundred most highly qualified candidates in the world" under the recommendations of "The Report of the Panel on UN Peace Operations", commonly known as the Brahimi Report. Currently, she is the Chairperson of the Special Mechanism of Human Rights Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, Human Rights Council.
As the Chairperson of the Civilian Support Group of Advisers, Miriam Estrada worked for three and a half years on the first Nation Building experience of the United Nations UNMISET in accordance to the mandate established by the UN Security Council regarding Timor-Leste. Estrada acted as the International Prosecutor and Senior Legal Adviser to the Timorese Minister of Justice. She established and organised the legal structure and administrative management system for the Prosecutor General Office and the Prosecution Services for Timor-Leste. She wrote the necessary criminal laws and procedures for the country and developed capacity building activities for its officers. Estrada created the Timorese National Policy on Legal Education, ensured the inclusion of Human Rights principles, gender mainstream and children rights as cross-cutting issues in the Timorese National Syllabi adopted by the First Judicial Training Centre of East-Timor. The most important contribution for women's rights was her Handbook containing the Special Guidelines for Victims of Domestic Violence published by the Office of the Prosecutor General of East-Timor and adopted as the training manual for police Forces, national prosecutors and the East-Timorese national Special Victims Unit.
During 2001, Estrada was a visiting fellow at the Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University. The research produced by Dr. Estrada during her fellowship: "Australian & Latin American Human Rights Action Plans: Critical and Comparative Analysis" is being used as official material for the first distance learning education course "Human Rights in Action" broadcast by the Spanish-Latin American Educational Television Network, from its headquarters in Madrid, Spain founded and organised by Miriam Estrada in cooperation with Teleducando an International NGO working on Distance Learning Education, named by UNESCO as the First Peace Broadcast in Latin America. The course is taught in 243 Universities in Latin America. The song "An Ecuadorian Woman" written by Estrada during her fellowship, received an Award in the contest "Art defending Women's Rights" organised by UNIFEM in Santiago de Chile.
Accomplishments
Estrada has accomplished a significant work on the dissemination and promotion of Human Rights and Culture of Peace Principles from the important positions held throughout her professional career, amongst them:
Independent Expert Mandate Holder of the Special Procedures Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, United Nations
Senior Officer of the Counterterrorism Executive Directorate (United Nations Political Mission, New York)