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Ana Cristina González Vélez is a well-known international researcher, advocate, and expert in the field of sexual and reproductive health and the right to health and gender equality.
González Vélez teaches health law at the Faculty of Medicine at the Universidad de Los Andes and is the former national public health director of Colombia. She is the founder of The Right to Decide, a medical group in Colombia, and co-founder of La Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres. She is also member of the political coordination of the Articulación Feminista Marcosur, a feminist Latin American coalition.
By profession, González Vélez is a medical doctor. She holds a master in social health research and a PhD in bioethics, applied ethics, and collective health of the Fiocruz Foundation in Brazil. In 2017, she was a visiting researcher at the Law School of Basque Country University in San Sebastian and a practitioner at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She is a published author, and her most recent book is titled Normas restrictivas sobre aborto en América Latina: Una mirada desde la biolegitimidad (2020).
González Vélez has consulted extensively with international organizations, such as the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
González Vélez was an event speaker at the Dialogue.