Ana Cristina Gonzalez Velez is a prominent international researcher, expert as well as an advocate in the field of sexual and reproductive health along with the right to health and gender equality. Ana is also regarded as a Colombian doctor. Ana Cristina teaches health law at the Universidad de Los Andes under the Faculty of Medicine, along with this, Ana was the former national public health director of Colombia.
What was Ana Cristina’s earlier life comprised of?
Ana Cristina was born in the year 1968 on April 7 in Medellin, Colombia, and is the eldest of three sisters. Ana’s family believed in the presence of education, reading, working, and being an independent woman just like Ana’s mother.
From the very beginning, Ana connected with the women’s group and association present in Medellin which initiated her activism in feminism – a perspective that courses throughout her professional practice.
Ana Cristina pursued her studies at Bolivarian Pontifical University. Ana has a master’s degree in Social Research from the Center for state and Society Studies (CEDES) located in Argentina. Ana obtained her doctorate degree in Bioethics, Applied Ethics, and Collective Health (PPGBIOS) which is in partnership with Fiocruz Foundation – National School of Public Health located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
What is Ana Cristina doing and what has she accomplished so far?
Ana Cristina is an activist who strives to defend women’s human rights and is even a recognized leader of the feminist movement in Latin America. The complete liberalization of abortion is one of the struggles that are the spine of her activism. Ana Cristina is the founder of The Right to Decide which is a medical group in Colombia, as well as the co-founder of La Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres (which translates as the Table for the Life and Health of Women). Along with this, Ana Cristina is even a member of the political coordination of the Articulación Feminista Marcosur, which is a feminist Latin American coalition.
Professionally, Ana Cristina González Vélez is a medical doctor. In the year 2017, Ana Cristina was a visiting researcher at the Law School of Basque Country University in San Sebastian as well as a practitioner at Mount Holyoke College which is located in Massachusetts. With all this, Ana Cristina is a published author, and her very recent book is entitled Normas restrictivas Sobre aborto en América Latina: Una Mirada Desde la biolegitimidad which was released in 2020 and the title translates as the Restrictive norms on Abortion in Latin America: a view from Biolegitimacy.
Apart from this, Ana Cristina González Vélez has been conferred extensively with various international organizations, which include the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, and the Caribbean (ECLAC), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Health Organization (WHO). Currently, Ana Cristina is a member of the ISC for the Nairobi Summit.
What are Ana Cristina’s other publications and involvement?
Ana Cristina published a book titled “Barriers to access to Voluntary Interruption for Pregnancy for Women in Colombia” in December 2016 and in March 2017, Ana published another book titled “Institutional Conscientious Objection? Impact on the provision of voluntary interruption of pregnancy services.”
Ana is involved on the board of directors of AWID – Internation Association for Women’s Rights and Development as well as engaged in the board directors of Global Doctor’s for Choice along with the editorial board of Reproductive Health Matters. Apart from this, Ana Cristina is on the advisory council of the Latin American Center on Sexuality and Human Rights (CLAM).