The Ombudsperson

Luísa Neto took office as Ombudsperson on 15 July 2026.

Born in Lisbon in 1971, Luísa Neto holds a degree in Law (specialising in Legal and Political Sciences) from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (1994) and a PhD in Law (specialising in Legal and Political Sciences) from the Faculty of Law of the University of Porto (2003). She is a full professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Porto, where she has been teaching since 1995 in the fields of Constitutional Law, Fundamental Rights and Political Science.

Between 2021 and July 2026, she served as Chair of the Governing Board of the National Institute of Administration (INA), and also holds the UNESCO INA Chair in ‘Education for Development in Public Administration: Participation, Innovation and Capacity Building’ for the period 2025–2028.

Throughout her academic and institutional career, she has held various academic and university management posts and has been a member of national and international bodies in the fields of Law, Public Administration and Bioethics. Among others, she is a member of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Justice at the Faculty of Law, University of Porto, and of the Biolaw Department of the International UNESCO Chair in Bioethics at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto.

Supervisor of doctoral and master’s theses, a member of academic and professional examination boards, a speaker at national and international seminars, conferences and colloquia, and the author of several academic publications in the fields of constitutional law, fundamental rights, administrative law and bioethics.

Luísa Neto is the 11th holder of the office and the second woman to hold the post of Ombudsman. She was elected by the Assembly of the Republic on 3 July, having secured 159 votes in favour out of a total of 218 voting members of parliament, exceeding the qualified majority required for election. The vote also recorded 29 blank votes and 30 invalid votes.

Her inauguration speech can be read here [in Portuguese only].