Luísa Neto takes office as Ombudsperson

Luísa Neto’s inauguration as Ombudsperson will take place on 15 July, following her election by the Portuguese Parliament on 3 July. In that second ballot, she received 159 votes in favour, out of a total of 218 MPs voting, exceeding the qualified majority required for election. There were also 29 blank votes and 30 invalid votes.

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, Luisa Neto 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 other roles, 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, Luísa Neto has also been a member of academic and professional examination boards, a speaker at national and international seminars, conferences and colloquia, and the author of several scientific publications in the fields of Constitutional Law, Fundamental Rights, Administrative Law and Bioethics.