Susana Santos was born in Lisbon in 1977. She holds a degree in Marketing and Consumer Affairs from Instituto Superior de Santarém (2002). As part of the Socrates-Erasmus program, she attended classes at Hogescholl West-Vlaanderen and was an interna t the Chemistry Company Corn, Van Loocke in Bruges, Belgium. Between 2003 and 2005 she provided technical and administrative support to…

Sara Patrícia Santos Duarte was born in Coimbra on the 6th December, 1976. She holds a degree in Modern Languages and Literature from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra (2001). She has been Secretary to the Office of the Ombudsman since 2013, accumulating, since 2016, the same function in the National Prevention Mechanism. Between 2009 and 2013…

Lina Rocha Mascarenhas was born in Lisbon on the 22 June, 1963. She studied Secretarial Techniques and attended the Translators and Interpreters Course of the Superior Institute of Languages and Administration. She entered the Ombudsman’s Office in 1996 and since then has worked as Personal Secretary of successive Ombudspersons. Previously, she had been the Secretary of the Office of the…

Maria Teresa de Lemos dos Santos Bessa was born in Coimbra, on January 5th, 1968. She has a degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and a post-graduate degree in Political-Administrative Sciences (administrative branch) from the same Faculty. She practiced law and was Sub-Inspector General in the General Inspection of Justice Services. She began…

Miguel Menezes Coelho holds a degree from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. He was the coordinator of the Legal Office of the League for the Protection of Nature and legal adviser to the office of the Board of Directors of CTT (postal services). He began his duties at the Ombudsman’s Office in 1993. He is currently…

João António Portugal was born in Leiria on the 27th January, 1965. He holds a degree in Law (Political and Legal Sciences) from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. He was a trainee assistant professor in Political Science, Constitutional Law and Public International Law. Since 1993, he has been working at the Ombudsman. From 1998 till 2022,…

Elsa Maria Henriques Dias was born in Alverca do Ribatejo on the 10 March, 1966. She holds a degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, with postgraduate degrees in European Studies and on Organizations’ Fiscal Management. She was legal advser at the Office of the Chief Financial Officer of Lisbon and was a lawyer…

Born in Coimbra in 1971. Graduated in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra (1995), where she completed the academic part of the Masters’ in Legal and Political Sciences (1998-1999) and the postgraduate degree in Medical Law (2003-2004). There she was also Trainee-Assistant, in the subjects of Constitutional Law and Political Science and Public and European…

João Tornada holds a Master’s degree (2019) and a Bachelor’s degree in Law (2015) from the Faculty of Law of the Portuguese Catholic University – Lisbon. He is currently a visiting assistant and doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, where he has been teaching since 2022, in the areas of Constitutional Law (Fundamental Rights,…

Jorge Manuel da Silva Sampaio has a doctorate (2022), a master’s degree (2011) and a degree in Law (2005), in the area of Legal and Political Sciences, from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (FDUL). In terms of teaching and research activity, he is currently a guest Assistant Professor at FDUL, where he has been teaching since…