Isabel de Lima Mayer Alves Moreira (born 2 April 1976) is a Portuguese jurist and politician of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(PS) who has been serving as a member of the Assembly of the Republic since 2011. She is known for her campaigns in favour of

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...

Early life

Isabel de Lima Mayer Alves Moreira was born in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, Brazil on 2 April 1976, the fourth of six children of

Adriano Moreira Adriano José Alves Moreira, ComC GCC GOIH GCSE (6 September 1922 – 23 October 2022) was a Portuguese lawyer, professor and a leading political figure in Portugal throughout the second half of the 20th century. Education Adriano Moreira ...

and Isabel Mónica Maia de Lima Mayer. Her father had been an influential politician in Portugal in the mid-20th century, who was close to the repressive '' Estado Novo'' government and was for two years Minister of Overseas Territories. When the government was overthrown in 1974 by the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

, he and his family moved to Rio de Janeiro for two years. Isabel Moreira was educated at the Mira Rio college in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, a school linked to

Opus Dei is an institution of the Catholic Church that was founded in Spain in 1928 by Josemaría Escrivá. Its stated mission is to help its lay and clerical members seek holiness in their everyday occupations and societies. Opus Dei is officially r ...

. She has said that this led to her being distanced from religion. She then did undergraduate studies in law at the Faculty of Law of the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; ) is a public university, public research university in Lisbon, and Portugal's largest university. It was founded in 1911, but the university's present structure dates to the 2013 merger of the former Universit ...

, followed by a master's degree in constitutional law. In 1997, she married Tiago de Ayala Martins Barata in

Sintra Sintra (, ), officially the Town of Sintra (), is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2021 was 385,654, in an area of . Sintra is one of the ...

. They are divorced and had no children.

Early career

Moreira started her professional life as a lecturer in constitutional law and public international law at the University of Lisbon, having been admitted to take a PhD. At the same time, she worked as a lawyer in the area of public law and later provided consultancy and legal advice, particularly to Portugal's Minister of Foreign Affairs,

Luís Amado Luís Filipe Marques Amado (born 17 September 1953) is a Portuguese politician who served as Minister of Defence, from 2005 to 2006, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, from 2006 to 2011, in the XVII and XVIII Constitutional Governments of Portu ...

. She also worked for the Agha Khan Foundation

in Portugal.

Political career

Moreira was elected as a Deputy in the Assembly of the Republic in the 2011 legislative elections on the Socialist Party's list for

, although she did not join the PS until around 2013. She was re-elected to the Assembly in 2015, 2019 and 2022. She is a member of the parliamentary committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees. As a member of the Assembly, she has supported LGBT rights, such as same-sex marriage, the right to adoption by homosexual couples, and the recognition of different rights for transgender people. In addition to her committee assignments, Moreira has been a member of the Portuguese delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

since 2022. In this capacity, she has been serving on the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights; the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination; and the Sub-Committee on the implementation of judgments of the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

. Moreira has published several publications on the topic of fundamental rights. She writes frequently in newspapers and has frequently participated in a political debate program on the channel '' RTP Informação''. She is also a writer.

Publications

*''Cela'' (Cell). 2018. *''Apátrida'' (Homeland). 2014. *''Ansiedade'' (Anxiety). 2011. *''O Casamento entre Pessoas do Mesmo Sexo'' (The marriage of people of the same sex). 2008. (with Carlos Pamplona Corte-Real and Luís Duarte D`Almeida) * ''A Solução dos Direitos: Liberdades e garantias e dos direitos económicos, sociais e culturais na Constituição Portuguesa''. (The Rights Solution: Freedoms and guarantees and economic, social and cultural rights in the Portuguese Constitution). 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moreira, Isabel 1976 births Academic staff of the University of Lisbon Living people Members of the 12th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 13th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 14th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 15th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 16th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians University of Lisbon alumni Women members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) LGBTQ legislators Portuguese lesbian writers Portuguese lesbian politicians 21st-century Portuguese women writers 21st-century Portuguese women politicians 20th-century Portuguese LGBTQ people 21st-century Portuguese LGBTQ people