Roberta Clarke is a Barbadian lawyer who has worked for

UN Women The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity charged with working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women is charged with advocating for the righ ...

. She was elected as a commissioner for the

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese language, Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des ...

to serve for four years from 2022.

Life

Clarke was born on Barbados and after training as a lawyer she practised on Trinidad and Tobago. She then went to work for the United Nations where she worked in the Caribbean, Libya, East and Southern Africa and in the Asia Pacific. left, Clarke in Honiara in the Solomon Islands working for

in 2014 In 2014 she was

's Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific and the Representative in Thailand. She was elected as one of the seven commissioners for the

in January 2022 at the

University of California in Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Cal ...

(UCLA). She was elected for a four-year term. There were five candidates for the three vacant positions as commissioners and the other two successful candidates were from Mexico and Colombia. She had the support of Barbados's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its Permanent Mission to the

Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS or OEA; ; ; ) is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, the OAS is ...

(OAS). She became the Second Vice President of the IACHR commission. The President was the Jamaican

Margarette May Macaulay Margarette May Macaulay (born 20th century) is the Jamaican Commissioner and some time President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (OAS). Life Macaulay was born in West Africa and is of Czech-German, Dominican-French-Creole, and Sie ...

and the first vice President was

Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño Esmeralda may refer to: Places * Esmeralda, Queensland, a locality in the Shire of Croydon, Australia * Esmeralda Municipality, Oruro Department, Bolivia * Esmeralda, Rio Grande do Sul, a municipality in Brazil * Esmeralda, a town in Chile * E ...

from Panama. This was one of the first times that the commission was led by an all woman team and the first time that they all came from Central America or the Caribbean. Clarke succeeded Flávia Piovesan as the commission's Rapporteur on the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Bisexual, and Intersex Persons. In 2024 new IACHR commissioners were elected, including

Gloria de Mees Gloria Monique de Mees is a Suriname professor who became OAS's Rapporteur on the Rights of Afro-Descendants and against Racial Discrimination. She was elected to serve on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHCR) from 2024 through to ...

and

Andrea Pochak Andrea Pochak is an Argentina, Argentine lawyer. She was elected to serve on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHCR) from January 2024 through to the end of 2027 and to be the Organization of American States, OAS's Rapporteur on Huma ...

, to replace long serving commissioners Macauley,

Julissa Mantilla Falcón Julissa Mantilla Falcón is a Peruvian Rapporteur on the Rights of Older Persons for OAS. She was elected by the Organization of American States (OAS) to serve from 2020 to 2023 as a Commissioner of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IA ...

and Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño. The initial President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) was Clarke. She is a campaigner for women's rights and she has been President of the ''Coalition against Domestic Violence'' in Trinidad and Tobago.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Roberta Living people Barbadian lawyers Women's rights activists Barbadian LGBTQ rights activists Inter-American Commission on Human Rights commissioners Year of birth missing (living people)