Ruth Stella Correa Palacio

Ruth Stella Correa Palacio
8th Minister of Justice and Law of Colombia
Incumbent
Assumed office
12 July 2012
President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón
Preceded by Juan Carlos Esguerra Portocarrero
Magistrate of the Council of State of Colombia
In office
8 October 2004  12 July 2012
Personal details
Born 13 November 1959
Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia
Nationality Colombian
Political party Liberal
Alma mater Free University, Pereira (LLB, 1982)
Profession Lawyer
Religion Roman Catholic
This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Correa and the second or maternal family name is Palacio.

Ruth Stella Correa Palacio (born 13 November 1959[1]) is the 8th and current Minister of Justice and Law of Colombia.

Career

A Law and Political Sciences graduate of the Free University of Colombia at Pereira in 1982, she pursued postgraduate studies in Labour Law and Industrial Relations in 1990 at the Externado University, with additional training studies in State Administration at the Pontifical Xavierian University in 1996, and in University Teaching at Saint Thomas Aquinas University in 2000.[1]

Right off college, she was appointed First Civil Municipal Judge of Santa Rosa de Cabal on 1 September 1983. From then on she rose through the judiciary being appointed First Labour Judge for the Pereira Circuit 1985, then Secretary of the Third Division of the Council of State in 1991, Auxiliary Magistrate of the Third Division of the Council of State in 1998, and finally Magistrate of the Council of State in the Third Division.[1] As a prosecutor she worked for the Office of the Inspector General assigned to the Third Division of the Council of State from 1998 to 2001, and in private practice from 2001 to 2004.[1]

Minister of Justice

On 6 July 2012 President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón announced the appointment of Correa as Minister of Justice and Law.[2] Correa was sworn in on 12 July 2012 by President Santos in a ceremony at the Palace of Nariño.[3] Correa replaced Juan Carlos Esguerra Portocarrero who had submitted his resignation after the failed attempt to reform the Judicial Branch.[4] With her appointment, President Santos fulfilled the Law of Quotas that called for at least a 30% of ministerial positions to go to women, and which had gone unfulfilled since Minister Beatriz Elena Uribe Botero was replaced as Minister of Housing, City and Territory by Germán Vargas Lleras, and two further posts had been filled by men.[5]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "CV of Ruth Stella Correa Palacio" (in Spanish). Colombia, Office of the President of. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  2. "Presidente Santos designó a Ruth Stella Correa como nueva Ministra de Justicia y del Derecho" (in Spanish). Bogotá: Colombia, Office of the President of. 6 July 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  3. Santos Calderón, Juan Manuel (12 July 2012). "Palabras del Presidente Juan Manuel Santos en la sanción del Código General del Proceso y del Estatuto de Arbitraje Nacional e Internacional, y posesión de la Ministra de Justicia, Ruth Stella Correa Palacio" (in Spanish). Bogotá: Colombia, Office of the President of. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  4. "Presidente Santos lamenta la renuncia de Juan Carlos Esguerra y prepara respuesta". Caracol Radio (in Spanish) (Bogotá). 22 June 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  5. Guzmán, José Vicente (6 October 2012). "Ley de cuotas: lejos de su objetivo". Semana (in Spanish) (Bogotá). ISSN 0124-5473. OCLC 7475329. Retrieved 28 April 2013.