November 27th | Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

Adelina Pinto

Vice-Mayor of Guimarães Municipal Council and Member of the Executive Board of ProChild CoLAB

Adelina Paula Pinto has been serving in the executive branch of Guimarães Municipal Council since 2013. She holds a degree in History from the University of Porto and worked as a teacher in the 200 group, being part of the teaching staff at the Virgínia Moura School Group. She also holds a postgraduate degree in Curriculum Development from the University of Minho and another postgraduate degree in Technical Valorisation for School Administration from the Catholic University.

From 1995 to 2005, she was the director at the Arqueólogo Mário Cardoso School Group. Between 2005 and 2010, she took on the role of Training Consultant at the Francisco de Holanda Training Center, and from 2009 to 2013, she was the Inter-Municipal Coordinator of the School Libraries Network.
She joined Guimarães Municipal Council’s executive team in 2013, where she initially took on responsibilities in the fields of Education, Human Resources, Library, and Municipal Archives. She is a member of the Municipal Education Council and the Inter-Municipal Education Council of the Ave Inter-Municipal Community, where she coordinated the Inter-Municipal Education Plan structure between 2013 and 2017.

In her second term, she assumed the role of Vice-Mayor and, as a result of the reorganization of responsibilities, she took on responsibilities in the areas of Education, Culture, Youth, Participatory Budget, Library, Municipal Archives, and International Relations.

Since 2017, she has also been the President of the Executive Board of the Cooperative “A Oficina, Centro de Artes e Mestres”, the Executive Board of Guimarães Science Center. Additionally, she has been a member of the Executive Board of ProChild CoLAB since 2019.

Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio

Retired Judge of the Supreme Court of Justice, Writer, Professor, and Member of the Board of Directors of ProChild CoLAB

Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio, a career magistrate, currently serves as a Retired Judge of the Supreme Court of Justice. He has held prominent positions such as Director of the Center for Judicial Studies, Secretary of State for Judicial Administration, Minister of Justice, and Member of the Assembly of the Republic between 1980 and 1996. He also served as the Representative of the Republic for the Azores Autonomous Region from 2003 to 2006.

In addition to his legal career, Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio is actively involved in civic activities and holds leadership roles in associations such as the Portuguese Association that provides support to victims (APAV) and CRESCER-SER, of which he is a founding member. He has authored various articles and given lectures, in addition to publishing several notable books.

In recognition of his achievements, in 2016 Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio received the Medal of Recognition from the Regional Council of Porto from the Lawyers’ Order and in 2017 the merit medal from the Association for Pro-Inclusion. In February 2019, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Education Sciences by the University of Minho.

He was honoured with the Grand Cross of the Order of D. Raimundo de Peñaforte by the King of Spain, in recognition of his role as Minister of Justice in the European Union, and with the Grand Cross of the Order of Christ by the President of the Portuguese Republic, in acknowledgment of his service as a Representative of the Republic.

From 2013 to 2017, he served as the President of the General Council of the University of Minho. He is also an Elected Member of the International Academy of Portuguese Culture and a member of the Executive Board of ProChild CoLAB.

Ásmundur Einar Daðason

Iceland’s Minister of Education and Children

Ásmundur Einar Daðason has been a Parliamentarian since 2009. During his Parliamentary career he was a member of various committees, such as the Budget Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Environment and Communications Committee, the Fisheries and Agriculture Committee, the Transport and Communication Committee, the Social Services and Social Security Committee, the Education Committee, and the General Affairs Committee.

In 2016, he served as the Vice-President of the Progressive Party parliamentary group and during the 2015-2016 term he assumed the role of President of this group. In 2017, he was appointed as the Minister of Social Affairs and Equality.

In 2019, gender equality became part of the Prime Minister’s portfolio and to better represent the emphasis of his work, Ásmundur Einar Daðason was appointed as the Minister of Social Affairs and Children.

After the 2021 elections, he took on the role of Minister of Education and Children in Iceland, becoming the first in his country to hold this position.

His primary focus is on services provided to children. He has been working on implementing large-scale changes in the system, efforts that culminated in the Icelandic Parliament’s approval of the Act on the Integration of Services in the Interest of Children’s Prosperity that came into effect in 2022.

Beatriz Imperatori

Executive Director of UNICEF Portugal and President of the Superior Council of ProChild CoLAB

Beatriz Imperatori graduated in Economics from the Portuguese Catholic University, completing her degree in 1996. She also holds an AMP – Advanced Management Program – from Harvard Business School, obtained in 2014. She has a diverse career with experience in the fields of economics, competition & regulation, and social areas.

Between 1996 and 1998, she worked in the financial sector at the company COFACO – Comercial e Fabril de Conservas, as well as at Moulinex-Portugal. Subsequently, she held the position of Deputy Director at Centromarca, the Portuguese Association of Brand Companies, from 1998 to 2008. During that period, she also served as a Member of the Board and Vice-President of the General Council of the Portuguese Business Confederation. In 2008, she was appointed as the Director-General of Centromarca, the Portuguese Association of Brand Companies.

From October 2012 to August 2017, she was a member of the Board of Directors of IGFSS – the Institute of Social Security, where she had direct responsibility for managing real estate assets, including social housing and rent-free assets.

Since September 2017, she has held the position of Executive Director of the Portuguese National Committee for UNICEF. In this role, she has collaborated with various entities to contribute to the development of policies and programs aimed at improving the quality of life for children in Portugal and mobilizing resources to support UNICEF’s mission worldwide.

Currently, she also serves as the President of the Executive Board of ProChild CoLAB.

Bo Viktor Nylund

Director of UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight

With a Master’s in Law from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Bo Viktor Nylund has dedicated his work to the most vulnerable children and families worldwide since 1994.

Currently, he serves as the Director of the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, located in Florence, where he leads a diverse team responsible for addressing the most pressing issues for the promotion of children’s well-being and rights. Through research and foresight activities, the UNICEF Innocenti Centre drives changes for the benefit of children, encourages global dialogue, and promotes the active participation of children and youth.

Until October 2022, Bo Viktor was the UNICEF Representative in Syria. In this role, he provided support to nearly 12 million people in need and used the advocacy for children’s rights as a tool to create unprecedented opportunities with the government and non-state actors.

Since joining UNICEF, Bo Viktor has worked in various cities, including Bangkok, Bujumbura, Colombo, Damascus, Geneva, Khartoum, Nairobi, and New York, focusing on children’s rights and protection, corporate social responsibility, as well as policy and humanitarian planning. Before his association with UNICEF, he served as a Protection Officer at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Carme Tello Cassany

President of the Catalan Association for Abused Children (ACIM) and the Federation of Associations for the Prevention of Child Abuse (FAPMI)

Carme Tello Cassany holds a Ph.D. in psychology with a specialization in clinical psychology and has made significant contributions in supporting vulnerable children.

She is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lleida and also plays a crucial role as the President of the Associació Catalana per la Infància Maltractada (Catalan Association for Abused Children – ACIM) and the Federación de Asociaciones para la Prevención del Maltrato Infantil (Federation of Associations for the Prevention of Child Abuse – FAPMI).

Gabriela Trevisan

Researcher at ProChild CoLAB

Gabriela Trevisan has been a researcher at ProChild CoLAB since 2019, where she serves as the coordinator of the Social Participation Axis.
She holds a Ph.D. in Childhood Studies from the University of Minho, specializing in Childhood Sociology, She also has a master’s degree in Childhood Sociology and a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Sociology from the same institution.

Between 1998 and 2021, she worked as a sociocultural animator at the Fundação para o Desenvolvimento do Vale de Campanhã, where she developed intervention projects with children, young people, and mothers in the context of poverty and social vulnerability.

She completed a postgraduate program in Educational Sciences at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto, where she conducted research on artistic expression and community intervention with young people from Ginasiano.

From 2001 to 2019, she was an Adjunct Professor at the Escola Superior de Educação de Paula Frassinetti, teaching in the Social Education undergraduate program and the Community Intervention Master’s program, as well as delivering curriculum units in teacher training courses.

She is the co-coordinator of the Childhood Sociology Thematic Section of the Portuguese Sociology Association and a member of the Research Network 04 of the European Sociological Association. She has worked with various scientific journals as a reviewer.

Gabriela Trevisan is a certified trainer by IEFP and accredited as a trainer by the CTCFP of Braga for teacher and kindergarten teacher training. Her research and intervention interests focus on childhood sociology, child citizenship and political action, child poverty, public policies, and children/territory/cities.

George Moschos

Jurist, former Children’s Ombudsman of Greece, founding member of the Initiative for Article 12 UNCRC and director and coordinator of Youth Engagement Scheme of the Child and Adolescents Mental Health Initiative

George Moschos, a graduate in Law from Athens and holder of a master’s degree in criminology obtained in London, furthered his expertise through seminars on self-awareness and adult education, as well as by organizing youth clubs and children’s theatre.

His professional journey has been dedicated to working, animating and supporting children and adolescents threatened by social exclusion, advocating for children’s rights, and training professionals and volunteers in his areas of expertise.

In 2003, George Moschos was appointed as the first Children’s Ombudsman in Greece (Deputy Ombudsman for Children’s Rights), a position he held until January 2018. In this role, he visited numerous schools and institutions, interacting with thousands of children and professionals, promoting active citizenship, listening to children, and involving them in decisions and processes relevant to the promotion of their rights.

He was also a member of the Board and President of the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children. As a specialist in children’s rights, he collaborated with the Council of Europe, as well as with many other international organizations and networks.

Additionally, he is a founding member of the Initiative for Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (InArt.12), an association that aims to promote and disseminate the right of children to freely express their opinions. In addition to being a certified trainer by the National Centre for Public Administration and

Local Government, he has been collaborating with the Child and Adolescents Mental Health Initiative, where he coordinates the project YES – Youth Engagement Scheme.

Helena Grangeia

Researcher at ProChild CoLAB

Helena Grangeia is a researcher at ProChild CoLAB since 2019, where she serves as the coordinator of the axis for Child Protection against violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect.

She is a psychologist recognized by the Portuguese Psychologists’ Association, specialized in Clinical and Health Psychology as well as in Forensic Psychology. Helena Grangeia also holds a Ph.D. in Psychology, specializing in Forensic Psychology, from the University of Minho.

She is also a lecturer in higher education, with notable collaborations at the University of Maia and the University of Minho.

Her primary areas of activity and research interests focus on critical victimology, interpersonal violence, and the protection of children’s rights in relation to the Justice System and the Child Welfare System.

Isabel Soares

Full Professor at the School of Psychology, University of Minho, and President of the Executive Board of ProChild CoLAB

Isabel Soares is a full professor at the School of Psychology at the University of Minho and served as its president from January 2013 to January 2016.
She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Porto and joined the University of Minho in 1993. Currently, she is the Director of the Department of Applied Psychology and a member of the General Council of the University of Minho. She was also the coordinator of the Research Laboratory on Development and Psychopathology within the framework of the Research Centre in Psychology (CIPsi).

Her teaching activities at the master’s and doctoral levels include courses in Developmental Psychology, Developmental Psychopathology, and Attachment. She is the director of the Master’s program in Clinical Psychology in Childhood and Adolescence.

Isabel Soares is a Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist and is the Principal Investigator of the Attachment Studies Group with projects funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, I.P.) and the Bial Foundation. Her research has focused on the impact of psychosocial risk on child development, particularly the effects of disruption and parental care deprivation. She has more than a hundred national and international publications.
She was the Principal Investigator of the ProChild CoLAB grant application to FCT, I.P., and currently serves as its President.

Joana Marques Vidal

Former Deputy Prosecutor General and President of the General Council of the University of Minho

Joana Marques Vidal is a retired Deputy Attorney General who served as a Magistrate of the Public Ministry since 1979 and retired in January 2021. Since 2021, she has also served as the President of the General Council of the University of Minho.

She holds a degree in Law from the University of Lisbon and completed the first Postgraduate Course in Child Protection at the University of Coimbra. She also completed the Postgraduate Course in “Judicial Journalism” at the Lusófona University of Lisbon.

She served as Deputy Director of the Centre for Judicial Studies and as a Deputy Attorney General, and in 2012, she was promoted to the position of Attorney General of the Republic. Between 2018 and 2021, she also served as the representative of the Attorney General of the Republic in the Public Ministry of the Constitutional Court.

She was a member of the Council of the Public Ministry, elected by her peers, and served as a lecturer in the field of Family and Minors at the Centre for Judicial Studies. She participated in various legislative committees related to Family and Minors Law.

From 2007 to 2012, she was the President of the Board of APAV (the Portuguese Association that provides support to victims), and until October 2012, she was the Vice-President of the Board of the Portuguese Association for the Rights of Minors and Families – Crescer Ser. She also served as a member of the Board and President of the General Assembly of the Union of Magistrates of the Public Ministry.

In October 2018, she was awarded the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Christ by the President of the Portuguese Republic.

Jorge Cardona Lloréns

Professor of Public International Law at the University of Valencia, Former Member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, and President of the Autonomous Committee of UNICEF in the Valencian Community

Jorge Cardona Lloréns is a Professor of Public International Law at the University of Valencia. He is also a guest lecturer at various universities and institutes in Europe, Latin America, and Africa. An Honorary Doctorate by the Jaume I University of Castellón, he held the Henri Rolin Chair at the Universities of the Kingdom of Belgium and received the Extraordinary Bachelor’s Degree Award as well as the Extraordinary Doctorate Award from the University of Valencia.

From 2011 to 2019, he was a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, and he currently serves as the President of the Autonomous Committee of UNICEF Comunidad Valenciana.

Jorge Cardona Lloréns has worked as a legal expert for the Conference of Ibero-American Ministers of Justice and the Ibero-American Youth Organization on human rights issues. He was also a former member of the Notable Persons Commission appointed by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
He is a member of Spain’s National Disability Council and the Support Committee of CERMI for monitoring the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Spain. He serves as an Administrator of the Sud-Nord Foundation at the University of Valencia and is also the Director of the United Nations Depository Library in Valencia (ONUBIB) and the Director of the Refugee Observatory of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Valencia. In addition, he advises several states in his areas of expertise.

With more than two hundred publications on international law, particularly in the fields of human rights, Jorge Cardona Lloréns is dedicated to bringing the rights of children and people with disabilities, as well as economic law, responsibility, organizations, peacekeeping, and security, to the forefront of the international debate.

Judite Peixoto

Researcher at ProChild CoLAB

Judite Peixoto joined ProChild CoLAB in 2022 as a researcher in the axis of Child Protection against violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect. She is a psychologist and a full member of the Portuguese Psychologists’ Association, with a Ph.D. in Applied Psychology from the University of Minho. She co-authored the For2Parents Program, which is a psychological intervention for separated/divorced parents with high parental conflict.

In her academic and professional career, she has worked as a forensic expert, clinical-forensic psychotherapist, trainer, consultant, technical-scientific supervisor, and therapist-researcher, particularly in the areas of divorce and parental conflict. She has also been involved as a research fellow in projects related to Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking.

Judite Peixoto has numerous national and international publications in the field of Legal Psychology and Forensic Psychology. Her main interests in intervention and research include post-divorce co-parental conflict, visitation resistance, therapeutic justice, integrative psychotherapy, and practice-oriented research models.

Manuel Sarmento

Associate Professor at the Institute of Education, University of Minho, and Member of the Superior Council of ProChild CoLAB

Manuel Sarmento is a retired Associate Professor at the Institute of Education at the University of Minho and a member of the Superior Council of ProChild CoLAB.

He is one of the most important figures in the field of Childhood Sociology and has dedicated a significant part of his research to the study of children’s identities and cultures. He holds a Ph.D. in Childhood Studies with a specialization in Socio-educational Studies and an aggregation in Childhood Sociology. Throughout his career, he has served as a Visiting Professor at various Brazilian and French universities.

Manuel Sarmento has held positions as the director of the Master’s program in Childhood Studies, the Doctoral Program in Childhood Studies, and the Department of Social Sciences in Education at the University of Minho. Between 2005 and 2009, he was a member of Portugal’s National Council of Education, contributing to the formulation of educational policies in the country.

He is the author and co-author of twenty books and has published more than a hundred scientific articles in various languages, establishing himself as a prolific contributor to the academic field. Manuel Sarmento also serves as the editor of the journal Investigar em Educação, published by the Portuguese Society of Educational Sciences.

His most recent research areas encompass topics such as childhood and public policies, the presence of children in the city, child poverty, children’s cultures and interculturality, child labour, education, and the social status of students.

He was a member of the ProChild CoLAB’s Direction Board from 2019 to 2022 and currently sits on the Superior Council of the same Collaborative Laboratory.

Marta Santos Pais

Member of the International Commission against the Death Penalty, First Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children, and Member of the Superior Council of ProChild CoLAB

Marta Santos Pais is a member of the International Commission against the Death Penalty and a Commissioner of the National Program for the remembrance of the Holocaust, Nunca Esquecer (Never Forget).

She served in various roles at UNICEF, including Director of Evaluation, Policy, and Planning from 1997 to 2001, and as the Director of the Innocenti Research Centre from 2001 to 2009.She also held the position of rapporteur for the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Vice-President of the

Coordination Commission for Children’s Policies at the Council of Europe and was a member of the Portuguese Commission for the Promotion of Human Rights and Equality. She participated in the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols.

From 2009 to 2019, she served as the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, and from 2019 to 2020, she was a member of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Attacks on Humanitarian Facilities in Syria.

Marta Santos Pais holds a degree in Law from the University of Lisbon and has authored numerous publications on children’s rights. She is currently a member of several international organizations focused on children’s rights, including the African Child Policy Forum, Arigatou International, and Joining Forces to Prevent Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. In Portugal, she is a member of the Advisory Council of the Child Support Institute and the Superior Council of ProChild CoLAB.

Raquel Corval

Researcher at ProChild CoLAB

Raquel Corval has been a researcher at ProChild CoLAB since 2021, where she coordinates the Development and Education axis.She holds a Bachelor’s degree in

Psychology from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Porto, with a pre-specialization in Educational and Developmental Psychology. She also holds a Master’s degree in Applied Social Sciences from the University of Swansea. In 2022, she completed her Ph.D. in Applied Psychology at the School of Psychology at the University of Minho. Her doctoral research focused on the impact of genetics and the quality of care on the development of attachment disorders in preschool and institutionalized children.

Raquel Corval worked for several years at the Institute of Education and Sciences (ISEC), where she taught various courses related to Early Childhood Education and the Master’s programs in Early Childhood Intervention and Special Educational Needs. Simultaneously, she conducted her clinical practice at the Child and Family Development Support Office (GADIF), a service offered by ISEC aimed at the community in the context of the application of best practices in Early Childhood Intervention.

She is also a psychologist and a full member of the Portuguese Order of Psychologists, with specialization in Educational Psychology and an advanced specialty in Early Intervention.

Rosário Farmhouse

President of the National Commission for the Promotion of Children and Youth Rights (CNPDPCJ)

Rosário Farmhouse has been the President of the National Commission for the Promotion of Children’s Rights and Child Protection (CNPDPCJ) since November 2017.She holds a degree in Anthropology, with a specialization in Social Anthropology from the Institute of Social Sciences and Politics at the University of Lisbon.

Between 1996 and 2008, she worked at the Jesuit Refugee Service in Portugal, where she served as the Director from 2003 to 2008. She published the book “Starting Anew – step by step with refugees and displaced persons” in 2002.

From 2008 to 2014, she held the position of High Commissioner for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue and, from 2014 to 2017, she was responsible for the Office of Human Formation at the Colégio S. João de Brito in Lisbon.

She was elected President of the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon in 2021. In her role at CNPDPCJ, she has been Portugal’s representative on the Council of Europe’s Committee on the Rights of the Child since 2020, and in 2022 she was elected President of the Committee.

Her work has been publicly recognized with several awards and honours, both nationally and internationally.

Sandra Araújo

Coordinator of the National Strategy Against Poverty

Sandra Araújo was appointed as the Coordinator of the National Strategy Against Poverty in November 2022, a position she currently holds. She graduated in Social Work from the Porto School of Social Work and holds a Postgraduate Degree in Nonprofit Organization Management from the Catholic University.

Sandra Araújo began her career as a Social Worker in 1992, working on the Poverty Combat Project in the Historic Centre of Gaia. In 1994, she joined the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN Portugal) and became part of the GIIF Project (Horizon Community Initiative), where she worked in information and training. In 2006, she was promoted to the position of Executive Director of EAPN with responsibilities related to poverty and social inequality combat, political analysis of national and European measures and programs, to the coordination and management of national and international projects and to human resources management. She coordinated the activities of the EAPN Portugal Observatories and represented EAPN Portugal on the Executive Committee of EAPN Europe.

She also served as Deputy Director of Focussocial Magazine, a specialized magazine on Social Economy, and was a member of the Editorial Board of the Public Policy Portuguese Journal from the Portuguese Network of Public Policy Research at the University of Évora and of the of ProChild CoLAB’s Board of Directors.

Sónia Almeida

National Coordinator for Child Guarantee

Sónia Almeida has been the National Coordinator for Child Guarantee in Portugal since October 2021. For over ten years, she worked in the healthcare system in a hospital setting at the Pediatrics Department of the Lisbon North University Hospital Center.

In 2017, she was appointed as the Team Leader for the Project to Enhance Technical Support to the Courts and Residential Care Social Responses for Children and Youth at Risk, within the Lisbon District Social Security Department. From 2018 to 2021, she served as a Deputy to the Cabinets of the State Secretary for Social Security and the Minister of Labor, Solidarity, and Social Security.

She is a member of the Integrated Analysis Commission for Juvenile Delinquency and Violent Crime and, more recently, she led a working group aimed at promoting the development and widespread implementation of a uniform model of danger assessment and enhancement of the child and youth protection and promotion.