Julieta Montaño (born 16 August 1946) is a Bolivian lawyer, a human rights defender, and a writer. In 2015 she won the US State Department's International Women of Courage Award.
Life
Rosa Julieta Montaño Salvatierra was born 16 August 1946 in Quillacoll, Bolivia. She finished her Bachelor's degree in Humanities at the Universidad Mayor de San Simón in 1965. She finished her law degree at the same university in 1972. She finished Master's degrees in human rights and political science at the Universidad Mayor de San Simón and University of Huelva in Huelva, Spain. She finished her doctorate degree in human rights at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain.
Work
Montaño was the Vice President of the Human Rights Assembly of Bolivia and the Comptroller of Cochabamba, Bolivia. From 1997 to 2002 she was in the Chamber of Deputies representing the Cochabamba Department. In 1981, during the Bolivian Cocaine Coup, Montaño was the head of the Union de Mujeres de Bolivia (Union of Bolivian Women). She was arrested, and stayed in her house, under house arrest. Montaño returned to her work in 1981, after the end of the dictatorship.
On 11 April 1985 Montaño started the Oficina Jurídica para la Mujer (Legal Office for Women) to promote women’s rights and fight violence against women. The organization has helped more than 30,000 women. It has also worked with the Bolivian legislature to make laws to protect women.
Other websites
2015 International Women of Courage Awards, U.S. State Department photostream on Flickr Secretary's International Women of Courage Award (U.S. Department of State)