New Human Rights Fellow Joins The Vance Center

(Maria Werneck | Photo credit: Eli Cohen)

Maria Werneck has joined the Vance Center as a fellow in the Human Rights and Access to Justice Program. A Brazilian-qualified lawyer, she received an LL.M. in 2019 in International Law and Human Rights from the University of Colorado Law School, which gave her a scholarship to work at the Vance Center this summer, and a law degree in 2014 from Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. She previously worked on a range of human rights issues, including transitional justice, prisoners’ rights, and extreme poverty, as a volunteer legal advisor for a Brazilian NGO and a researcher in a project to support indigenous peoples in Belize. Werneck speaks Portuguese and Spanish.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP has generously supported the Vance Center’s Human Rights Fellowship this year, in celebration of Vance Center Executive Chair Ted Maynard’s retirement from the firm.