Gina Romero

Gina Paola Romero Rodriguez (born 1980) is a Colombian activist who co-founded the Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy. In 2024 she became the United Nations special rapporteur on the freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Life
Romero was born in the capital city of Colombia, Bogotá, in 1980. She studied international issues at the Universidad Externado de Colombia.

She was a director of the Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy (known as REDLAD) which she had co-founded. In 2023 she and REDLAD were part of a call by Democracy Without Borders and 80 organisations to establish a new special rapporteur to look at human rights and democracy.

Romero was a member of the World Movement for Democracy's steering committee. She was chosen by the United Nations Human Rights Council to succeed Clément Nyaletsossi Voule from Togo in April 2024 as the United Nations Special Rapporteur looking at the human right of freedom of peaceful assembly and association. She was chosen on the same day as several other rapporteurs including Astrid Puentes Riaño who looks at human rights and the environment and the Italian lawyer Elisa Morgera who is an expert in human rights and climate change.

In June 2024 Romero prepared to present at a side meeting organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission. The meeting is at the time of a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The meeting will address concerns about the repression of free discussion of the Gaza–Israel conflict. Caterina Aiena will present a report about their evidence of the repression of free discussion particularly in the United Kingdom, Germany and France.