Renate Weber


Renate Weber is a Romanian lawyer and human rights activist who, in November 2007, was elected as Member of the European Parliament. She is the first Romanian appointed as Chief of an EU Election Observation Mission.
Between 2004 – 2005 she was Advisor on constitutional and legislative matters to the President of Romania. She is currently the People's Advocate of Romania.

Biography

Renate Weber graduated from the Law Faculty of Bucharest University, in 1979 and became a lawyer at the Bucharest Bar.
In the 1990s, Renate Weber has become one of the strongest voices of the Romanian civil society, being involved in a number of national and international non-profit organization, such as the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, where she was Vice-chair, or the Association for the Protection of Human Rights in Romania – Helsinki Committee, where she was Co-chair. Renate Weber was the longest-serving Chairwoman of the National Council at the Foundation for an Open Society – Romania.
In 2000, she was appointed as Ad hoc judge at the European Court of Human Rights in.
She lectured in international human rights law, constitutional law, minority rights and women's rights, at the National School of Political and Administrative Studies, Faculty of Political Sciences. She also held classes on the protection of human rights in the context of international relations, at University of Bucharest, Faculty of History.
Between 2004 – 2005, Renate Weber was appointed as Advisor on constitutional and legislative matters to the President of Romania.
In 2007, she decided to enter politics and became a member of the National Liberal Party.

European Parliament activity

Renate Weber has become a member of the European Parliament in November 2007. She is a full member of the LIBE Committee and a substitute member of the AFET Committee.
She is also a member of the Delegation for relations with the countries of the Andean Community. In this capacity, she led – in the autumn of 2008 – the EP Electoral Observation Mission in Ecuador.
Subsequently, she was appointed – by the European Commission – as Chief of the EU Election Observation Mission for the 25 January 2009 Constitutional Referendum in Bolivia and she was also Chief Observer for the EU EOM deployed for the presidential and legislative elections that took place in Bolivia on 6 December 2009.
In May 2010, Renate Weber was invited by the EC to lead the EU EOM deployed for the May–September 2010 electoral cycle in Burundi, Africa.

Other activities

Renate Weber has over 50 published studies and articles on human rights, the rights of national minorities, constitutional law, the European Convention on Human Rights and fighting discrimination. Here are several examples:
Other articles/papers on the Romanian legal system, the implementation of international human rights/minority rights legislation by the Romanian Courts and the human rights/minority rights situation in Romania.