Uruguayan Supreme Court of Justice has female majority for the first time

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The oath of office of Justice Doris Morales before the General Assembly of the Legislative Power of Uruguay on Tuesday left the Supreme Court of Justice of that country with a majority of women for the first time in the history of the body.

Morales will accompany the president, John Pérez, who took office last February 1, and Tabaré Sosa, Elena Martínez Rosso, and Bernadette Minvielle in the composition of the Supreme Court.

“I, Doris Perla Morales Martínez, pledge on my honor to loyally perform the office entrusted to me and to keep and defend the Constitution of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,” the magistrate said this Tuesday during the solemn oath.

The new member of the Supreme Court of Justice took office last January 26, due to the lack of agreement in the Parliament to elect the successor of Justice Luis Tosi, who announced his retirement in October, so she was elected for being the person with more seniority within the Court of Appeals.

Morales joined the Judiciary in 1989 as a legal judge in the department of Paysandú (northwest) and then held the positions of legal judge (1994), family legal judge (1995), and minister of the Labor Court of Appeals from 2003 to date.

The other two female Supreme Court justices, Martinez Rosso and Minvielle, took office in February 2018 and the same month of 2020, respectively.

Bernadette Minvielle has a Ph.D. in Law and Social Sciences from the University of the Republic (1982), with a postgraduate degree in Criminal Procedural Law (1985), and has also worked uninterruptedly in the administration of local Justice, from the position of secretary of the Magistrate’s Court, through the position of deputy prosecutor, departmental prosecutor.

Likewise, she was a Judge of Montevideo and finally held the position of Minister of the Court of Appeals since 1998.

Martínez Risso, on the other hand, entered the magistracy on December 11, 1981 as Justice of the Peace of the 1st Section of Colonia (southwest), among other departments.

In addition, since March 13, 2002, she served as judge of the 6th Civil Court of Appeals, a position she held until her appointment as judge of the Supreme Court of Justice.