Section Editors

Comments on the Judgments and Advisory Opinions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Dr. Mónica Rosa Irene Palencia Núñez

Jurist, scholar, and international affairs specialist. Her career has been shaped by criminal law, criminology, international relations, and the application of these fields within the Inter-American System of Human Rights.

Her academic path is distinguished by a strong legal education and a focus on criminal law doctrine and criminal policy. She earned her law degree from the Juárez University of the State of Durango in 1986, where she received the Benito Juárez Medal. She subsequently obtained a law degree and a bachelor's degree in Social Sciences from the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil, where she was awarded the Dr. Héctor Romero Menéndez Prize.

She completed a master's degree in International Relations at the Pontifical Xavierian University, where she received the Rector's Medal, and a specialization in Economic Criminal Law and Organized Crime at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. She also earned a Ph.D. in Legal Sciences from the University of Havana. This academic background has enabled her to integrate criminal law with perspectives drawn from international law and the protection of fundamental rights.

For more than three decades, she has taught undergraduate and graduate courses. She has lectured in Civil Law, International Law, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Criminal Policy, and related subjects at the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil, where she attained the rank of full professor through a competitive selection process, as well as at Casa Grande University.

She has also worked as a consultant on corporate and business law matters and has served as an arbitrator at the Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce.

Since 2025, she has served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the Organization of American States (OAS). In this role, she has promoted dialogue on the Inter-American System of Human Rights, its contemporary challenges, and the strengthening of legal education across the Americas. Her academic and diplomatic profile converges in advancing a vision that integrates security, democracy, and human rights within the Inter-American context.

Overall, her career reflects the evolution of a jurist specializing in criminal law and criminology into a diplomatic representative at one of the hemisphere's principal forums for development, human rights, and security. Throughout this trajectory, she has consistently maintained an academic focus on the relationships between law, criminal policy, and the protection of the human person, while also promoting concrete initiatives in these fields.

Dr. Lyonel Fernando Calderón Tello

Ecuadorian jurist, criminologist, scholar, and diplomat. His career has centered on criminal law, legal doctrine, criminal policy, and the protection of human rights within the Inter-American system.

He holds a Ph.D. in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid, awarded in 2016 with the highest distinction of summa cum laude by unanimous decision. His doctoral dissertation was supervised by Professor Javier Sánchez-Vera Gómez-Trelles.

At the same university, he completed master's-level studies in Public Law, specializing in Criminal Law, and in Private Law, specializing in Commercial Law. He also earned bachelor's degrees in Law and Economics from the University of Guayaquil and pursued advanced studies in criminal sciences and criminology.

His scholarly work focuses on contemporary criminal law doctrine, objective imputation, negligent offenses, and economic crime, with particular emphasis on the relationship between criminal law and human rights.

He has served as a professor of Criminal Law at the Technical University of Loja. He has also taught International Law, Constitutional Law, Human Rights, and legal doctrine in undergraduate and graduate programs at the University of Guayaquil, where he has coordinated permanent research seminars and master's programs in Criminal Law and Criminology.

Since 2025, he has served as Minister and Alternate Representative of Ecuador to the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C., where he is responsible for the Human Rights portfolio within the Permanent Mission.

In this capacity, he actively participates in Inter-American dialogue on the human rights protection system, contemporary challenges related to security and fundamental rights, and the strengthening of hemispheric cooperation. His profile combines rigorous training in criminal law doctrine with a diplomatic career focused on the promotion and protection of human rights throughout the Inter-American region.

Dirección de Publicaciones Científicas

Nicolás Mejía-Torres, Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia

Corrector de estilo

María José Díaz Granados

Diagramación

Juan Pablo Rátiva González, Colombia

Comité editorial

Dr. Alfonso Santiago, Prof. Titular Universidad Austral, Argentina

Andrés Botero Bernal, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Colombia

Andrés Ollero Tassara, Tribunal Constitucional, Spain

Dra. Gema Patón García, Universidad Castilla-La Mancha

José Antonio Fernández Amor, Universidad de Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain

Juan Bautista Etcheverry, CONICET y Universidad Austral, Argentina

Juan Carlos Riofrío Martínez-Villalba, Universidad de los Hemisferios, Ecuador

Juan Cianciardo, Universidad de Navarra, Spain

Comité científico

Dr. Carlos Ignacio Massini Correas, Universidad de Mendoza, Argentina

Dr. José Chavez-Fernández Postigo, Universidad Católica de Arequipa, Peru

Dr. Pedro Rivas Palá, Universidad de La Coruña, Spain

Dr. Rodolfo Luís Vigo, Universidad Austral, Argentina