Elena Carolina Díaz Galán was appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights by the Human Rights Council at its sixty-first session in March 2026.
Background
She is Associate Professor of Public International Law and International Relations at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. Her academic work focuses on poverty eradication, human rights and sustainable development.
She has led projects on the feminisation of poverty, groups in situations of vulnerability, and relations between the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean. She has been a member of academic chairs on sustainable development, social inclusion, diversity and human rights.
She has lectured at universities in the Americas, Asia, Europe and Africa and has undertaken research stays at universities abroad.