MARIA BERENICE DIAS was the first woman to take the bench in  Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, and the first female to become a judge member of the Court of Appeals in that same state.

• President of the Seventh Panel of Judges of the Court of Appeals of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, with a specialty in Family Law.
• Vice-president and one of the founding members of the Brazilian National Institute of Family Law (Instituto Brasileiro de Direito de Família/IBDFam).
• Post Graduate Degree and Master in Civil Procedure by the Catholic Pontifice University of Rio Grande do Sul (Pontífica Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul/PUCRS).
• Leader in the Brazilian women’s movement, most notably actively fighting against domestic violence.
• President of the Brazilian Association of Women with Careers in the Justice Field (Associação Brasileira das Mulheres de Carreira Jurídica/ABMCJ-RS) from 1994 to 1997. She also was the National Vice-President-Southern Region of this same organization from 1997 to 2000.
• Established the organization JusMulher which offers legal and psychological voluntary service to women in need. She also created the publication Jornal Mulher (Women’s Journal) which is dedicated to issues of gender.
• Initiated the Federation of Women’s Associations (Federação das Associações Femeninas/FAF), the project Place of Affection and Respect (Lugar de Afeto e Respeito/LAR) and the project Re-Think (Projeto Repensar).
• Presented the proposal for a system of Mobil Justice and the creation of a Justice Ombudsman.
• In the Third National Exhibition of Total Quality promoted by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, Seventh Chamber, she presented the project chosen as the model to be followed by the Tribunal of Justice of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
• As member of the State Committee Against Violence she established the service Dial-Violence (Disque-Violência).
• Has received 72 titles and honors, including the Diploma Woman-Citizen Berta Lutz.
• Is a member of 18 entities dedicated to women’s issues and social causes.
• Holds the 37^th Chair of the Women’s Literary Academy of Rio Grande do Sul (Academia Literária Feminina do Rio Grande do Sul).
• Participated in the Fourth World Conference on Women promoted by the United Nations and that took place in China in 1995; and of the International Congress of Jurists that took place in Canada in 1996; as well as the International Federation of Women in Legal Careers which took place in Spain in 1997 and again in Italy in 1998.
• Participated in the World Conference of Family Law which took place in Australia in 2000 and in Norway, Denmark and Cuba in 2002.
• In the Federal Chamber of Deputies, located in the Federal District of Brasília, she took part in public hearings regarding the regulation of legal abortion and the New Civil Code Project.
• Was instrumental in writing the law, in the Legislative Assembly’s Constitution Commission, which establishes the punishment for sexual harassment.
• Author of the books Third Parties in the Civil Procedure (O Terceiro no Processo) and Homosexual Unions: Prejudice and Justice (União Homossexual - O Preconceito e a Justiça), the first Brazilian publication to address the judicial implications regarding this subject. The book is now on its second edition.
• Coordinator of the collective work Family Law in the New Civil Code (Direito de Família no novo Código Civil), now in its 4 edition. She contributed with her writings in 24 collective works.
• Has over one hundred articles published in newspapers and specialty magazines in the areas of Civil Procedure, Family Law, Women’s Rights and Homossexual Rights.
• Judge Dias is an active public speaker throughout Brazil and abroad.                                     

   Translated by Paul Beppler

                                                                                     www.riolingo.com