Lorena Fries

Julia Lorena Fries Monleón (born 1 April 1960) is a Chilean politician who serves as deputy.

Between 1999 and 2004, she worked at the non-governmental organization La Morada, coordinating the Citizenship and Human Rights area. Between 2000 and 2002, she served as Executive Director of the Women’s Development Corporation within the same organization, and until 2004 continued as coordinator of the Citizenship and Human Rights area.

She studied at the Swiss School in Santiago, graduating in 1977. She later entered the Faculty of Law at the University of Chile, where she obtained a licentiate degree in Legal and Social Sciences. In 1986, she moved to Spain, where her degree was validated at the University of Salamanca. In 1990, she obtained Chilean nationality and was admitted to practice law in Chile on 25 November 1991.

In 1991, she worked as an assistant researcher on the project “Systematization of information on free public and private services for women” at the Center for Women’s Development, under the direction of Ana María Arteaga. Between 1992 and 1995, she served as Program Coordinator for Human Rights at the Latin American Association of Human Rights, based in Quito, Ecuador. From 1995 to 1996, she was head of the Department of Public Policies for Vulnerable Groups at the Ministry of Planning.

Between 2005 and 2014, she taught in the Diploma in Women’s Human Rights: Theory and Practice at the Human Rights Center of the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile. Since 2020, she has served as a lecturer and director of the Master’s Program in Human Rights and Citizenship at the Central University of Chile.

Political career She began her political trajectory as a member of the Christian Left and later joined the Socialist Party of Chile, from which she resigned in early 2020. In March of that year, together with other former members of the Socialist Party, she co-founded the Unir Movement, assuming the role of general coordinator.

On 2 July 2010, she was appointed as a councillor of the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH), and on 22 July of the same year she became its first director. She was re-elected in 2013 and completed her second term in July 2016.

On 11 September 2016, President Michelle Bachelet appointed her as the first Undersecretary for Human Rights, a position she held until 11 March 2018.

In the parliamentary elections of November 2021, she was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of Chile for District No. 10—comprising the communes of Santiago, Providencia, Ñuñoa, Macul, San Joaquín, and La Granja in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago—as an independent candidate on a list of the Social Convergence (CS) party within the Apruebo Dignidad coalition, for the 2022–2026 legislative term. She obtained 11,519 votes, corresponding to 2.52% of the valid votes cast.

In October 2022, she formally joined the Convergence Party. Since July 2024, she has been a member of the Broad Front.