Maria do Carmo Medina

Maria do Carmo Medina (7 December 1925 – 10 February 2014) was a Portuguese-born Angolan human rights defender, pro-Angola independence campaigner, academic, and the first female judge of Luanda Court of Appeal in Angola.

In 1956, at the age of 14, Medina emigrated to Angola following her inability to find a job in Portugal, due to damaging reports against her by the police. She became an Angolan citizen in 1976, a year after the country’s independence.

Background and education Medina was born in Lisbon and spent part of her childhood learning about native cultures and customs in cities such as Macau and Porto, where she finished at her Lyceum in 1938. She then enrolled to study law in Lisbon in the same year. In 1982, she worked as a graduate assistant at the Law Faculty of the Agostinho Neto University teaching family law, and rising to position of a professor in 1990.

She was the vice president of the Supreme Court of Angola in 1990. She was elected chairman of the General Assembly of the Association of Angolan Lawyers in 1990, and in 1995, she was elected chairman of the General Assembly of the Angolan Association of Women Lawyers. Medina retired as a judge of the Supreme Court of Angola in 1997.

Death Medina died of disease in Lisbon, on 10 February 2014 and was buried at Luanda's 'Altos das Cruzes' cemetery.