Eugenia Salazar Aguilar was born in Costa Rica. She is a committed woman to the defense and protection of women’s rights. Several people close to her influenced in her decision. First of all her family and then her friends and her community.
Injustice and demand for rights have been present in her country since she was a child. She could see that certain people could not enjoy their rights and the decision – making was in charge of the men in all aspects of life.
Eugenia decided to study Law. When she was a teenager she went with her sister Ana to the Ministry of Labour. Ana had been dismissed from her employment and she was there to ask for justice. Later, Eugenia went with Ana to tribunals to an appearance. They arrived there and they met the lawyer of her former boss. The lawyer offered to pay Ana only the third part of what it was due and Ana had to accept it. This day Eugenia felt helpless and she said to her sister: “ I will be a lawyer in order to defend people against injustices. Eugenia went to tribunals with other women in order to ask the recognition and compensation of their rights.
When her sister Ana had to face the aforementioned situation, Eugenia was underage. She did not have work experience but she felt that Ana’s former boss and the system had committed an injustice. Eugenia could realize that the injustice was not only against a worker, but also against a disadvantaged woman and with limited chances at the labour market.
Eugenia has begun to defend women’s rights since the situation faced by her sister. Ana’s experience influenced Eugenia. When she was 16 she asked herself about the inequalities, the systems and the means she could use to avoid that people are diminished at work and in their dignity.
When she entered University, Eugenia was in touch with organizations from social and political movements. She began participating in students’ claims, always defending vulnerable people. As she went on with her studies, she started to fight for other causes, for example, human rights, particularly women’s rights, since she had the knowledge and the experience.
Eugenia highlights that NGOs has played a pivotal role in her intellectual formation and experience of life. She started working as a lawyer at women’s organizations. She worked with women in their communities, in trade-unions, in rural organizations and in neighborhoods with housewives.
In 1980-1990 Eugenia with Alianza de Mujeres developed legal proposals for women. It enabled her to defend human rights, to share with other people, particularly women, the opportunity to use legal means since they are not unattainable. She could go on protecting women’s rights, always taking into account the difficult her sister had to face at the Ministry of Labour and at tribunals.
Eugenia thinks that in her country there have been important progress in women’s rights. Different sectors work hard in order to achieve equality, but there are inequality gaps in economic, social and political areas. There are a lot of stereotypes and myths in her country. It is pivotal to take decisions to protect women, taking into account that they are part of the humanity. Both men and women should be responsible to achieve the fullest development of the country, the well-being of the world and the cause of peace as United Nations has called at CEDAW.
Eugenia Salazar Aguilar highlights a useful experience and an important challenge which took place at the beginning of her career against the machismo, the inequality and the alternative use of the law which were spread in Latin America in 1980-1990. Thanks to this experience Eugenia could achieve important results, for example, the training of rights promoters. They are everywhere in the country. They can help other women to know their rights and that they could support each other, no matter if they are indigenous women, members of trade-unions and cooperatives. It is very important that these women could use the law in order to demand the respect of their human rights. Eugenia felt very satisfied with these results.
Eugenia played a relevant role when Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean- PWAG organized the Exhibition “1000 PeaceWomen Across the Globe”. Former President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla Miranda; former Minister of Women’s Affairs, María Isabel Chamorro Santamaría, and our dear PeaceWoman of Costa Rica, Elizabeth Odio Benito, who has been appointed Judge of the Inter American Court of Human Rights, participated of the successful event.
It is important to highlight Eugenia’s words: “Our challenge is to achieve the real equality”.