Magnitsky Awards
Ana Gomes
Former Member of the European Parliament
Award Winner 2019
Outstanding Campaigning Politician
Ana Gomes was a career diplomat since joining the Portuguese Foreign Service in 1980 and suspended it in 2003 to enter party politics. She served as Member of the European Parliament for 3 terms (2004-2019), as a member of the Portuguese Socialist Party and, therefore, of the S&D – Socialist and Democrats Group.
She served in the Foreign Affairs Committee, Development Committee, Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, and in the Subcommittee for Security and Defence and un the Subcommittee on Human Rights.
She was member of the Delegation for the Relations with the United-States, Delegation for the Relations with Iraq and the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean. She headed several EU/ EP Electoral Election Missions (Ethiopia, Timor Leste, Sudan, Myanmar, Georgia, among others).
She was Rapporteur for Libya, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the PCA with Indonesia, on the “EU CBRN Action Plan” report, the “Maritime Dimension of CSDP” report, on the “Human Rights and corruption” report, on “Big Data and Fundamental Rights” among other files. She was shadow-rapporteur in the crafting of the 4th and 5th Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism EU Directives.
She actively campaigned for an EU Magnitsky Ac during her time as an MEP.
She served in the Portuguese Missions at the UN in Geneva and New York and also in the Embassies in Tokyo and London. Between 1999 and 2003 she was Head of the Portuguese Interests Section and then Ambassador of Portugal in Jakarta, where she played a role in the process leading up to the independence of Timor Leste and in the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Portugal and Indonesia.
Today she continues her political activism as a campaigner for human rights, integrity and transparency in public life, against corruption and organized crime. She keeps a weekly programme of commentary at Portuguese TV channel SIC Notícias (“The opinion of Ana Gomes”).