Francisca Van Dunem

Her Excellency
Francisca Van Dunem
Minister of Justice
Assumed office
26 November 2015
President Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
Prime Minister António Costa
Preceded by Fernando Negrão
Personal details
Born Francisca Eugénia da Silva Dias Van Dunem
(1955-11-05) 5 November 1955
Luanda, Portuguese Angola
Nationality Portugal Portuguese
Angola Angolan[1]
Political party No affiliation
Children One child
Residence Portugal
Alma mater University of Lisbon
Website Portuguese Government - Minister

Francisca Eugénia da Silva Dias Van Dunem (born 5 November 1955, in Luanda, Angola) is an Angolan-Portuguese lawyer. She is the Portuguese Minister of Justice since 26 November 2015.[2] Previously she was the director of the Lisbon Public Prosecution Service. She is Portugal's first black government minister in history.[3]

Education

Van Dunem has a degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, awarded in 1977. She was subject to competitive examination for the Portuguese Public Prosecutor's office in 1979.[4]

Professional career

Van Dunem's most relevant professional activities included judicial activities such as Trainee Deputy Public Prosecutor (Lisbon and Loures courts) (1979-1980); Deputy Public Prosecutor (Lisbon Labour Court) (1980-1983); Deputy Public Prosecutor (Lisbon Criminal Court) (1983-1985); Deputy Public Prosecutor (Lisbon Public Prosecution Service) (1987-1989); member of the Principal State Prosecutor's private law firm (1989-2001); and Deputy Principal State Prosecutor, Director of the Lisbon Public Prosecution Service (since 2001).[4]

Personal life

Van Dunem was born in 1955 in Luanda, then the capital of the Portuguese Overseas Province of Angola. She went to Lisbon in the early 1970s in order to study law at the University of Lisbon. In April 1974, the Portuguese Estado Novo regime was overthrown by a left-wing military coup and in 1975 Angola become a newly independent communist state - the People's Republic of Angola. In 1977 she was awarded her law degree. Her brother José Van Dunem was murdered in a purge occurred in Agostinho Neto's post-independence Angola that same year.

Francisca did not return to Angola and pursued a family life and a professional career in Portugal. She is married and has one son. They live in the Greater Lisbon area.

References

  1. ↑ Jornal de Negócios
  2. ↑ "Portuguese Government: Francisca Van Dunem - Minister of Justice". Governo de Portugal official website. 26 November 2015. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  3. ↑ Andrei Khalip (November 25, 2015), Bank of Portugal economist Centeno named finance minister Reuters.
  4. 1 2 Election of a judge to the European Court of Human Rights with respect to Portugal Archived 2010-12-25 at the Wayback Machine., Council of Europe (4 June 2004)
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