Staff /

Paula Vargas

Paula Vargas is an Associate at the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), based in the Bogotá office where she is the lead on IFIT’s transitional justice work in Colombia and Latin America.

With an academic background in international law, Paula has worked for many years on issues including transitional justice, women’s rights, and business and human rights. Among other things, she spent four years working for the Colombian Ministry of Defence. During her time there, she led a team responsible for implementing the 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC. Before that, she worked as a litigator at a private law firm in Colombia and in various national and international legal roles, including with Colombia’s National Legal Defence Agency. More recently, she worked as an independent consultant in human rights and international humanitarian law. She has also advised companies and NGOs on developing equity and human rights-related policies.

Paula is a law graduate from the Universidad de los Andes and holds a master’s degree in human rights and international humanitarian law from Northwestern University, where she graduated on the Dean’s List.

Working languages: Spanish and English