Emilia Fernandes Emilia Fernandes was born in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), in the village of Dom Pedrito, close to the border between Brazil and Uruguay. Daughter of a dentist and a teacher, she grew up in the city of Santana do Livramento. She has a son and a daughter and three grandchildren. Pedagogue with a degree in Educational Planning, she worked as a teacher for 23 years and took part in the Teachers Union's Council for the State of Rio Grande do Sul. As a matter of fact, she is one the founding members of her regions' Teachers Union. As a result of her performance as a professional, a union leader and an active citizen, Ms Fernandes has been elected three times as State Representative (councilwoman) of Santana do Livramento (RS). She is also the first woman to have been elected Senator for the State of Rio Grande do Sul. During her time in Congress, she never distanced herself from her origins and maintained her commitments to the country and to her constituency. She is an intransigent defender of the country's sovereignty and of economic growth. She follows more closely issues relating to industrial growth, commerce, navigation, fishing and agriculture, the struggle against discrimination, human exploitation and corruption.Emilia Fernandes was also the first woman to have presided a Permanent Commission in the Brazilian Senate. She chaired the Commission on Infrastructure during the years of 1999 and 2000, coordinating discussions on issues such as transportation, communication and electric power. She also took an active part in Congressional hearings on suspected corruption schemes. During her tenure in the Senate, Ms Fernandes was called upon to act as Vice-Leader of the Workers Party and Coordinator of her party's state Congressional caucus. She was one of the Coordinators of the national women's caucus, President of the Brazil/Peoples Democratic Republic of Korea Parliamentary Group, Member of the Brazil/Cuba Parliamentary group, Vice-President of the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Reunification of Korea, President of the Latin American Parliamentary Council, Deputy Secretary-General of the Joint Parliamentary Group Commission of MERCOSUL and President of the Parliamentary Council for the Berta Lutz Diploma for Woman Citizen. She represented the Brazilian Senate in the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, in 1995 and was rapporteur for the Optional Protocol to the CEDAW, working hard for Brazil's ratification of that instrument which occurred on 28 June 2002. She was actively involved, among many other issues, in the drafting of laws which defined social benefits such as the concession of paid leaves of absence for adopting mothers, the obligation by the public health system to perform, upon request, restorative plastic surgery for women who have had breast cancer, early retirement for policewomen (after 25 years of work), the establishment for women who head households of a quota of 20 per cent of any official resources set aside to finance the purchase of homes, the drawing up of property deeds in name of women (involving state financed popular dwellings), the establishment, at the national level, of a telephone hotline to protect women against violence, the provision enabling the temporary removal from their home of husbands involved in battering. During the last elections, in October 2002, competing for a seat in the Senate, Emilia Fernandes was defeated but she received over two million votes, 70% more votes than those cast for her during the 1994 elections in which she was victorious.During the eight years of her mandate as Senator, Ms. Fernandes' leadership, efficiency and competence were recognized by DIAP, a well-known Congressional watchdog that included her amongst the 100 most influential members of the Brazilian Congress. On January 1st, 2003, Ms. Emília Fernandes was appointed Special Secretary of Policies for Women, a cabinet level post in President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's Government. She has thus initiated a new stage of her political career taking up the challenge of leading Brazil's national machinery for the advancement of women.