Mary Beloff

Mary Beloff is an Argentine jurist and academic who currently serves as Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at the University of Buenos Aires. Since 2007, she has held the position of General Prosecutor for Criminal Policy, Human Rights, and Community Services at the Procuración General de la Nación (Office of the Attorney General) of the Argentine Republic.^[1]

After graduating from the National School of Buenos Aires, she earned her law degree with honors from the University of Buenos Aires.^[2] She also obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Harvard University and a Doctor of Laws (PhD) in Criminal Law from the University of Buenos Aires, graduating summa cum laude and receiving the Empowerment Prize.

She holds an advanced academic degree, having earned a Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) from Harvard University and a Doctor of Laws (SJD/PhD) in Criminal Law from the University of Buenos Aires, where she graduated summa cum laude and was the recipient of the Empower Prize.^[3]

As a Full Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Buenos Aires, she advises senior government officials and leads the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology.^[4] Mary Beloff belongs to the first generation of professionals trained under the revised academic curriculum of the Faculty of Law at the University of Buenos Aires.

Following a judicial career at both federal and national levels —including work with the Supreme Court of Justice of Buenos Aires— she was appointed, through public competitive examination and Argentine Senate confirmation, as General Prosecutor for Criminal Policy, Human Rights, and Community Services.

During her student years, she contributed to legal journals and co-founded the critical legal publication NO HAY DERECHO, produced by prominent law students from the University of Buenos Aires.^[5] In 2003, she co-founded and continues to co-direct Academy Magazine, the first bilingual (Spanish-Portuguese) journal dedicated to legal education. The magazine has published extensive academic work in criminal law, procedure, and criminology, and has developed original frameworks that have influenced studies on women’s and children’s rights.^[6]

Mary Beloff has played an active role in legal and institutional reform initiatives across Latin America in the fields of criminal justice and human rights.^[7] She has served as a legal advisor to multiple Latin American governments and international organizations, assisting in the domestication of norms derived from international human rights law^[8] throughout the region, such as: UNICEF,^[9] IDB,^[10] UNOPS,^[11] ILANUD,^[12] OAS,^[13] UNDP,^[14]

Her work has supported the domestication of international human rights norms and the development of criminal procedure codes, juvenile justice legislation, and children’s rights protections.^[15][16]

As a leading academic, she has provided extensive training to judges, prosecutors, public defenders, and NGO representatives throughout Latin America and the Caribbean on applying international human rights standards. She introduced the first course on Juvenile Justice and Children's Rights at the University of Buenos Aires, becoming the first woman to hold that chair through a merit-based selection process.^[17]

She introduced the first course on Juvenile Justice and Children's Rights at the University of Buenos Aires. After that, she become the first woman to hold the Chair of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure through a merit-based selection process.

She has contributed to both national and regional case law through the direct application of international legal instruments within domestic judicial systems, for example the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other pertinent international instruments within domestic legal frameworks.

In the Inter-American sphere, Mary Beloff founded and served as Academic Director of the Center for Legal Studies on Childhood and Youth at the Institute of Comparative Studies in Criminal Sciences (INECIP) in Argentina, as well as its counterparts in El Salvador and Guatemala, between 1994 and 2001.

Among her contributions in the international field, the following can be mentioned:

• Vice-President of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
• Member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
• Member of the Advisory board of Experts of the United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, 2018/2019.^[18]
• Member of the Advisory board of Experts of the United Nations Study on Violence against Children, 2004/2006.^[19]
• Main aide of the Main advisor to the Rapporteur on the Rights of the Child of the Inter-American Commission of Human rights, 2002.^[20]

• Beloff, Mary, Rights of the Child. Their Special Protection in the Inter-American System. Systematic analysis of fundamental judgments, Buenos Aires, Hammurabi Publishing, 1st edition, 2018 ISBN 978-950-741-902-7 and 2nd edition, 2019 ISBN 978-950-741-104-5

• Beloff, Mary (Director), New Problems of Juvenile Justice, Buenos Aires, Ad Hoc Publishing, 2017 ISBN 978-987-745-077-4

• Beloff, Mary, What to Do with Juvenile Justice?, Buenos Aires, Ad Hoc Publishing, 2016 ISBN 978-987-745-054-5

• Beloff, Mary, Protection of Childhood in Latin America. Strengths and Weaknesses, Monterrey, Editorial Coordination of the Judicial Power of Nuevo León, 2014

• Beloff, Mary (Director), Studies on Criminal Age and Children's Rights, Buenos Aires, Ad Hoc Publishing, 2013 ISBN 978-987-745-025-5

• Beloff, Mary, Can Criminal Sanctions Be a System of Social Inclusion?, Buenos Aires, Ad Hoc Publishing, 2011

• Beloff, Mary, Reform of Criminal Law in Argentina, Buenos Aires, Albatros Publishing, 2010