Born in 1948, she was president of the Board (2006-2008) and the General Assembly (2004-2006) of the Portuguese Platform for Women’s Rights; she was President and a lifetime member of the Board of AFEM – Association des Femmes de l’Europe Méridionale (Association of Women of Southern Europe), between 2000-2005 and Vice-president and member of the Board of EWL – European Women’s Lobby, between 2002-2004.
Ana Coucello was a member of the Consulting Council of the “national mechanism for equality” (1990-1993, 1995-2005), where she coordinated (1991-1993 and 1995-2001) the Working Group ” Paritarian Democracy” whose purpose was the dissemination of this concept; she also promoted the creation and coordinated the Working Group “External Relations”, being in charge of the elaboration and presentation of the first Portuguese non-governmental report to the United Nations CEDAW Committee. She was part of the Portuguese Delegation, as a non-governmental expert to the process commonly known as “Beijing + 5” having then played the role of liaison between the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council and the European Women’s Lobby. She was part of the EU Delegation of the first seminar on “women’s issues” in the framework of the Sino-European Dialogue on Human Rights (1998).
She has conceived and coordinated national and transnational projects supported by the European Commission, namely “Joint Parliament” (1994) and “1st Meeting of Women Mayors” (1993) which were considered innovative examples of good practice for all Member States. She has participated as a speaker in several conferences on women’s human rights and equality and has published articles on the same topics.
Co-founder of the Alliance for Parity Democracy and the Network of Women Mayors, Ana Coucello has been a militant of the Socialist Party since 1986, where she was a member of the National Commission and a member of the Executive of the National Department responsible for women’s rights. She was also a member of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly (1989-1993) elected by the Socialist Party.
As a retired civil servant, she worked in the services responsible for the coordination of European Affairs (1978-2012). She was also responsible for the Lisbon Office of the Portuguese Socialist Delegation to the European Parliament (1992-1994), Assistant to the Office of the Secretary of State for Foreign Trade (1983-1985) and Assistant to the Prime Minister’s Office (1974-1975). She was also a member of the first Equality Working Group (2009-2012) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
