CINTESIS Researcher Receives the Gold Medal Awarded by the Portuguese Parliament for His Initiative in the Area of Gender Equality

Rui Nunes, a CINTESIS researcher and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), will receive the Gold Medal Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, awarded by the Portuguese Parliament to the Portuguese Bioethics Association (APB), which he chairs.

The ceremony will take place in the Senate Room of the Assembly of the Republic, on December 16th, at 12h00. The Medal, to be awarded by the President of the Assembly of the Republic, distinguishes the initiative “Human Rights and Gender Equality”.

The decision was made unanimously by the jury, “in particular for the Portuguese proposal to UNESCO of the Universal Declaration of Gender Equality”.

“This distinction is especially relevant because it demonstrates that the studies carried out at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto in the area of gender equality today obtain the highest distinction that the Portuguese State could award to a project in the area of social sciences and humanities,” reacts Rui Nunes.

Considered “an initiative of great timeliness and scope in the promotion of gender equality as a fundamental human right,” the Universal Declaration of Gender Equality should become “a concrete tool in which values such as justice and non-discrimination are applied to gender equality in various areas.

Once approved, this Declaration “will join the domain of international declarations of human rights” and also “should contribute to a modern image of our country as a tolerant, just, and egalitarian society.”

According to Rui Nunes, the proposed declaration, of which he is the coordinator, is “the result of the hard work of a vast multidisciplinary team and has the ultimate and differentiating goal of bringing gender equality education to schools all over the planet.

“This is not just a declaration of principles, but an instrument that can make a difference on a global scale, given that the gender gap not only exists but has deepened during the pandemic,” stresses the FMUP professor.

Over the past five years, the proposed declaration has been under national and international public debate and will now be formally submitted to UNESCO.

Rui Nunes is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto and Chair of the Portuguese Bioethics Association, which he founded. He was the first doctoral candidate in Bioethics in the Portuguese-speaking world. He was the first Chair of the Health Regulatory Authority. He was also one of the founders of the Social Innovation Center of Porto and of the Democracy and Society Forum. He served as a member of the National Ethics Council for the Life Sciences. In 2016, he was appointed Head of the Research Department of the International Network of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics (Haifa). In 2017, he was elected a full member of the National Academy of Medicine of Portugal. In 2019, he received the title of Professor Honoris Causa from the University of Favaloro, in Buenos Aires (Argentina). He is, since 2020, an auditor of National Defense. He has many books published and contributes to the training of more specialists in Bioethics from around the world.