Victoria Capriles

Profile

Victoria Capriles is a Venezuelan feminist attorney and academic whose work focuses on migration, gender, and human trafficking. She is currently a visiting fellow at the T.M.C. Asser Institute, where her doctoral research examines the severe Venezuelan migratory and refugee crisis, an ongoing situation in which an estimated 30% of the nation’s population has left the country. This mass displacement represents the largest mobility crisis in Latin American history and one of the largest worldwide.

At Asser, Capriles contributes to the research strand In the Public Interest: Accountability of the State and the Prosecution of Crimes, engaging particularly with International Human Rights Law, International Migration Law, and public policy from a gender and human rights perspective. Her work aims to develop guidelines that the Venezuelan State can adopt to address the needs of its citizens and fulfill its obligations to provide protection.

With more than seven years as a university professor specializing in migration, refugee issues, and women’s rights, Capriles has an extensive publication record. She has authored and co-authored multiple peer-reviewed journal articles, opinion pieces, and book chapters, including a recent contribution to a Routledge-edited volume. She has also coordinated three books: one on the Venezuelan migration and refugee crisis, another on gender-based violence in Venezuela, and a third on access to justice and legal protection for vulnerable groups in the country.

Capriles has experience in strategic litigation and advocacy before both the Inter-American and Universal human rights systems. She practices law in Venezuela and has revalidated her legal studies in Mexico. Her academic background includes a law degree from Metropolitan University (UNIMET, Venezuela), an M.A. in Sociology of Law from the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Basque Country, Spain), and an M.A. in Political and Government Studies from UNIMET. She has pursued advanced studies in International Refugee Law through the University Seminar for Studies on Internal Displacement, Migration, Exile, and Repatriation (SUDIMER) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She is currently completing a PhD in Political Science at Simón Bolívar University (Venezuela).