Dr. Persida Acosta
Chief Public Attorney, Public Attorney's Office, Philippines
DR. PERSIDA V. RUEDA-ACOSTA, DSD., Chief Public Attorney of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), Philippines (since February 23, 2001), 4th Placer, 1989 Philippine Bar Examinations, is a Doctor of Social Development graduate (GWA 1.20) from the University of the Philippines. Dr. Acosta completed the Senior Executive Fellows Program, Senior Executive Program on National and International Security;and Public Financial Management at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), U.S.A. She also acquired Professional Certificate in International Management and Leadership (International Centre for Parliamentary Studies, London), and Salzburg Global Seminar Fellowships (2023; 2009). Her expertise in legal aid has been recognized by international institutions, inter alia, UNICEF; UNODC; UNDP; USAID; IIJ-Malta, LAF-Taiwan; Nippon Foundation; Japan Legal Support Center; Legal Aid South Africa; China University of Political Science and Law; Legal Aid ACT (Australia); and School of Law, Bennett University (India) through their invitations to her as expert/resource person, and partner in advocacies.
Dr. Acosta, an active member of the International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA), served as Speaker during its Annual General Meetings and Conferences in Thailand (2007); Czech Republic (2008); Singapore (2011); Mexico City (2012); Melbourne, Australia (2015); Argentina (2019), and Singapore (2024); 1st Corrections Technology Conference (Adelaide, Australia, 2023); and the recent two Thailand ICPA Conferences. As a passionate prison reforms advocate, she was granted a 2013 scholarship entitled as New Approaches to Prison Management and Rehabilitation in Israel. Such passion is reflected in her Dissertation, “Examining Deaths Behind Bars: Towards Penal System Policy Reforms in the Context of Human Rights” (June 2015).
