Mercedes Sandoval de Hempel


Mercedes Sandoval de Hempel was a Paraguayan lawyer and feminist. She was one of the leading proponents of women's suffrage in the country, drafting the Anteproyecto de Ley de Reforma Parcial del Código Civil. In 1992, the amendment of the Paraguayan Civil Code finally recognized equality between men and women. The wording of Article 1 of Law 704/61 was simple: “Reconócese a la mujer los mismos derechos y obligaciones políticos que al hombre.”

Career

A graduate from the Faculty of Law at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción, she specialized in labor and civil law and then in family law, women and minors.
Sandoval founded the Paraguayan League for the Rights of Women and the Paraguayan Association of University Graduates, serving as chair of both organizations. She also created the Asociación de Mujeres Profesionales y de Negocios, the Consejo Nacional de Mujeres del Paraguay and the Coordinación de Mujeres del Paraguay, and was adviser to the Paraguayan Committee for Cooperation with the Inter-American Commission of Women, among other feminist institutions. CLADEM Paraguay nominated Sandoval as a candidate for the "1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005" as a part of the PeaceWomen Across the Globe initiative.
Sandoval was married, but the couple separated after eighteen years. They had one child, Anna Mercedes Hempel Sandoval, who became a teacher. Sandoval suffered a stroke and used a wheelchair before her death in Asunción in 2005.

Honors

Selected works

Anteproyecto de Ley de Reforma Parcial del Código Civil
  • ''El derecho de la familia en el Paraguay: estudio realizado en el Centro Paraguayo de Estudios de Población para el Grupo Parlamentario Interamericano sobre Población y Desarrollo''