Juan Angel De Gouveia

Born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1981. Human rights advocate, with emphasis on people with disabilities. From 2001 to 2003, he was UNICEF Global Representative for Children with Disabilities. He was president of the World Federation of the Deaf, youth section, from 2007 to 2011. Subsequently, he was Vice President in charge of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (CONAPDIS), until 2013. In 2015, he won the “Teapot Diplomat” Award from the U.S. Department of State and in 2016 he was selected as a student of the month of September “International Visitor Leadership Program” Global Social Impact of the U.S. Department of State. Since 2017 he served as vice president of RIADIS (Latin American Network of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities and their Families). Since 2018 he has been accredited as an expert member on behalf of civil society before the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (CEDDIS) of the OAS. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the International Disability Alliance (IDA), a member of the board of directors of the World Federation of the Deaf, and serves as president of the Confederación Sordos de Venezuela and general director of the Vanessa Peretti Foundation. In December 2021, he was elected as President of RIADIS for the period 2021-2025.