Manuela Carmena Castrillo is a retired magistrate with more than thirty years of judicial experience in Spain, an internationally recognised human rights advocate, and former Mayor of Madrid. She holds a Licentiate in Law from the University of Madrid, where she completed her studies between 1960 and 1965.

Ms. Carmena Castrillo, a Spanish national, began her legal career in 1965 as a founding member of the collective law firm "Abogados de Atocha" in Madrid, specialising in labour law and criminal defence during the final years of the Franco regime. The firm became a landmark institution in Spain's democratic transition, and Ms. Carmena Castrillo herself survived a far-right assassination attempt on the Atocha office in 1977. She entered the judicial career in 1980, going on to serve in courts across Spain before being promoted to magistrate in 1983. Between 1989 and 1993, she served as Judge of Penitentiary Surveillance in Madrid, and from 1993 to 1996 as Dean of the Madrid Courts, overseeing the organisation and coordination of more than one hundred individual courts. She subsequently served as a member of the General Council of the Judiciary, appointed by Parliament, where she led the Department of Organisation and Management of the Judicial Office. She retired voluntarily from the judiciary in December 2010 after serving as President of Criminal Section 17 of the Audiencia Provincial of Madrid.

At the international level, Ms. Carmena Castrillo served as a member of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) from 2003 to 2009, including as its President from 2008 to 2009. She has undertaken numerous international missions in the fields of judicial reform, court management and penitentiary administration across Latin America and Africa, including in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Honduras and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

From 2011 to 2013, she served as Special Adviser on Human Rights to the Basque Government, contributing to measures of recognition and reparation for victims of politically motivated violence. Between 2015 and 2019, she served as Mayor of Madrid. She is also an Associate Professor at the University of Madrid and the founder of ZAPATELAS, a social enterprise producing artisanal toys and children's clothing made by vulnerable groups and incarcerated persons.

Ms. Carmena Castrillo has received numerous distinctions, including the Human Rights Monitor Award from Human Rights Watch (1992) and the Manuel de Irujo Prize for the humanisation of justice from the Basque Government (2008).