After qualifying as a lawyer, Helga Pedersen joined the Ministry of Justice, where she was employed as a secretary for the prison service. She then worked for a while as a lawyer and assistant judge, before returning to the Ministry of Justice to take up the position of ministerial secretary. She held this position from 1940 to 1946, working under 6 different Ministers of Justice. From 1942 to 1946, she also served as Secretary to the Director of Public Prosecutions and assistant to the public prosecutor.
In 1945, Helga Pedersen went to study at Columbia University (New York, USA) and became interested in international co-operation and the position of women in society. From 1949 to 1950, she was Chair of the Danish Women’s National Council and a member of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Helga Pedersen was also a delegate at the UNESCO General Assembly, where she headed the Danish delegation from 1962 to 1974.
Elected to the Danish Parliament in 1953 for the Liberal Party, she served there until 1964. Within the party, she took on the role of spokesperson for legal issues.
From 1947 to 1948, Helga Pedersen worked as a deputy judge in the Eastern High Court. She then moved to Copenhagen Municipal Court where she served until 1956. She returned to the Eastern High Court and worked there until 1964, when she was appointed to the Supreme Court. In 1971, Helga Pedersen became the first woman judge to serve in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, a position she retained until her death in 1980.
The project “75 women in 75 years of Council of Europe history” is organised by the Delegation of the European Union to the Council of Europe with the Council of Europe and the Permanent Representations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
