Stella Kyriakides was born in Cyprus and studied psychology at Reading University.
She specialised in working with children and adolescents victims of sexual and other forms of abuse, cancer and autism.
In 1996, Stella was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time. This led her setting up the first Breast Cancer Awareness Group in Cyprus and later becoming President of the European Breast Cancer Coalition, Europa Donna.
In 2006, she was elected in the Cyprus Parliament becoming Chair of the Human Rights Committee and vice-Chair of the Health Committee. Her parliamentary role enabled her to bring forward legislation to support human rights issues.
She was appointed as Head of the Cyprus Parliamentary Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in 2012. Her commitment to children’s rights as PACE General Rapporteur for the Rights of Children enabled Cyprus’s ratification of the Lanzarote Convention in 2014.
Passionate in defending Democracy, the Rule of law and Human Rights, she represented the PACE at the Venice Commission, and she was the Chairperson at the Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development. Stella organised the first annual breast cancer awareness event at the PACE.
She was recently awarded with an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science for her handling of the Covid-19 Pandemic as EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, position she has held since December 1, 2019.
Stella’s most emotional moment was when she was elected as the 4th woman and the 30th President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2017.
Stella Kyriakides, the current European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety was the 4th woman elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2017. She expresses her pride in having led the organisation at a critical time and recalls that its principles, human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, need to be protected, upheld, and nurtured.
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.
