Mariko Peters

Mariko Peters (1969, Berkeley, United States) is a Dutch politician and member of the Tweede Kamer for the GreenLeft.

Peters, who has a Dutch father and Japanese mother, studied Law at the University of Leiden until 1995, resulting in Dutch LLM degree. During her studies she worked as an assistant at the research institute "Law and Policy." Between 1990 and 1992 she studied Japanese Literature and Law at the University of Kyoto and the International Christian University. In 1996 she obtained a LL.M. degree at the Columbia University School of Law.

Between 1996 and 2000 she worked as a lawyer at the office De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. In 2000 she gave up a successful career in law to turn to human rights. In 2000 she took courses in European competition law at the Grotius Academie. She the took a job as a human rights-lawyer at he OSCE-mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2002 she began to work for the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs as policy advisor. In 2004 she became adjudant chef de poste at the Dutch embassy in Afghanistan. Since 2006 she worked as an advisor for the Afghan minister of Foreign Affairs, as representative of the Dutch government.

In September 2006, she unexpectedly became fourth candidate on the GreenLeft list for the 2006 elections. She had been member of the party since 2001. She was asked to put forth her candidacy by Farah Karimi, former Foreign Affairs spokesperson of the GreenLeft, when Karimi visited Afghanistan.

Peters has been involved in process of democratization and development as a human rights lawyer and a diplomat. She has fostered an image of the cosmopolitan candidate, oriented at international development, human rights and peaceful cooperation. She wants the Netherlands to break loose from fear, self-obsession and harsher policies.

Mariko Peters