Date of initial election to the judicial roster: 20 December 2011
Date of start of initial mandate as President of the Mechanism: 1 July 2022
Current term: 1 July 2024 – 30 June 2026
Judge Gatti Santana has been a Judge of the Mechanism since it commenced operations in July 2012, and President of the Mechanism since 1 July 2022.
As a Mechanism Judge, Judge Gatti Santana has been involved in a variety of matters, including as a Single Judge, a Judge of the Trial Chamber hearing the Kabuga case until 26 August 2022, and a member of the Appeals Chamber in the Karadžić case. In her capacity as Mechanism President, Judge Gatti Santana has presided over the Appeals Chamber in numerous matters, including the Štanišić and Simatović case. She also served as a judicial member of the Mechanism’s Rules Committee from 2016 until becoming an ex officio member of the Committee upon assuming her duties as Mechanism President.
Before becoming President of the Mechanism, Judge Gatti Santana worked within the Uruguayan judiciary for over 30 years, including as a Criminal Judge of the 7th Circuit Court (2006-2008), Judge for Organised Crime at the 1st Circuit Court (2008-2012) of the Court of First Instance of Montevideo, Appeals Judge to the Civil Court of the 4th Circuit Court (2012-2016), and Judge of the Court of Appeals in Criminal Matters (2016–2022).
In addition to her judicial duties, Judge Gatti Santana was the President of the Association of Magistrates of Uruguay (2021-2022). Previously, she participated in the work undertaken to implement the new Uruguayan Code of Criminal Procedure, both as Coordinator of the Coordinating Group of the Judiciary for the Implementation of the new Code, and as a representative of the judiciary within the specialised inter-institutional Commission established to oversee its implementation (2016-2017). At the international level, Judge Gatti Santana represented the Uruguayan judiciary before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights during its 174th session in 2019. Separately, Judge Gatti Santana has been a Professor at the Uruguayan judiciary school since 2012. She also taught at the University of the Republic of Uruguay (1992-1994, 2003-2009), the University of Montevideo (2017-2022) and the Universidad de la Empresa, Uruguay (2021-2022).
Judge Gatti Santana graduated as a Public Notary in 1987 and as a Lawyer in 1988 from the University of the Republic of Uruguay. She subsequently completed a postgraduate course in legal argumentation at the University of Alicante, Spain (2008) and obtained a master’s degree in constitutional law and human rights from the University of Montevideo, Uruguay (2018). In addition to her native Spanish, Judge Gatti Santana is fluent in both English and French.