Mafalda de Sampaio Borges

Mafalda de Sampaio Borges served as legal counselor for the Secretary General for the Portuguese Republic Intelligence System between 2012 and 2024, and in 2005.

Sampaio Borges holds a pre-Bologna Degree in Law (5 years) – specialising in Civil Juridical Sciences (civil, criminal and commercial law) – from the Faculty of Law of Coimbra, the 5th year of which included a full semester at the Faculté de Droit et Sciences Sociales, in Poitiers (France) under the Erasmus programme. In 1989 she was granted the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) scholarship at Universitaet Konstanz (FRG). 

Sampaio Borges holds a postgraduate degree in Human Rights and Democratisation from the Ius Gentium Conimbrigae, from the Faculty of Law of Coimbra; in Information Warfare and Competitive Intelligence from the Academia Militar; as well as in National Defence Law and Public Contracting from the Faculty of Law of Lisbon. Auditor of the National Defence Course (2005), she also completed the Advanced Course in Security and Defence from the Institute of Political Studies, at Católica – Lisbon, and the Executive Course on Driving Governance Performance from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. 

Has participated in several conferences and seminars on her main topics of interest such as national security, fundamental rights, democracy, ethics of responsibility, intelligence and oversight, open files principle, national strategy, information warfare, data protection and privacy in the digital age. 

Previously,  she  also served as legal counselor to the Deputy Secretary of State for the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs (1990-1991), to the Deputy Secretary of State for the Minister of Internal Affairs (1991-1995) and to the Secretary of State for Internal Affairs (2001).

Has represented the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Counter Terrorism (COTER) meetings within the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) framework; in the Council of Europe Group of Experts on Terrorism (GMT); at the Legal Committee (6th Committee) of the UN General Assembly for the discussion of international conventions for the suppression of terrorism; and participated in the 9th UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, in Cairo. 

Between 2019 and 2022, Sampaio Borges participated in the international forum on data protection, intelligence and oversight promoted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy; and, in the years 2023-2024, in the meetings held by the Tech, Law & Security Program of the American University Washington College of Law,  the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law and the University of Texas – Austin.