Marco Antonio Huaco Palomino received a Law Degree from San Marcos University with the defense of the Thesis "The Religious Freedom like Principle and Right in the Peruvian Legal Order. Comparative analysis and perspectives", a four years research that was approved by the jury with the highest qualification (18/20) and recommendation of official publication(*).
That Thesis was partially published as a book by the Editorial Fund of the University of San Marcos and awarded with the prestigious "Prize François Bourricaud to the Investigator in Human and Social Sciences (2007) organized by the Embassy of France in Peru, the National Assembly of Presidents of Universities and the National Council of Science and Technology and supported by franc-Peruvian and French academic institutions; prize which awards the best university thesis of pre-degree or postgraduate at a national basis.
In April 2010 Marco Huaco defended his Thesis "Laicity or pluriconfesionality?: Public politics of management of Religious Pluralism. Compared analysis" (approved unanimously with mark 16/20) obtaining the LL.M. in Social Sciences of Religion by the Social Sciences Faculty at the National University of San Marcos.
Likewise in July of that year he finished the LL.M. on Human Rights with speciality in "European Protection of Human Rights" at the Institute of High European Studies (IHEE) of the University of Strasbourg with the dissertation “The indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination and the State’s concessional power over natural resources: an Overview” which was approved by the Jury with mark 18/20.
His interest in human Rights are rooted in his activism as university leader throughout the convulsed decade of ‘90s when he led –as President of the coalition of Student Associations of San Marcos University and the General Secretariat of the Federal Center of the Faculty of Law- the student opposition to the militarization of the campus, the political and ideological face to face struggle against the subversive terrorism as well as the democratic resistance to the rising fuji-montesinista dictatorship which provoked political persecution to him and serious personal reprisals.
By the end of his university studies, he retourned to his Christian roots leaving his Marxist ideological filiation and he became member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, of course without resigning to his interest in public and social affaires. Due to this peculiar personal trajectory, he is especially interested in assuring the exercise of the liberties of thought, of conscience and of religion within the context of a democratic separation between Church and State.
Convinced of the critical rol that corresponds to a jurist over public affaires beyond comfortable politically correct positions, Huaco has published several books (read the last one), divers articles of opinion and investigations in which raises a secular perspective on the controverted matters of the sexual and reproductive rights, of the religious freedom and the relations between religious groups and the State, presenting (based on his quality of citizen) a proposal on the Secular State published in the web page of the Congress of the Republic during the constitutional debate of year 2002. That has attracted some attacks of fundamentalist and sectarian groups opposed to the establishment of a model of nondiscriminatory Secular State.
He is President Founder of the Institute Pro Religious Freedom and Public Affaires (PROLIBRE), member of Lawyers`Bar of Lima and of the Interdisciplinary Seminary of Studies of Religion (SIER) at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.
As attorney, he has been legal adviser of ADRA Peru - Adventist Agency of Development (2000-2007), professor in the adventist University Peruvian Union (2008) and he has advised diverse cases of human rights in which the religious freedom and equality of their fellow citizens have been questioned. He has participated in diverse events of interreligious dialogue representing the Adventist Church and gives lectures about the principle of Separation between Church and State in its entailment with religious liberty, freedom of conscience and subjects related to religious bioethics and sexual and reproductive rights, having participated as consultant of political incidence about these subjects before the Constitutional Assemblies of Bolivia and Ecuador.
Also, he has been legal advisor in the Workgroup Racimos de Ungurahui (2008-2009), institution dedicated to the defense and promotion of the human rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian Amazonia and to the legal support of the fight of these peoples in defense of their lives and their culture threatened by the destruction of its territories by extractive industries.
He did research internship at the International Institute of Human Rights of Strasbourg also known as the "René Cassin Institut" (France). Today, Huaco give juridical support to the indigenous people Awajun (Amazonian people of Peru) regarding their petitions and communications before the United Nations system and he stays in that city developing postgraduate and specialization studies.