Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia (29 July 1942 - ) is a Spanish politician, of Romani ethnic origin. He is a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...

. In 1986-1999 he was a Member of the European Parliament

Member of the European Parliament

A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...

. He was born in Puerto Real

Puerto Real

Puerto Real is a seaport in southern Spain, in the province of Cádiz and the autonomous region of Andalusia. , it had a population 40,667....

, Cádiz

Cádiz

Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....

.

By profession he is a lawyer and is a graduate in Information Science from the Autonomous University of Barcelona

Autonomous University of Barcelona

The Autonomous University of Barcelona is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain....

, a Doctor in Information Sciences and Master of General Basic Education (EGB). He was Director of the School of Vocational Rehabilitation, "San Juan Bosco" for the physically handicapped in Barcelona between 1970 and 1990.

A member of the Spanish Romani community, he has been involved in highlighting and defending the rights of Romani people. In recognition of this work, in February 2008 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate

Honorary degree

An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...

 by the University of Cadiz

University of Cádiz

The University of Cádiz , commonly referred to as UCA, is a public university located in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain, noted for its medicine and marine sciences curricula. It was founded in 1979, and has the Latin motto Non Plus Ultra...

, the first Rom to receive this distinction in the world.