 She lived in exile in Montreal for a period and joined the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights.At the return of democracy in 1983, she was appointed to head the depositions department of the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP).Although Fernández Meijide was approached by several parties after her high-profile work, it was not until the creation of the centre-left Broad Front that she started a political career, having seen the passing into law of the controversial 'Pardon Laws' (the "Ley de Obediencia Debida" and the "Ley de Punto Final") that effectively ended further prosecution for those responsible for human rights abuses during the National Reorganization Process dictatorship (1976–83).