GJC 2008 Events
Crafting Human Security in an Insecure World
San Diego, September 24th-26th 2008
Vice President Andrea Friedman speaks at an international working conference to probe and address global acquiescence to impunity, gender violence and exclusion that continues to obstruct peacebuilding and deny human security.
Snapshot: A Look at the B8 Global Justice for Burma Events
New York, San Francisco and Delhi: August 8, 2008
The Global Justice Center, alldaybuffet, Serene Communications, the International Burmese Monks Organization, the '88 Generation students (Exile), New Worlds, and the U.S. Campaign for Burma joined to create Global Justice for Burma. On August 8, 2008, this group launched a campaign for international political buy-in to bring Burma's General Than Shwe to justice at the ICC. This campaign kicked off with a series of coinciding "B8 Events," held in art galleries in major cities across the world.
New Laws, New Courts and New Opportunities: Advancing a Coordinated Legal Strategy for Women's Equality Rights
Tides Center, San Francisco. Tuesday, May 20th, 12 - 1pm
Globalization brings with it new opportunities to enforce international and constitutional equality guarantees for women both cross-nationally and in such global fora as the Security Council and International Criminal Courts. The historic opening of the International Criminal Court in the Hague in 2002 signals a paradigm shift in the global community's legal obligation to address those acts of genocide or other systematic grave crimes which are unaddressed or even perpetrated by states themselves. It is critical in this new stage of international law that the laws' enforcement and interpretation be shaped on gender equality as a basic premise...more.
52nd Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
February 25 - March 7, 2008
The 52nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women will be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York from 25 February to 7 March 2008. To see a list of events that the Global Justice Center is co-sponsoring, Click here.
GJC 2007 Events
Ending Impunity, Forging Accountability: Implementation of SC Resolution 1325 in Myanmar
New York, 26 October 2007
The panel's intention was to discuss the current situation in Burma and how the use of Resolution 1325 and international instruments such as the International Criminal Court, arms embargoes, and the establishment of an Arms Trade Treaty could influence the current situation, protect women, and prevent similar conflicts from occurring.
Ending Impunity, Forging Accountability: Implementation of SC Resolution 1325 in Myanmar
New York, 26 October 2007
The panel's intention was to discuss the current situation in Burma and how the use of Resolution 1325 and international instruments such as the International Criminal Court, arms embargoes, and the establishment of an Arms Trade Treaty could influence the current situation, protect women, and prevent similar conflicts from occurring.
UNSCR 1325, Strategies for Ways Forward
New York, 25 October 2007
Representatives from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan spoke about the current status of gender policymaking and challenges to women and security within the context of SCR 1325 in their respective countries.
UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security WorkShop
May - September 2007
Mandated by the OSCE Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality, ODIHR organized, in cooperation with UNIFEM CIS, the first regional UNSCR 1325 initiative in Central Asia (regional roundtable in Kazakhstan, September 2006). With the exception of Turkmenistan, all Central Asian countries were represented. Building on this initiative, ODIHR now plans to undertake a series of workshops in Central Asia for in-depth focus on national level implementation in the respective five countries.
Operation 1325 Seminar
June 12-15, 2007
The Swedish organization Operation 1325 invited GJC Managing Attorney Olivia Kraus to speak at a seminar entitled: "Bridge Building: A Platform for Dialogue," where she brought a unique perspective as a lawyer. This seminar was attended by eight delegates from women's organizations in Sudan, Israel and Palestine. Olivia spoke about how these women could use international law to improve women's rights and access to justice in their home countries.
Women's Rights in Islam Program
May 23, 2007
This program presented three perspectives of the rights of women under Islamic law: classical legal rights and obligations, modern legal interpretations, and current professional and legal issues facing Muslim women in America and the Middle East.
CSIDs 8th Annual Conference
April 27, 2007
Olivia Kraus attended the conference and delivered a paper entitled "Gender Equality and the Rule of Law: The Role of the Judiciary in Changing Discriminatory Norms - A Case Study with the Iraq High Tribunal" on a panel entitled " Islamic Feminisms: Rereading Texts and Tradition". Interestingly, the main topic of the day seemed to be the battle over the hijab. None of the other speakers discussed sexual violence, honor killings or Iraq.
Symposium on Gender-Relevant Legislative Change in Muslim and Non-Muslim Countries
March 30-31, 2007
GJC Counsel Olivia Kraus and Middle East Consultant Malaak Abdeljaber attended this symposium. While the organizers held the symposium out to be about women, legislation and Islam, the reality was far different. Almost none for the speakers spoke directly about legislative change, and when they did it was retrospective and not with an eye towards future change. None of the speakers mentioned international law or Tribunal, CEDAW was mentioned only once in passing and in general the larger perspective of human rights was ignored.
10th Annual Edith I. Spivack Award
March 26, 2007
The 10th annual Edith I. Spivack Award, given by the Women's Rights Committee of the New York County Lawyers' Association, was presented on March 26, 2007 to Janet Benshoof during a 6 p.m. ceremony at the organization's headquarters at 14 Vesey Street, followed by a reception.
51st Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
February 27 - March 9, 2007
In a panel discussion at Colombia University Law School on February 27th entitled "How War Crimes Tribunals are Advancing Women's Rights," the Global Justice Center's President and Founder, Janet Benshoof, discussed her personal experiences with organizing and executing a conference on international women's human rights with the judges on the Iraqi High Tribunal.
GJC 2006 Events
International Coordination for Gender Justice in Iraq (ICGJI) - London
November 22-24, 2006
From November 22 to November 24, Janet Benshoof spoke various times in London on the impact of judicial training on gender rights in Iraq. She provided an overview of the use of UNSCR 1325 and CEDAW as a tool for ensuring gender justice and also discussed her work with the Iraq High Tribunal. She spoke in the House of Commons, House of Lords, and during the launch event of ICGJI.
GJC Training with Iraqi Tribunal Judges
November 13-15, 2006
From November 13 to November 15, the Global Justice Center conducted a training on international law and gender crimes that was a "first" for the women leaders from Iraq and judges of the Iraq High Tribunal (IHT). This meeting generated frank and open discussions and was characterized both by the high level of debate and by an atmosphere of respect between men and women across ethnic and religious lines.
Post-Conflict Gender Justice Panel
October 28, 2006
As part of the American Branch of the International Law Association's International Law Weekend, this panel considered how women and gender crimes had been treated in states emerging from periods of protracted armed conflict and whether such states were meeting their legal obligations on women's rights.
6th Anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325
October 23, 2006
During October Advocacy Week the GJC hosted a panel on the legal enforcement of SCR 1325, detailing the challenges of its implementation. Speaking on the panel were Janet Benshoof of the Global Justice Center, Thin Thin Aung of the Women's League of Burma, and Basma Fakri of the Women's Alliance for a Democratic Iraq. Both Aung and Fakri explained the successes and shortcomings of the resolution in their respective countries and their perspectives on the advancement of women's rights in the future.
"Constitutional Drafting and Women's Political Participation in Burma" Brown Bag Lunch Discussion
October 5, 2006
Andrea Friedman, Vice President and Senior Counsel at Global Justice Center, spoke at a brown bag lunch discussion at Fordham Law School on "Constitutional Drafting and Women's Political Participation in Burma."
Association of the Bar of the City of New York Council Meeting
June 20, 2006
Janet Benshoof spoke at the June Council meeting for the Association of the Bar of the City of New York on "Exposing Hidden Torture: Iraqi Women, Gender Justice and the High Iraqi Tribunal (War Crimes Tribunal)." She discussed the importance of representing the human rights concerns of the Iraqi women before the War Crimes Tribunal, and the gender training advocacy training by WAFDI and Global Justice Center which took place in Baghdad in March 2006.