Events

https://youtu.be/mt-AiY_JWMo?si=9R1TMXeugJGd5gC9

On November 22, states decided to move to negotiations for a Crimes Against Humanity Treaty. This panel, co-sponsored by the UK Government, Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, Global Justice Center, Washington University School of Law, Physicians for Human Rights, Emergent Justice Collective, TRIAL, FIDH, Asia Justice Collective, and The Promise Institute at UCLA, brought together experts to discuss advancing gender justice within the treaty, including:

Incorporating gender apartheid, reproductive violence, forced marriage, and slave trade. Integrating provisions to ensure the treaty is survivor centric. The process to date and considerations for the way forward.

Speakers:

Process & Forced Marriage: Leila Sadat, Washington University School of Law.  Gender Apartheid: Akila Radhakrishnan, Atlantic Council, Strategic Litigation Project. Slave Trade: Alexandra Lily Kather, Emergent Justice Collective. Reproductive Violence and Gender Audit: Ashita Alag, Global Justice Center. A Victims-Centered Approach: Uliana Poltavets, Physicians for Human Rights. Reflections on the Way Ahead: Hannah Garry, The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA

Moderated by Alix Vuillemin, Executive Director, Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice.Opening remarks by Ms Hazel Cameron, Head of Human Rights Department – UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

This workshop provided members of civil society attending the Assembly of States Parties with an overview of the Draft Articles and the ongoing process and a forum to strategize on ways forward for civil society engagement and coordination. The workshop aimed to broaden the community of civil society actors who are equipped to engage with treaty negotiations, with the ultimate aim of creating a broad constituency pushing for the adoption of a robust treaty to prevent and punish crimes against humanity.

This event was co-sponsored by the Atlantic Council Strategic Litigation Project; Crimes against Humanity Initiative, Harris Institute, Washington University Law School; Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University; Emergent Justice Collective; Asia Justice Coalition; Human Rights Watch; Global Justice Center; Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice; International Commission of Jurists; International Union for Conservation of Nature, World Commission on Environmental Law; Promise Institute for Human Rights; Citizens for Global Solutions; and Amnesty International.

Since August 2021, the de facto Taliban rulers of Afghanistan have introduced and
implemented over 100 edicts depriving women and girls of their fundamental human rights. Adherence to these laws is violently enforced against women, girls, and anyone who they perceive to transgress gender norms, including LGBTQI+ individuals, and constitutes crimes against humanity, including gender persecution and gender apartheid.

This panel will examine the current humanitarian and human rights crisis in Afghanistan resulting in systematic erasure of these groups from public life. It will consider strategies that the international community must take as a matter of urgency for ensuring accountability for these crimes.

GJC Executive Director Elise Keppler & GJC Senior Legal Advisor Michelle Onello with May Sabe Phyu of Gender Equality Network Myanmar

This public event highlighted findings from the Special Rapporteur’s July 2024 conference room paper, “Courage during Crisis: Gendered Impacts of the Coup and the Pursuit of Gender Equality in Myanmar.” The report details the devastating and widespread impacts on women, girls and LGBT people of the political, economic and humanitarian crisis precipitated by the February 2021 military coup. The event will provide a platform for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges faced by women, girls and LGBT individuals in Myanmar as a result of the military coup, and the vital role of women and LGBT activists in the revolutionary movement.

Opening Remarks

Tom Andrews, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar

Ambassador Andreas Løvold, Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nations

Panel

Elise Keppler, Global Justice Center - Moderator

Representative from Women Advocacy Coalition-Myanmar

Representative from Women's League of Burma

Representative from Refugee Women for Peace and Justice

This side event on the draft crimes against humanity treaty was held in Banjul, The Gambia during the 81st African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

This event launches a new report by the Global Justice Center and UN Women, which analyzes progress, challenges, and opportunities for the documentation of reproductive violence. Through interviews and consultations with gender advisors and SGBV experts, the research identifies barriers and facilitating factors to the documentation by UN investigative mechanisms of this form of violence. The report also analyzes the international law applicable to reproductive violence to illustrate how it can be documented more effectively

An event that examined U.S. abortion restrictions in contrast to global trends toward greater abortion protections. Panelists will look to other countries as well as international human rights norms for clarity – and discuss how to bring international standards to bear in the fight for abortion rights at home.

This online event invites the international community to come together ahead of its 57th Session of the UH Human Rights Council to pave an effective way forward to address the ongoing human rights crisis in Afghanistan.