Human Rights Defenders
A Panel Discussion with Leading Female Advocates
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Every year, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meets at the UN Headquarters in New York, joined by government and civil society representatives from around the world. On this occasion, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) will be hosting a major human rights gathering - an official parallel event to the global UN meeting.
In partnership with local and international NGOs - including UN Watch and Human Rights Foundation - the RWCHR will be bringing together leading women human rights defenders from around the world to share their stories and shine a spotlight on the role of women in pursuing justice. This gathering will engage and empower participants to deepen civic commitment and to work together in common cause to improve the status of women and human rights at home and abroad.
Date:
March 20th, 2018
Time:
10:30 a.m.
Location:
Church Center for the United Nations
777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017
Room:
Second Floor
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Wai Wai Nu
Wai Wai Nu is a democracy, human rights, and women’s rights advocate from Myanmar. Deeply moved by the escalating violence in her country, Wai Wai Nu established the Women Peace Network in 2012 as a platform to build peace and mutual understanding between Myanmar’s different ethnicities and to advocate for the rights of marginalized women. Part of this work includes campaigning to reduce discrimination and hatred among Buddhist and Muslim communities and to improving the human rights situation of her people, the Rohingya.
Wai Wai Nu spent seven years as a political prisoner in Yangon’s Insein Prison. Following her release under a presidential amnesty, she graduated from the law degree she had begun at the time she was arrested, and has since dedicated herself to working for democracy and human rights. Wai Wai Nu is a key voice for Myanmar’s human rights and democracy movement, dedicated to ending the violence, oppression, and discrimination faced by the Rohingyan people. Wai Wai Nu has also founded two NGOs in Myanmar – Justice for Women and Women Peace Network - as well as the Yangon Youth Center which is dedicated to teaching young people leadership in social, politics and peace-building. Wai Wai Nu’s advocacy has led to her receiving numerous awards and accolades including being listed on BBC’s list of Top 100 Women in 2014 and being named one of the Next Generation Leaders in the World by Time Magazine in 2017
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Mahnaz Afkhami
Mahnaz Afkhami is founder and President of the Women's Learning Partnership (WLP); Executive Director of the Foundation for Iranian Studies; former Minister for Women’s Affairs in Iran; and Secretary General of the Women's Organization of Iran. Prior to the revolution in Iran, Afkhami taught English literature at the National University of Iran, where she founded and directed the Association of University Women. As Minister for Women’s Affairs, Afkhami played a key role in passage of Iran’s progressive family law of 1975, and establishment of the United Nation’s Asian and Pacific Centre for Women and Development (APCWD) and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW). Her publications include
Muslim Women and the Politics of Participation
,
Faith and Freedom: Women’s Human Rights in the Muslim World
;
In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Post-revolutionary Iran, and Women in Exile.
She has also co-authored several manuals on leadership and political participation that have been translated into twenty languages. Afkhami serves on the boards of the Freer/Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution, the Advisory Committee, Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, and the Foundation for Iranian Studies.
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Maria Corina Machado
Maria Corina currently represents the state of Miranda in the National Assembly of Venezuela. She leads the Democratic Opposition Coalition SOY Venezuela and heads the Vente Venezuela political party. She also ran as an independent presidential candidate in the opposition primaries held in February 2012. Previously, she co-founded and was chairman of
SUMATE
, Venezuela’s leading watchdog for electoral transparency and promoter of civil liberties and political rights. Under Maria Corina´s guidance, SUMATE´s network of volunteers grew to include more than 30,000 members from all over Venezuela. In 2004, using the right granted by the new Bolivarian Constitution to call for popular referendums, SUMATE successfully organized national petition-signing drives that reached more than a quarter of all registered voters in the country.
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Ketty Nivyabandi
Ketty Nivyabandi is a poet and writer from
Burundi. She is a c
elebrated human rights activist, particularly with respect to her leadership of the civil society opposition movement sparked by Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza's illegal bid for a third term in office. She led women's protests and demonstrations in the capital of Bujumbura - some of which were brutally suppressed - and she also led a campaign for democracy and human rights in the face of an attempted military coup.
As an activist and human rights defender, Ketty Nivyabandi brings her passion for social justice and firsthand knowledge of grassroots women organizing to her advocacy work. Her leadership in mobilizing women in protest against her country’s government led her to flee from persecution to Canada. As a refugee, Ketty continues to be a voice for peace and rule of law in her homeland of Burundi, and regularly speaks on human rights, refugee issues, and the intimate effects of conflict on women’s lives globally. She now works at the Nobel Women’s Initiative, with a particular focus on broadening the mainstream media’s lens to tell the feminist story and amplify the powerful voices of women peacemakers around the world.
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Moderator: Irwin Cotler
Irwin Cotler is the Chairman of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, an Emeritus Professor of Law at McGill University, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, longtime Member of Parliament, an international human rights lawyer, and counsel to prisoners of conscience.
As a Parliamentarian, he was the first male Member of the Women's Caucus, and championed gender equality initiatives in Canada and across the globe. As Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Irwin Cotler initiated the first-ever comprehensive reform of the Supreme Court appointment process and helped make it the most gender-representative Supreme Court in the world; initiated the first-ever law on human trafficking; crafted the
Civil Marriage Act
, the first-ever legislation to grant marriage equality to gays and lesbians; issued Canada’s first National Justice Initiative Against Racism and Hate, and made the pursuit of international justice a government priority. He was elected 2014 Canadian Parliamentarian of the Year by his colleagues, and recently received the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Inaugural Human Rights Award. In its citation, the Law Society recognized “The Honourable Irwin Cotler’s tireless efforts to ensure peace and justice for all. In his varied roles... Mr. Cotler has been a leader and role model. Through his advocacy work both in Canada and internationally, he has transformed the lives of many”.
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