Due Diligence Project

Home   About   Events   Survey  Partners   Resources   Contact 

 
 






















 

NEW     


 

23rd session of the Human Rights Council, Palais des Nations, Geneva

27 May to 14 June 2013

The Due Diligence Project will be presenting on the following panels in conjunction with the 23rd session of the Human Rights Council.


UN UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW (UPR) & VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN & GIRLS 

May 30, 20l3

9:30 am - 11:00 am

Palais des Nations - Room XXVI

Geneva, Switzerland


The UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review of UN Member States is an important mechanism/opportunity for NGO's to review gender components of individual country UPR Reports on human rights. The Final Reports of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group often contains gender-focused text that can be very useful in advocacy for the human rights of women and girls.

"The issue of violence against women was by far the most prominent of UPR Review recommendations made by countries on women's rights.......Within violence, the issue that received the most attention was Domestic Violence...which was followed by Female Genital Mutilation and Rape, and also Sexual Violence."

Distinguished Speakers:

- OHCHR - Chief of Women's Rights & Gender - Ms. Isha Dyfan 

- Due Diligence Project - Ms. Janine Moussa, Co-Director

  1. -Center for Women's Global Leadership - CWGL, Rutgers University - 

   Ms. Radhika Balakrishnan, Executive Director

  1. -Women's International League for Peace & Freedom - WILPF -

   Ms. María Muñoz Maraver 

  1. -WUNRN - Women's UN Report Network - Ms. Lois A. Herman,

   Coordinator - UPR Power Point


Moderator: Ms. Afton Beutler, President Worldwide Organization for Women – WOW


TRADITIONAL VALUES, CULTURE, RELIGION - WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS

May 30, 2013

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Palais des Nations – Room VIII

Geneva, Switzerland


Distinguished Speakers:


- Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN Geneva

- Permanent Mission of Burkina Faso to the UN Geneva

  1. -UN Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights - 

   Ms. Farida Shaheed (statement - tbc)

- Dr. Krishna Ahoojapatel - WILPF - Definition of Traditional Values

- Mr. Willy Fautre - Chair, Human Rights Without Frontiers International

  1. -Ms. Lois A. Herman - WUNRN-Women's UN Report Network 

   History, Intersections, UN Study   

- Due Diligence Project - Ms. Zarizana Abdul Aziz, Co-Director

- World YWCA


Moderator: Dr. Adebisi Adebayo - Inter-African Committee Geneva


VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN & THE HUMAN RIGHT TO PEACE

May 31, 20l3

3:00 pm - 5:00 p.m.

Palais des Nations - Room XXV

Geneva, Switzerland 


The goal of this Panel to define the serious and protracted violence against women dimensions in conflict, and the reason why women past, present, and future, want peace. The Panel will address the importance of the Human Right to Peace as a mechanism for advocacy for peace. The unique feature of a Human Right to Peace is that it would provide a UN document of substantive commitment of Member States to create a culture of peace, not react after the traumas of war and conflict. The Human Right to Peace would help protect the human rights defined in many important UN documents, as Security Council Resolution 1325, but so often lost or elusive before, during, and after conflict, especially for women and girls.


Distinguished Speakers:


  1. -Prof. Carlos Villán Durán, President of the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law - AEDIDH

  2. -Mr. Christian Guillermet, Deputy Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the UN & Chairperson of the Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group on a UN Draft Declaration on the Human Right to Peace - Invited

  3. -Ms. Janine Moussa, Due Diligence Project, Co-Director

  4. -Ms. Marie-Claude Julsaint, World YWCA Global Programme Manager Violence Against Women

  5. -Ms. Colette Samoya, Bangwe et Dialogue-Africa Great Lakes Women - Chair of NGO CSW Geneva Committee on the Human Right to Peace - Statement

  6. -Mr Jussi Ojala, Finn Church Aid, Senior Adviser on the Right to Peace

  7. -Ms. Lois A. Herman, Coordinator WUNRN - Women's UN Report Network (Power Point)


Moderator: Ms. Christina Papazoglou, Programme Executive for Human Rights, World Council of Churches



Violence Against Women - Legal Framework for Global Action & Accountability

June 3, 20l3

3:00-5:00 pm

Palais des Nations - Room VIII

Geneva, Switzerland


Distinguished Speakers:


- FOKUS Forum - Norway - Ms. Gro Lindstad, Director

- Due Diligence Project - Ms. Zarizana Abdul Aziz, Co-Director

- Oxfam - Ms. Daniela Rosche,Gender Policy Expert  

- World YWCA - Ms. Marie-Claude Julsaint, Global Programme Manager

  Violence Against Women

  1. -Ms. Barbara Spinelli, Italy Attorney Specialist on VAW & Femicide,

  UN Expert, International Association for Democratic Lawyers

  1. -Dr. Massouda Jalal - Afghanistan, Founding Chairperson

  Jalal  Foundation, Former Afghan Minister of Women - Statement

 

Moderator: WUNRN-Women's UN Report Network, Ms. Lois A. Herman, Coordinator


Caribbean Expert Consultative Meeting

7-8 May 2013, the Bahamas

The Due Diligence Project convened a Caribbean Expert Consultative Meeting. For more information, please click here.


Side  Event:  57th  session  of  the  Commission  on      the  Status  of  Women “Due Diligence from the Ground Up: State Compliance to End Violence against Women”

7 March 2013, New York, USA

In conjunction with the CSW, a panel was convened by the Due Diligence Project entitled, “Due Diligence from the Ground Up: State Compliance to End Violence against Women”. Panelists included Zarizana Abdul Aziz, co-Director of the Due Diligence Project, and distinguished guests Frances Raday, Vice Chair of the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women in Law and in Practice and Meryem Aslan, Chief of UN Trust Fund and Madhu Mehra, Executive Director of Partners for Law in Development, India. Among others the panel discussed the following questions: What is the due diligence principle? How do states comply? What have the Indian protests following the rape and killing of Jyothi Pandey got to do with due diligence and what can we learn from the ensuing response from the Verma Committee? How can civil society interact with states to end violence against women? The panel was hosted by the Governments of Germany and Malaysia and was held at German House in New York City on 7th March 2013.

Click here for full report

Click here for Frances

Raday’s presentation





Farida Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights