Event Description
Join PILPG on June 27 from 12 pm to 1 pm ET for a conversation with experts regarding the Office of the Prosecutor’s recently released Policy on the Crime of Gender Persecution. In this conversation, we will discuss the deprivation of fundamental rights as one of the elements of gender persecution through a comparative perspective - focusing on Afghanistan and Colombia.
The Rome Statute refers to “persecution” as severe deprivation of fundamental rights of the identity of a group. This deprivation has to be intentional and contrary to international law. During this roundtable, the panelists will discuss what constitutes a severe deprivation of a fundamental right and how such crimes highlight the longstanding structural discrimination women, girls, and LGBTQI+ persons experience.
The panelists will include Special Adviser on Gender Persecution to the ICC Prosecutor Professor Lisa Davis; UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan Richard Bennett; Ana Elena Abello Jiménez, Specialized Professional at Special Jurisdiction of Peace (JEP) Colombia; and Emily Kenney, Policy Specialist, Rule of Law and Transitional Justice at UN Women.
This will be the second event of the series on the Policy on the Crime of Gender Persecution. The first event was held on May 26, 2023 titled Dusting off the Law Books on Gender Persecution: Why a Policy on the Crime against Humanity of Gender Persecution?
The event will be moderated by PILPG Managing Director Milena Sterio.
This is part of the PILPG Thought Leadership Initiative. The Initiative focuses on prominent international law and international affairs topics and organizes monthly expert roundtables to share expertise and reflections from our work on peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and war crimes prosecution.
Speakers
Professor Lisa Davis
Prof. Lisa Davis is an Associate Professor of Law and Co- Director of the Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic (formerly named International Women’s Human Rights Clinic). Prof. Davis has written and reported extensively on international human rights and gender issues including women’s rights and LGBTQI+ rights, with a focus on peace building and security issues in conflict and disaster settings. Professor Davis has provided expert remarks before the UN Security Council, U.S. Congress, U.K. Parliament, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and various international human rights bodies and is also a member of the JRR-UN Women SGBV Justice Experts Roster.In the case of Karen Atala and Daughters v. Chile, Prof. Davis co-authored the only amicus curiae brief to argue that sexual orientation and gender identity are protected classes under international law. In 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a ground- breaking decision, providing for an explicit prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In 2010, Prof. Davis served as lead counsel for the Inter- American Commission petition on behalf of displaced Haitian women and girls, which resulted in the Commission’s first-ever precautionary measures decision recognising State responsibility to prevent third-party gender-based violence. Prof. Davis was subsequently awarded the 2011 People’s Choice Gavel Award by their peers for the decision.
Ana Elena Abello Jiménez
Ana Elena Abello Jiménez is a Colombian Lawyer, who has been working as legal officer at the Chamber for Recognition of Truth, Responsibility and Determination of Facts and Conducts of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace for 5 years. Ana Elena has also worked as Legal Advisor of the Deputy General Prosecutor, as Prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Direction, as Legal Officer at the Constitutional Court of Colombia, as lawyer at a Criminal Law firm representing victims and defense. She also did an internship at the Legal Advisory Section of the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. Her studies are Specialization on Criminal Law and Criminology, Specialization on Tort Law and Damages, both at Externado University; LLM in International Law of Human Rights and Criminal Justice at Utrecht University; and MA in Peacebuilding at Los Andes University.
Emily Kenney
Emily Kenney is a Policy Specialist, Rule of Law and Transitional Justice at UN Women. Ms. Kenny has held a number of positions at UN Women, including Policy Analyst, Peace and Security, and Researcher, Global Study on UN Security Council Res. 1325. Ms. Kenney has also worked with the International Center for Transitional Justice and the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the Investigation Division, Gender & Children Unit.
Ms. Kenney has authored an article on "Developing a Gender Methodology for U.N. Commissions of Inquiry" and co-authored handbooks "The United Nations and Transitional Justice: Research Handbook on Transitional Justice" and "Global Study: Looking Forward: Oxford Handbook on Women, Peace and Security”.
Ms. Kenney has a JD from the New York University School of Law. M.Phil. in Justice and Transformation Studies from the University of Cape Town, and B.A. in International Relations with a focus on German Studies from Tufts University.
Mr. Richard Bennet
Mr. Richard Bennet is the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan. He was appointed to this role on April 1, 2022, and officially assumed duties on 1 May 2022.
A dual citizen of New Zealand and the United Kingdom , Mr. Bennett graduated from the University of Auckland with M.A. (1st Class Hons) in 1988. He worked at NZ’s Ministry of Justice and the NZ Human Rights Commission before joining the United Nations in 2000.
- Mr. Bennett has previously served in Afghanistan in different capacities including as the Chief of the Human Rights Service with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) from 2003 07 and in 2018 19 . He has been a long term adviser to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
- Mr. Bennett also served with the United Nations as the Representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and head of the human rights components of peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone, Timor Leste, and South Sudan.
- From 2007 to 2010, Mr. Bennett was the Representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal and head of OHCHR’s office there. He has also been Chief of Staff for the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka and Special Adviser to the Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights in New York.
- Mr. Bennett worked for Amnesty International from 2014 - 17 initially as its Asia Pacific Program Director and later as head of Amnesty’s United Nations Office in New York. From mid 2019, he worked as a consultant on UN human rights assignments in Afghanistan, Myanmar and New York.
Mr. Bennett is a visiting professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Lund, Sweden , which has commenced an Afghanistan programme
MODERATOR
Professor Milena Sterio
Milena Sterio is the Managing Director of PILPG and the Charles R. Emrick Jr. - Calfee Halter & Griswold Professor of Law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. She is a leading expert on international law, international criminal law and human rights. Sterio leads PILPG’s Thought Leadership Initiative.
Sterio is one of six permanent editors of the prestigious IntLawGrrls blog, and a frequent contributor to the blog focused on international law, policy and practice. In the spring of 2013, Sterio was selected as a Fulbright Scholar, spending the semester in Baku, Azerbaijan, at Baku State University. While in Baku, she had the opportunity to teach and conduct research on secession issues under international law related to the province of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh. Serving as a maritime piracy law expert, she has participated in meetings of the United Nations Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia as well as in the work of the United Nations Global Counterterrorism Forum. Sterio has also assisted piracy prosecutions in Mauritius, Kenya and the Seychelles Islands. Sterio is a graduate of Cornell Law School and the University of Paris I, and was an associate in the New York City firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton before joining the ranks of academia full time. She has published seven books and numerous law review articles. Her latest book, “The Syrian Conflict’s Impact on International Law,” (co-authored with Paul Williams and Michael Scharf) was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.