Research Report: International Violence Against Women 2011

Ms Asiimwe is a female lawyer with over 12 years experience on a range of legal, governance and regional integration issues. She holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree and a Masters in International Business Law from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. She has also undertaken specialist training in human rights, transformation leadership, women’s rights, management, and finance. She has studied reforms in other countries including South Africa and the Netherlands which she has used to support reforms in Uganda including leading the teams that devised the strategy for establishing the Anti Corruption Court and the Justice Centers in Uganda. She is the Executive Director of AVID Development, a consulting organization focused on supporting reform and growth in the Africa region. Ms. Asiimwe has closely worked with Governments, CSOs and development partners to establish capacity strengths and gaps of key institutions and has advised and evaluated institutions across the entire justice and governance sectors, including in the humanitarian and conflict context of Uganda, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Sri Lanka. Her strengths are in Policy analysis, programme design, institutional strengthening, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation. She is currently working directly with the Ministry of East African Community Affairs in Uganda, leading a team of advisors to support the institutional strengthening of the Ministry to enable it effectively steer Uganda’s regional integration agenda. Previously, Ms. Asiimwe worked with the International Human Rights Network East Africa which she co-founded. IHRN EA sought to support others (including government, CSOs, donors, international agencies like the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) in implementing human rights based approaches (HRBAs) through training, mentoring, and provision of expert advice. She worked on training judicial officers including judges and magistrates; justice, health and education sector officials on human rights based approaches to development. She has a strong character and a proven track record in fighting for the rights of women, children and other vulnerable persons including prisoners and was formerly a DFID Justice Advisor as part of its ‘Safety, Security and Access to Justice’ Programme worldwide, following an international selection process. She sits on a number of boards and organizations that seek to fight for the rights of vulnerable groups and was until July 2010 the Chairperson of FIDA-U, (the Association of Women Lawyers in Uganda) a leading legal aid service provider for women and children. She also sits on the Board of Trustees of FEMNET – a leading women’s rights organization in Africa and engages in numerous advocacy and policy fora at the national, regional and international levels. She has initiated and led a number of campaigns aimed at promoting women’s rights for instance last year’s “light a candle” match in memory of victims of domestic violence which spurred the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act in Uganda.

Megan Bastick works principally on DCAF's gender and security projects. She has been involved in DCAF's awareness-raising work concerning violence against women, and research on human trafficking and sexual violence in armed conflict. Megan was co-editor of the Gender and SSR Toolkit and Gender and SSR Training Resource Package. Megan joined DCAF after working in Geneva with the Quaker United Nations Office’s Human Rights and Refugees Programme, where she worked on issues concerning women in prison. Previously, Megan worked in Australia as a lawyer, and as an International Humanitarian Law Officer with the Australian Red Cross. Megan holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales (Australia) and a Masters in International Law from the University of Cambridge. Her Masters research focused on the role of judicial processes in ending armed conflict.

40 years of professional experience, of which around 20 years regional and international experience (IPPF, UNFPA, CAWTAR) in the fields of Gender, Gender based-Violence and Human Rights, in almost all countries of the Arab states, Africa regions and beyond. She is skilled in the design, planning/programming, monitoring & evaluation of national and regional plans and programmes, gender and human rights-based projects, in addition to evidence-based advocacy and policy dialogue. She contributed in the integration of Gender Based Violence in national agenda of many Arab Countries (e.g. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Bahrain, Qatar...)

Cynthia Grant Bowman is the Dorothea S. Clarke Professor of Feminist Jurisprudence at Cornell Law School. She has published widely in diverse areas having to do with law and women, such as women in the legal profession, sexual harassment, and legal remedies for adult survivors of childhood sex abuse and is co-author of Feminist Jurisprudence: Taking Women Seriously (3d ed. 2006). Professor Bowman has extensive experience teaching, consulting, and doing research about women and law in Africa and is the co-author, with Akua Kuenyehia, of Women and Law in Sub-Saharan Africa (2003). She has also published and spoken widely about domestic and sexual violence in the African context.

Charlotte Bunch, Charlotte Bunch, Founding Director and Senior Scholar of the Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University, has been an activist, writer and organizer in the feminist and human rights movements for over four decades. A Distinguished Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies, Bunch was previously a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in DC and a founder of Quest: A Feminist Quarterly. She has served on the Board of Directors of many organizations and is currently on the Board of the Global Fund for Women and the Advisory Committee for the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. She has edited nine anthologies and authored Passionate Politics: Feminist Theory in Action and Demanding Accountability: The Global Campaign and Vienna Tribunal for Women's Human Rights as well as numerous essays. Bunch has been central to feminist organizing around the UN World Conferences on Women (1980-95) and to numerous civil society efforts at the UN, including the Advisory Committee for the Secretary General’s 2006 Report to the General Assembly on Violence Against Women, and a leaders in the GEAR (Gender Equality Architecture Reform) campaign for a new UN Women agency. Her contributions to women's human rights are recognized by many including the National Women's Hall of Fame, the White House Eleanor Roosevelt Award, and the “1000 Women Peace Makers” nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Liz is a health specialist with over 12 years research, public policy and project management experience. She has worked for the Department's of Health in Western Australia and South Africa, has worked as a researcher at the Center for Health Policy, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; and was Senior Programme Manager for AMREF South Africa. Liz has a Post-graduate Degree in Psychology from Curtin University in Australia and a Masters in Science (Medicine) from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is currently the SVRI Programme Officer. The SVRI aims to promote research on sexual violence and generate empirical data that ensures sexual violence is recognised as a priority public health problem.

Alessandra Guedes (MA and MSc) is the Regional Advisor on Intra-Family Violence at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). She has worked in the public health field for the past seventeen years, always involved in cutting edge reproductive health issues, including adolescent reproductive health, safe abortion, gender-based violence and emergency contraception. She has worked in many different capacities -- providing direct services to both victims and perpetrators of violence, implementing and managing a UN-funded adolescent SRH program in Brazil, researching Brazilian abortion policy and managing a gender-based violence initiative in four Latin American countries. During the last 12 years she has worked intensively in the area of gender violence having collaborated with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR), WHO, UN Women/Unifem, USAID, Oxfam, Jhpiego and Path, amongst others. She holds an MSc degree in Public Health for Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an MA degree in Art Therapy from the George Washington University. She was vice-president of the board of Promundo for several years (Brazil) and currently sits on the Coordinating Group of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (South Africa).

Prior to joining the Brooklyn College faculty, Janet Elise Johnson was a postdoctoral fellow at the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at Miami University in Ohio. She teaches courses on Russia and other postcommunist societies, European politics and gender politics and policy as well as introduction to global politics. She is a co-coordinator of the monthly workshop on Gender and Transformation: Europe at the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies of New York University (for more information, see http://gendertransformationeurope.wordpress.com/). Johnson's research examines gender, violence, trafficking in women and civil society, especially in Russia and other postcommunist societies. She also recently conducted research on gender and the economic crisis in Iceland.

Helen Liebling's clinical and research interests are in the areas of women and mental health, women who self-harm and working with both men and women who have survived a wide range of traumatic experiences including sexual; physical, emotional abuse and torture. She is particularly interested in qualitative and feminist methodologies, diversity issues and service user/carer initiatives. She has had longstanding links with Uganda. Her PhD research looked at women's experiences during civil war in Luwero District, Uganda. She also evaluated sustainable services for war-torture survivors there. The Phil Strong Research Prize enabled a research workshop to be held and key findings disseminated through the use of a local theatre group. She obtained an Applied Research Fellowship to continue this research work in Northern Uganda together with Isis-WICCE, a women's international NGO and Department of Psychiatry, Makerere University, Kampala. They held a workshop at the World YWCA International Women's Summit in Nairobi in 2007, which produced policy recommendations. Her clinical work is at St. Mary's Mental Health Resource Centre, Leamington Spa, working in adult mental health. Sje also offer an elective placement in Trauma.

Lizle Loots is a researcher at Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI). The SVRI aims to promote research on sexual violence and generate empirical data that ensures sexual violence is recognised as a priority public health problem. The SVRI does this by building an experienced and committed network of researchers, policy makers, activists and donors to ensure that the many aspects of sexual violence are addressed from the perspective of different disciplines and cultures. She studied at University of Pretoria/Universiteit van Pretoria.

Sara Lulo is the Executive Director of the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. Ms. Lulo has helped develop and direct various rule of law initiatives focused on gender-based violence, including judicial symposia and advocate training programs in Kenya and Liberia, as well as a public outreach and education campaign in Liberia, sponsored by Lawyers Without Borders. Prior to joining the Avon Global Center, Ms. Lulo worked in the New York and London offices of the international law firm White & Case LLP. In private practice, she specialized in international commercial arbitration and investor-state treaty arbitration; her pro bono practice included representing political asylum seekers and leading several international rule of law initiatives. She also served on secondment to the Ministry of Justice of Georgia in Tbilisi, Georgia. Ms. Lulo serves on the Board of Directors for the Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (SAIPAR) and the Advocacy Center of Tompkins County, where she also volunteers on the crisis hotline. Ms. Lulo received J.D. and LL.M. degrees from Cornell Law School, where she was an Article Editor for the Cornell Law Review. She also holds an M.A. in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from New York University and a B.A. from Cornell University.

Aino Saarinen , sociologist and political scientist, is a Senior Researcher at Aleksanteri Institute and an Adjunct Professor in Women's Studies and Sociology at Tampere University and Oulu University. She has led the Nordic-NW. Russian research and development network NCRB - A Network for Crisis Centres in the Barents Region in 1999-2005 and the Nordic project RWN - Russian Women as Immigrants in Norden: Finland, Norway and Sweden; Gender Perspectives on Everyday Life, Citizenship and Social Justice in 2004-2007. At present, she is the responsible leader of the WGA project. Saarinen has published on feminist theories, mobilization against gender violence and organizing in transnational settings, and on migration.

Aisling is a specialist in Gender Based Violence and Gender Equality issues as they relate to conflict-affected and development contexts.  She has spent over seven years working with civil society organizations and the United Nations in conflict affected communities in Kosovo, Burundi, Timor L’este and Darfur, Sudan.   Aisling holds an MSc. in Humanitarian Assistance and a B.A in Sociology and Information Studies, both from University College Dublin.  Aisling produced a study on ‘Gender Based Violence and Traditional Justice in Timor-Leste’ in 2003; has published ‘A Neglected Perspective: Adolescent Girls’ Experiences of the Kosovo Conflict of 1999’ and was the keynote speaker at the 2006 Amnesty International annual conference.  Aisling is currently a PhD Research Fellow with the Transitional Justice Institute and her research is looking at the dynamics of violence against women post-conflict and its impact on successful transition from conflict to peace.

John Tirman is the Executive Director and a Principal Research Scientist at MIT's Center for International Studies. Tirman is author, or coauthor and editor, of twelve books on international affairs, including, most recently, The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars (Oxford University Press, 2011). Earlier work includes The Fallacy of Star Wars (1984), the first important critique of strategic defense, and Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America's Arms Trade (1997). In addition, he has published more than 100 articles in periodicals such as the The Nation, Boston Globe, New York Times, Washington Post, Esquire, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Review. (For a list and archive of articles and CV, see www.johntirman.com.) Before coming to MIT in 2004, he was program director of the Social Science Research Council. From 1986 to 1999, Tirman was executive director of the Winston Foundation for World Peace, a leading funder of work to prevent nuclear war and promote non-violent resolution of conflict. In 1999-2000, Tirman was Fulbright Senior Scholar in Cyprus and produced an educational Web site on the conflict. He is a trustee of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, and chair of the International Civil Society Action Network.