WLD HISTORY
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    • The story of WLD
    • About Women, Law and Development
    • About the Website
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  • Beginnings
    • First Initiatives
    • Central America Legal Services
    • Nairobi Forum
  • Organizing
    • Early regional linkages
    • Asia
    • Latin America
    • Africa
    • Interregional connections
    • WLD International
  • Research
    • Clarifying issues and strategies
    • Participatory Research Project
      • Intro Freedom from V
      • Intro Legal Literacy
    • Step by Step
      • Step by Step Acknowledgements
  • Advocacy
    • Agenda setting with NGOs and UN bodies
    • Claiming Our Place
    • Support of the Special Rapporteur
    • Basic Needs Basic Rights
  • Capacity Building
    • Capacity Building
    • Human Rights Training
      • Central and Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union
      • Nigeria Human Rights Training
    • International Advocates Course
    • Russian Lawyers
  • Publications
  • Chronology
  • Reflections
  • Network Links
  • Website Map
  • Home
    • The story of WLD
    • About Women, Law and Development
    • About the Website
    • About the Author
  • Beginnings
    • First Initiatives
    • Central America Legal Services
    • Nairobi Forum
  • Organizing
    • Early regional linkages
    • Asia
    • Latin America
    • Africa
    • Interregional connections
    • WLD International
  • Research
    • Clarifying issues and strategies
    • Participatory Research Project
      • Intro Freedom from V
      • Intro Legal Literacy
    • Step by Step
      • Step by Step Acknowledgements
  • Advocacy
    • Agenda setting with NGOs and UN bodies
    • Claiming Our Place
    • Support of the Special Rapporteur
    • Basic Needs Basic Rights
  • Capacity Building
    • Capacity Building
    • Human Rights Training
      • Central and Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union
      • Nigeria Human Rights Training
    • International Advocates Course
    • Russian Lawyers
  • Publications
  • Chronology
  • Reflections
  • Network Links
  • Website Map
© Margaret Schuler
WLD HISTORY

Participants and Contributors
WLDI "From Basic Needs to Basic Rights" Project

Rashida Abdullah ARROW, Malaysia
Dulcie Abraham Malaysian Women in Ministry, Malaysia
Khadija Habashneh Abu Ali Palestine/Jordan
Sunila Abeyesekera INFORM, Sri Lanka
Gladys Acosta Vargas ILSA, Colombia
Rani Advani Lawyer, India
Mahnaz Afkhami Sisterhood is Global Institute, USA
Salbiah Ahmad APWLD, Malaysia
Theresa Akumadu Civil Liberties Organization, Nigeria
Naila Najib Al-Rashdan General Federation of Jordanian Women, Jordan
Cathi Albertyn CALS WITS University, South Africa
Seetha Anagol Coordination Unit for Beijing ‘95, India
Tasnim Azim Naripokkho, Bangladesh
Amal Basha UNDP, Republic of Yemen
Srilatha Batliwala National Institute of Advanced Studies, India
Theo Bitature FIDA-Uganda, Uganda
Rosa Briceno IWLD, Colombia/USA
Charlotte Bunch Center for Women s Global Leadership, USA
Florence Butegwa WiLDAF, Zimbabwe
Barbara Cameron York University, Canada
Nancie Caraway University of Hawaii, USA
Roxanna Carrillo UNIFEM, USA
Xiao Jiang Chen Shaanxi Women s Federation, China
Susana Chiaroti Indeso-Mujer, Argentina
Roberta Clarke CAFRA, Trinidad & Tobago
Dorcas Coker
-Appiah WiLDAF, Ghana
Radhika Coomaraswamy Int'l Centre for Ethnic Studies, Sri Lanka
Rhonda Copelon IWHRLC, CUNY Law School, USA
Lisa Crooms Howard University Law School, USA
Shanthi Dairiam IWRAW Asia Pacific, Malaysia
Maja Daruwala Ford Foundation, India
Adriana de la Espriella PROFAMILIA, Colombia
Mangalika de Silva Social Scientists Association, Sri Lanka
Vasudha Dhagamwar MARG, India
Elena Diaz FLACSO-Cuba, Cuba
Nancy Duff Campbell National Women s Law Center, USA
Alda Facio ILANUD, Costa Rica
Virginia Feix Themis, Brazil
Lynn Freedman Columbia University, USA
Joan French Caribbean Policy Development Centre, Barbados
Roshmi Goswami North-East Network, India
Prema Govindasamy IWRAWAsia Pacific, Malaysia
Ramani Gurusamy NGO Natl Coordination Unit for Beijing, Malaysia
Shahla Hacri Boston University, Iran/USA
Asma Abdel Halim WiLDAF, SudanAsma Abdel Halim WiLDAF, Sudan
Zoya Hasan Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
Sharon Hom CUNY Law School, USA
Nasreen Huq Naripokkho, Bangladesh
Shireen Huq Naripokkho, Bangladesh
Deeana Jang Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation, USA
Rani Jethmalani WARI.AW, India
Irina Jurna Foreign Policy Association, Russia
Janet Kabeberi-Macharia Women and Law/East Africa, Kenya
Sultana Kamal Ain 0 Salish Kendra, Bangladesh
Fayeeza Kathree University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Nursyahbani Katjasungkana Women’s Solidarity for Human Rights, Indonesia
Mary Kazunga YWCA, Zambia
Ayesha Khan Journalist, Pakistan
Rita Serena Kolibonso Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, Indonesia
Winfrida Korosso Tanzania Women Lawyers Association, Tanzania
Akua Kuenychia WiLDAF, Ghana
Lucie Lamarche University du Quebec a Montreal Canada
​
Mavivi Manzini Member of Parliament, South Africa
Leni Marin Family Violence Prevention Fund, USA
Veronica Matus Madrid Comisidn Chilena de Derechos Humanos, Chile
Nomtuse Mbere NGO Secretariat for Beijing, South Africa
Sharon Mclvor Native Women s Association of Canada, Canada
Meera Mitra WARLAW, India
Valentine M. Moghadam United Nations University, USA/Finland
Athaliah Molokomme University of Botswana, Botswana
Julieta Montano Oftcina Juridica para la Mujer, Bolivia
Meena Moorthy Shivdas APDC, Malaysia
Irina Mouleshkova University of National and World Economics, Bulgaria
Manouri Muttetuwegama Human Rights Committee, Sri Lanka
Thilaha Nalliah ARROW, Malaysia
Sameena Nazir IWLD, Pakistan
Charlotte Ndome-Ekotto Assoc, de Lutte centre les Violences faites aux Femmes, Cameroon
Hitty Norris WLD, USA
Urszula Nowakowska Women’s Rights Center, Poland
Pearl Nwashili STOPAIDS Organization, Nigeria
Maureen O’Neil North South Institute, Canada
Margaret Oguli-Oumo Ministry of Women in Development, Uganda
Gladys Parentelli CEFLF, Venezuela
Faustina Pereira Ain O Salish Kendra, Bangladesh
Anna Pessoa Pinto Ministerio de Justicia, Mozambique
Rosalind Petchesky IRRRAG, Hunter College, USA
Jacqueline Pitanguy CEPIA, Brazil
Maria Isabel Plata PROFAMILIA. Colombia
Svetlana Polenina Russian Lawyer’s Union, Russia
Rita Raj Hashim ARROW, Malaysia
Darini Rajasingham Int’l Centre for Ethnic Studies, Sri Lanka
Arzu Rana-Deuba SAATHI, Nepal
Niamh Reilly Center for Women’s Global Leadership, USA
Remedios Rikken Center for Asia/Paciftc Women, Philippines
Marcela Rodriguez Centro de la Mujer, Argentina
Celina Romany CUNY Law School, USA
Indai Lourdes Sajor Asian Women Human Rights Council. Philippines
Shaheen Sardar Ali Peshawar University, Pakistan
Margaret A. Schuler WLD, USA
Gita Sen Indian Institute of Management, India
Ilina Sen Rupantar, India
Rebecca Sewall Development & Employment Policy Project, USA
Farida Shaheed Shirkat Gah, Pakistan
Sharon Shenhav NA AMA TJerusalem, Israel
Jirina Siklova Charles University, Czech Republic
Wendy Singh Caribbean Human Rights Network, Barbados
Salma Sobhan Ain O Salish Kendra, Bangladesh
Maheen Sultan Naripokkho, Bangladesh
Anjana Suvarnananda Foundation for Women, Thailand
Sharifah Tahir ICOMP, Malaysia
Yasmin Tambiah IWLD, Sri Lanka/USA
Kanokwan Tharawan Women’s Health Education Network, Thailand
Dorothy Thomas Human Rights Watch, USA
Evalyn Ursua Women’s Legal Bureau Inc., Philippines
Roxana Vasquez CLADEM, Peru
Sima Wali Refugee Women in Development, USA
Everjoice Win WiLDAF, Zimbabwe
Judy Lyons Wolf Georgetown University Law Center, USA
Neta Ziv Association Jor Civil Rights in Israel, Israel
Xiaoqiao Zou All China Women's Federation, China
Cristina Zurutuza Centro de Estudios de la Mttjer, Argentina
​
From Basic Needs to Basic Rights: Women's Claim to Human Rights
​ 
​
​Part I: Gender and Hierarchy in Human Rights
Florence Butegwa: International Human Rights Law and Practice: Implications for Women
  • Florence Butegwa, Regional Coordinator for Women, Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), is a leading human rights lawyer. She has played a key role in ensuring that the regional human rights agenda includes women's rights, and has been very active in the international human rights field. 
Dorothy Q. Thomas​ Acting Unnaturally: In Defense of the Civil and Political Rights of Women
  • Dorothy Q. Thomas was Director of the Human Rights Watch/Women's Rights Project based in Washington D.C. She is the author of several reports and articles on international women's human rights, among which are Crimi­nal Injustice: Violence Against Women in Brazil and Double Jeopardy: Police Abuse of Women in Pakistan
Part II: Social and Economic Rights
Maureen O'Neil Economic and Policy Trends: Global Challenges to Women's Rights
  • Maureen O'Neil was a Partner at the Institute of Governance in Ot­tawa. She had held senior positions in the Canadian federal and provincial gov­ernments. Internationally she represented Canada on the UN Status of Women Commission.
Lucie Lamarche Women’s Social and Economic Rights: A Case Real Rights
  • Lucie Lamarche was Professor of Law at the University of Quebec and author of a number of articles and reports on social and economic rights, including women's rights.
Roberta Clarke & Joan French Issues in the Enforceability of Human Rights: A Caribbean Perspective
  • Roberta Clarke, lawyer practicing in Port of Spain, had worked extensively on legal literacy and legal aid for women in the Caribbean and was associated with the Gender and Human Rights Program of the Carib­bean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA).
  • Joan French was an activist in the women's movement and the teachers’ trade union movement. She worked on the issue of socio-economic develop­ment and is associated with the SISTREN Theatre Collective and CAFRA.
Rani Jethmalani Public Interest Litigation in India: Making the State Accountable
  • Rani Jethmalani was an attorney at the Supreme Court of India. She was founding director of the organization Women’s Action Research and Legal Action for Women (WARLAW) in New Delhi. She has long been active in the field of women's rights, and was one of the earliest legal activists to focus on dowry deaths in India and bring cases before the Indian courts. 
Sharon K. Hom Economic Reform and Social and Economic Rights in China: Strategy Brainstorming Across Cultures
  • Sharon Hom was Professor of Law at the City University of New York. Her work focusesd on international human rights and women's rights, and gender issues and law in the People's Republic of China. She has taught American legal methods and administrative law at several Chinese universities, and has writ­ten and spoken extensively on women, law and legal education in China
Rebecca P. Sewall Reconstructing Social and Economic Rights in Transitional Economies
  • Rebecca Sewall, was the founder of the Development and Employment Policy Project, an organization designed to raise awareness of gender-biased labor practices as an international de­velopment concern.
Gladys Acosta Vargas Flowers That Kill: The Case of the Colombian Flower Workers
  • Gladys Acosta Vargas was a lawyer and head of the program on Women and Power at the Instituto Latinoamericano de Servicios Legales Alternatives (ILSA) in Bogota. She was formerly at Flora Tristan in Lima, and is a long-time women's rights and human rights activist.
Barbara Cameron NAFTA, GATT and the Rights of Women: the Case of Canada
  • Barbara Cameron taught public policy at York University, To­ronto, where she was Assistant Professor of Political Science. Her research interests centered on women and public policy, particu­larly trade, employment and labor market policy. She has held research and policy positions with trade unions in Ontario, and works closely with the Canadian National Action Committee on the Status of Women.
Lisa A. Crooms The Rhetoric of Welfare Reform: A Case of Gender Discrimination in the United States
  • Lisa Crooms was Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Howard Uni­versity Law School in Washington D.C. Formerly, she practiced employment and labor law in Oakland, California.
Part III: Religious, Cultural and Ethnic Identity & Human Rights
Radhika Coomaraswamy Diversity, Universality and the Enlightenment Project
  • Radhika Coomaraswamy was Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo, Sri Lanka and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women. Her writings include a number of books and articles that focus on women, eth­nicity and human rights; violence against women; women and the law; democratic traditions and conflict resolution.
Mahnaz Afkhami Identity and Culture: Women as Subjects and Agents of Cultural Change
  • Mahnaz Afkhami was Executive Director of the Sisterhood is Global Institute and the Foundation for Iranian Studies, based in Bethesda, Maryland. She had been active in the women's move­ment, both in Iran and internationally, for a number of years. She founded the Association of University Women in Iran in 1968, and was Minister of State for Women's Affairs, 1976-1978.
Darini Rajasingham On Mediating Multiple Identities: The Shifting Field of Women’s Sexualities within the Community, State and Nation
  • Darini Rajasingham was the Research and Project Coordinator at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka. She taught at Princeton University and the University of Bir­mingham. She is the author of a number of papers on ethnicity, colonialism and ethnic conflict.
Asma Mohamed Abdel Halim Rituals and Angels: Female Circumcision and the Case of Sudan
  • Asma Abdel Halim was a member of the Steering Committee of Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF). She practiced law in the Sudan and was a member of the Committee on the Status of Sudanese Women. She was ac­tive in the legal literacy programs of the Sudanese Women's Un­ion before it was forcibly dissolved, and has spoken widely on women's rights and human rights in the Sudan.
Sharon Donna McIvor Native Women's Rights as Aboriginal Rights
  • Sharon Mclvor was a lawyer and the Justice Coordinator of the Native Women's Association of Canada worked extensively for native women's empowerment in Canada. She is a member of the Lower Nicola Indian Band, Merritt, British Columbia.
Sima Wali Women in Conditions of War and Peace: Challenges and Dilemmas
  • Sima Wall was President and CEO of Refugee Women in Develop­ment (RefWID) Inc., an international organization supporting refugee and displaced women's organizational development ef­forts, based in Washington D.C. She serves on the boards and advisory committees of several refugee and women's national and international organizations, and has received awards for leader­ship in the field of refugee women in development.
Farida Shaheed Linking Dreams: The Network of Women Living Under Muslim Laws
  • Farida Shaheed, a sociologist working at Shirkat Gah, a women's resource center in Karachi and Lahore that integrates research, development and advocacy, was a founding member of the na­tional women's lobby, Women's Action Forum, and is one of the coordinators of the international network, Women Living Under Muslim Laws.
Jirina Siklova Women’s Identity in a Transitional Society: The Czech Republic
  • Jirina Siklova promoted human rights in Czechoslovakia under communism. She was a participant in Prague Spring, a signer of Charter '77, and a dissident who was imprisoned. She is a soci­ologist and chair of the Department of Social Work at Charles University in Prague. 
Part IV: Sexual and Reproductive Rights
Rhonda Copelon Rosalind Petchesky Toward an Interdependent Approach to Reproductive and Sexual Rights as Human Rights: Reflections on the ICPD and Beyond
  • Rosalind Pollack Petchesky was Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies at Hunter College of the City University of New York as well as International Coordinator of the Interna­tional Reproductive Rights Research Action Group (IRRRAG). She was recently awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
  • Rhonda Copelon was Professor of Law at the City University of New York and Co-Director of CUNY’s International Women's Human Rights Law Clinic. She has been a consultant to the Inter- American Institute of Human Rights and as well as the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Delinquency (ILANUD). She has been very active in the international women's reproductive rights movement.
Yasmin Tamhiah Sexuality and Human Rights 
  • Yasmin Tambiah was a Senior Program Associate at the Women, Law and Development. She was a researcher at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo, and taught in the Women’s Studies Program at Yale University. She also authored papers on violence against women and female sexuality, and was working on her doctoral dissertation which focuses on the organization of sexuality in medieval Jewish, Muslim and Chris­tian communities.
Gita Sen Rights and Reproductive Technologies
  • Gita Sen was Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Man­agement. Bangalore, and Adjunct Professor in Development Eco­nomics at Harvard University. A founding member of DAWN, Development Alternatives for Women in a New Era, she was widely known for her work on women and development and her policy research on environment, health and population.
Maria Isabel Plata & Adriana de la Espriella CEDAW, Colombia and Reproductive Rights
  • Maria Isabel Plata, a lawyer and Deputy Director of PROFAMILIA in Bogota, had conducted research on the law and the status of Colombian women, domestic violence and human rights.
  • Adriana de la Espriella provided legal services for women at PROFAMILLA, an NGO which deals mainly with re­productive health matters, in Bogota. She had worked as a private attorney and at the office for Youth, Women and the Family at the Presidency of Colombia.
Pearl Nwashili Women’s Reproductive Rights and HIV/AIDS 
  • Pearl Nwashili was the founder and Executive Director of STOPAIDS Organization in Lagos and a member of the National AIDS Committee of Nigeria. She had developed educa­tional programs on HIV/AIDS and STDs for grassroots women and other populations .
Nasreen Huq & Tasneem Azim Reproductive Technologies and State Policies: Norplant in Bangladesh
  • Nasreen Huq was a nutritionist and a member of Naripokkho, an or­ganization focusing on advocacy for women's rights and de­velopment in Bangladesh. She was very active in the area of women's rights and health, and has participated in several na­tional and international fora on women's health.
  • Tasneem Azim, an immunologist and also a member of Naripokkho, was active in the area of women's health and empowerment and has worked extensively at the na­tional and international levels.
Alda Facio & Laura Queralt  Sex Education and the Religious Hierarchy in Costa Rica
  • Laura Queralt was a feminist psychologist who worked in the Women, Gender and Justice Program at ILANUD in Costa Rica. She has also worked at the National Television Chan­nel producing one-minute spots on women’s rights.
  • Alda Facio, a feminist jurist and writer was the Direc­tor of the Women, Gender and Justice Program of the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Delinquency (ILANUD). Her recent book describes an original methodology for the incorporation of gender analysis into legal texts and contexts.

​Part IV: Activism to Advance Women's Human Rights
Sunila Abcyesekera Organizing for Peace in the Midst of War: Experiences of Women in Sri Lanka
  • Sunila Abeyesekera was a political activist with a focus on women. A trained actress and singer, she is committed to using theater and music as a means to organizing within social movements. She is a founder member of several women's groups, including the Women's Media Forum and INFORM, a human rights documentation group, and has been active in the Sri Lanka lobby group at the UN Human Rights Commission
Veronica Matus Madrid The Women’s Movement and the Struggle for Rights: The Chilean Experience
  • Veronica Matus Madrid was the lawyer in charge of the women's program of the Chilean Commission on Human Rights. She had been active in the human rights movement in Chile since the 1973 coup, working with women whose family members had disappeared.
Irina Jurna Women in Russia: Building a Movement 
  • Irina Jurna was Press Secretary of the Foreign Policy Association and the director of its Women's Center. She was also co-director of the Association of Women Journalists in Russia and editor-in- chief of Vestnik, a magazine that was published by the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 1991, and thereafter by the For­eign Policy Association. She was also editor of the newsletter Women's Movement in Russia.
Deeana Jang and Leni Marin Immigrant Women’s Rights Organizing  
  • Leni Marin was the Senior Program Specialist at the Family Violence Prevention Fund in San Francisco. She coordinated the Fund's Battered Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Rights Project, and played an active role in realizing the landmark Violence Against Women Act. An immigrant to the US from the Philippines, she had been an advocate for the rights of battered women for over ten years.
  • Deeana Jang was an attorney at the Asian Law Caucus in San Fran­cisco, California and staff attorney at the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation. She co-edited  Domestic Violence in Immigrant and Refugee Communities: As­serting the Rights of Battered Women, and has authored several articles on immigrant women and domestic violence.
Lourdes Indai Sajor Rape as a War Crime : A Continuing Injustice  
  • Indai Lourdes Sajor was the coordinator of the Asian Women's Hu­man Rights Council (AWHRC) and the Asia-Pacific Women’s Action Network (APWAN). She had worked with Fili­pino Comfort Women who filed a class action suit against the Japanese government. She was a political prisoner during the martial law years of the Marcos regime in the Philippines.
Akua Kuenyehia Organizing at the Regional Level: The Case of WiLDAF
  • Akua Kuenvehia was a Senior Lecturer in Law at die University of Ghana. She had worked extensively on women's issues in Ghana and in Africa in general and authored several articles on women's rights issues and the law. She is a founding member of WiLDAF, and a member of its Steering Committee.
Charlotte Bunch and Niamh Reilly The Global Campaign: Violence Against Women Violates Human Rights
  • Charlotte Bunch was Director and founder of the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University, New Jersey. An activist in the women’s and civil rights move­ments for over two decades, she worked on global feminism with a variety of organizations since the 1980s. She has edited seven anthologies and authored Demanding Accountabil­ity: The Global Campaign and Vienna Tribunal for Women s Hu­man Rights.
  • Niamh Reilly coordinated the Global Tribunal on Violation of Women's Human Rights (Vienna, 1993) and was responsible for the international campaigns at the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University, where she is a Senior Program Associate.
Ceiina Romany On Surrendering Privilege: Diversity in a Feminist Redefinition of Human Rights Law
  • Celina Romany was Professor of Law, and former Co-Director of the Women's International Human Rights Program at City Univer­sity of New York Law School. She has written extensively about feminist theory, human rights, international law, critical race theory and labor and employment law. She is also a representa­tive of the American Association of Jurists at the United Nations.
Women, Law & Development 
Its history and contributions to the global women's rights movement. 
by Margaret Schuler 

Women, Law and Development

In these pages, Margaret Schuler, the initiator and director of WLD for many years, shares the story of its development and the contributions it has made to the international movement.