WLD HISTORY
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    • The story of WLD
    • About Women, Law and Development
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    • 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
  • 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

Chronology of WLD Development

1979-1982  Central American Legal Services Project
  • The Overseas Education Fund (OEF), based in Washington DC, hires Marg Schuler to facilitate its Central American Women’s Legal Services Project; this project lays the groundwork for the Women, Law and Development (WLD) concept. 
March to November 1984  Research and Outreach
  • Marg Schuler travels to Asia, Latin America and Africa to locate and connect with women  working with the law in some way to improve women's legal and social status in their countries. The Women, Law and Development (WLD) program begins within OEF.
November 1984  Nairobi  Forum Planning
  • Interregional group meets at OEF in Washington DC to design "Third World Forum on Women, Law and Development" to be part of the NGO Forum in Nairobi, parallel to the UN Women's Conference in 1985.
July 1985  Forum takes place in Nairobi
  • Third World Forum on Women, Law and Development takes place in Nairobi with sixty presenters and hundreds in attendance. Participants affirm wish to organize regionally and link internationally. WLD/OEF agrees to support the process.
February 1986 Latin Americans meet
  • WLD/OEF staff and Latin American participants from the Nairobi WLD forum meet in Lima, Peru to discuss potential regional organization. Roxana Vásquez takes coordinating role.
July 1986  Asians meet to plan process
  • WLD staff and small planning group meet in New Delhi, India to discuss potential regional organization and plan Asia conference.
December 1986 Asian regional organization established
  • Conference takes place at Tagaytay, Philippines with 52 participants from across the Asian Pacific region. The Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development (APWLD) is founded and leadership elected.
July 1987 APWLD program refined
  • APWLD steering committee meets at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania USA, to refine APWLD constitution and program design.
July 1987 Latin American regional organization established
  • Core group of WLD participants from Central and South America meet in San Jose, Costa Rica and establish The Latin American Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CLADEM). Roxana Vásquez is confirmed as regional coordinator.
January 1988 
  • APWLD secretariat opens in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with Emelina Quintillan as regional coordinator.
January 1988
  • Lisa VeneKlasen joins WLD staff at OEF in Washington DC.
April to September 1988
  • Central America WLD project launched, followed by WLD workshops throughout Central America facilitated by Marg and Lisa.
October 1988
  • Meeting held in Mexico city to plan regional conference with Central American WLD project participants and CLADEM leadership.
November 1988
  • WLD/OEF staff reconnect after three years with African pariticpants from the Third World Forum on Women, Law and Development to launch the Africa WLD project, the final regional organizing effort.
January 1989
  • Central American Women Law and Development Conference takes place in San Jose, Costa Rica. Seventy-two women attend, including 14 South Americans from CLADEM. 
April 1989
  • WLD/OEF staff meet with African planning group in Harare, Zimbabwe to discuss potential regional organization and plan Africa conference.
June 1989
  • WLD/OEF invites 16 representatives from Asia, Africa and Latin America to Washington for an interregional meeting. 
June to September 1989
  • Preparatory workshops throughout Africa are facilitated by WLD/OEF (Marg and Lisa).
February 1990
  • Sixty five African women lawyers and activists attend week long regional conference in Harare, Zimbabwe and  establish Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF).
May-June 1990
  • ​​Meetings in Santa Fe, New Mexico to plan "Freedom from Violence" and "Legal Literacy" research projects.
June 1990
  • WILDAF steering committee meets in Harare to refine program; WLD/OEF facilitates workshop on legal literacy strategies.
January 1991
  • WILDAF opens secretariat in Harare, Zimbabwe. Florence Butegwa from Uganda relocates to serve as regional coordinator.
​January 1992
  • Legal Literacy: A Tool for Women's Empowerment and Freedom From Violence: Women's Strategies from Around the World published.
​March 1992
  • ​WLDI begins as independent organization. 
August 1993
  • UN Conference on Human Rights, Vienna. WLD presents several workshops on Women’s Human Rights.
  • WLD’s international board meets in Vienna
June 1993 
  • WLD publishes Claiming our Place: Working the Human Rights System to Women’s Advantage
October 1994
  • WLDI convenes global strategy meeting in Kuala Lumpur with over 100 activists and academics from 47 countries to assess progress on women’s rights.
December 1995
  • WLD publishes and distributes “A Women’s Rights Agenda” in English, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, French, as input to the upcoming World Conference on Women
September 1995
  • WLDI publishes From Basic Needs to Basic Rights: Women’s claim to Human Rights
  • WLDI offers Human Rights Training as part of the NGO Forum in Beijing
March 1996
  • WLD publishes State Responses to Domestic Violence in support of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
  • WLD publishes Gender Violence: The Hidden War Crime in support of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
1996-1997
  • WLD researches and produces Women’s Human Rights Step by Step: a Practical guide to using International Human Rights Law and Mechanisms to Defend Women’s Human Rights
1997
  • WLD publishes State Responses to Rape in support of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
1997-1999
  • WLDI implements the Advanced Human Rights Leadership Training for Women with 122 women from 22 countries across Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States
1999 – 2000
  • WLDI implements the Advanced Human Rights Advocacy Training for Women six countries in Central and East Africa.
September 2000
  • WLDI published Becoming an Advocate Step by Step
2001-2003
  • WLD implements the Activist Facilitator’s Human Rights Training Project with 20 participants from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and North America 
April 2002
  • WLDI publishes the Women’s Human Rights Step by Step Facilitator’s Guide and Strategy Workbook.
2003-2005
  • WLDI implements Human Rights Advocacy Training project in Nigeria
2005
  • WLDI ceases as an organization.​
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.