CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: Women's Link Worldwide: Gender Justice Uncovered Awards 2011

Source: 
Women's Link Worldwide
Duration: 
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 - 20:00
PeaceWomen Consolidated Themes: 
Human Rights
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
Initiative Type: 
Appeals & Demonstrations

On December 2, 2010 Women's Link Worldwide opened the nomination period to submit candidates for the 2011 Gender Justice Uncovered Awards.The awards were created by the international non-profit Women's Link Worldwide to highlight the fact that in every country, regardless of its political system, culture or religion, what judges and courts say has a tremendous influence on the sense of justice and in the day to day lives of people. Deadline for nominations: April 4, 2011.

The Gender Justice Uncovered Awards highlight decisions or statements made in writing, in English, Portuguese or Spanish, by judges, courts, committees, administrative bodies, prosecutors, defense attorneys, ombudsman officers, UN Committees, asylum boards or any other actor within a legal case, which have a positive or negative impact on gender equality, including those related to sexual and reproductive rights, gender violence and gender discrimination.
As in previous years, the nominations for the best and worst statements made within a legal process should be done through the website http://uncovered.womenslinkworldwide.org, where visitors can also vote for their favorites. The deadline to submit nominations is April 4, 2011 and the deadline to submit your vote is April 25, 2011.

The three most sexist decisions will receive bronze, silver and gold Bludgeons; and the three decisions that best promote gender equality will receive bronze, silver and gold Gavels.

The People's Choice Award will be granted to the case with the highest rating based on the votes by the public. Those who nominate the winners in the People's Choice category will be invited to attend the awards ceremony in Madrid, Spain on June 2, 2011.

The nominated cases will be added to Women's Link Worldwide's Gender Justice Observatory, which contains over 400 judicial decisions from around the world on issues related to gender and that can be accessed for free through the website.

The nominations will be evaluated by an internationally renown jury:

Mexican journalist and writer Lydia Cacho is an Advisor for the University of the Caribbean, co-founder of the Journalist Network of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, correspondent for CIMAC News, co-founder of the National Shelter Network for women survivors of violence and she directs a center to provide services to women survivors in Cancún.

Lydia Cacho is the author of several books: Los Demonios del Edén (The demons of Eden), which denounces the mafia behind child pornography in Mexico, Las Provincias del Alma (Provinces of the Soul), Esta Boca es Mía (This Mouth is Mine), Memorias de una Infamia (Memories of a Disgrace), and Esclavas del Poder (Slaves to Power), among others. After the publication of "Demons of Eden" she was subjected to judicial harassment by important Mexican businessmen involved in the pornography industry.

She is also known for her work as a human rights activist, especially women's rights and is a member of the International Network of Journalist with a Gender Vision. She has received numerous international journalism awards, among them the "Francisco Ojeda" Award for courage, the Human Rights Watch Award, the Catalunya Casa América Award for freedom of the press, and the World UNESCO Award - Guillermo Cano.

Justice Baltasar Garzón, justice in Spain's High Court (Audiencia Nacional) and Advisor to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He received international recognition for issuing an international arrest warrant against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, for the death and torture of Spanish citizens under his government and for crimes against humanity in application of the principle of Universal Jurisdiction. He also opened an investigation for genocide against Argentine oppressor Adolfo Scilingo for acts committed during the dictatorship between 1976 and 1983. Scilingo was sentenced to 640 years in prison by Spain's High Court, term which was increased by the Supreme Court to 1,084 years.

Justice Garzón has led important investigations in drug trafficking cases, money laundering, State terrorism and recently for crimes committed under Franco's regime. In August 2010 he participated, along with other international experts in the conference titled "Reflections on International Criminal Law and Gender in the Context of the Trials based on the Human Rights Violations committed during the last Military Dictatorship in Argentina", which took place in Buenos Aires.

Attorney Patricia Sellers, international criminal law expert, was the Legal Advisor for Gender and a prosecutor at the Yugoslav (ICTY) Tribunal from 1994 until February 2007. As the ICTY Legal Advisor for Gender, Ms. Sellers developed the legal strategies that led to successful prosecutions of sexual violence under international criminal law. The Akayesu, Furundzija and Kunarac decisions remain the main standard for the recognition of sexual violence as an international crime such as torture, enslavement, genocide and war crime. In 2002, in Tokyo, Japan, Ms. Sellers was a Co-chief Prosecutor responsible for the legal submissions of nine national prosecution teams from Southeast Asia, at the Women's War Crimes Tribunal, a symbolic trial that highlighted the absence of legal redress for thousands of "Comfort Women" who were enslaved by the Japanese army during World War II.

She is a presently a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College the University of Oxford and an Independent Legal Expert. She has been a Special Legal Consultant to the Gender and Women's Rights Division of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and to the Secretary's General's Special Representative to Children in Armed Conflict. She has received numerous awards including the prestigious Prominent Women in International Law Award by the American Society of International Law as well as the Martin Luther King Award from the Black Law Students' Association at Rutgers University Law School.

For further information, please visit Women's Link Worldwide