WUNRN
DUE DILIGENCE PROJECT SURVEY
QUESTIONNAIRE - MULTILINGUAL
Public
international law mandates States to exercise due diligence to promote, protect
and fulfill human rights. This principle is commonly referred to as the “due
diligence” principle. The obligation extends to not only preventing human
rights abuses by the state and its agents, but also those by non-state actors
in the so-called “private realm.” In order to properly address the violence
committed against women, particularly by non-state actors, it is imperative
that we have a deeper understanding of this obligation. What does it mean to
act with “due diligence?” What exact actions are required? When has this
obligation been satisfied? Do the obligations change according to the
circumstances? A deeper understanding is needed in order for international
monitoring mechanisms to accurately gauge States' compliance with this
obligation. States too need guidance on what exact actions are expected in
order to track their own progress.
In the majority of the cases violence is perpetrated by non-state actors, for example by a close male relative or intimate partner. In fact, the most common form of violence experienced by women globally is intimate partner violence. It is estimated that one in three women experiences violence in her lifetime. Situations of armed conflicts constitute another context where women are increasingly experiencing violence at the hands of non-state actors, such as paramilitary and militia groups. It is for instance estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, that between 20,000 and 50,000 women were raped in Bosnia during the conflict in the early 1990s, and that around 200,000 women and girls were raped during the armed conflict in Bangladesh in 1971.
Traditionally the State was only held accountable for
violations of human rights committed by its agents. By extending
accountability for acts of violence perpetrated by non-state actors to the
State, public international law recognizes that violence against women, whether
committed by State or non-State actors constitutes human rights violations.
This also means that the State has the obligation to enter the so-called
‘private sphere’ where most instances of violence against women take place.
This is a sphere from which the State had excluded itself, preferring to limit
instead only to the public sphere. Hence the concept of due diligence has
helped rupture the artificial “public/private sphere” divide, as well as
State/non-State actor dichotomy.
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PROJECT DIRECTORS
Janine
Moussa -
Janine Moussa is a
human rights lawyer, with a specialization in gender and women's rights. Her
areas of specialty include the international human rights framework, equality
and non-discrimination and violence against women. Her previous experience
includes working with NGOs, academic institutions, and inter-governmental
organizations, including most recently with the United Nations where she worked
as senior program officer on violence against women for the Division for the
Advancement of Women (UNDAW, now part of UN Women) and previously the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American
States (OAS). Janine has lived and worked abroad including in
Zarizana
Abdul Aziz -
Zarizana Abdul Aziz is
a human rights lawyer. She was President of the Women’s Crisis Centre (now
Women’s Centre for Change) in
ADVISORY
COMMITTEE
Pramila Patten, Expert, UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women, from
Cees Flinterman, Expert, UN Human Rights Committee of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, from the
Hillary Charlesworth, Professor, Centre for International Governance and Justice,
Kamala Chandrakirana, UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women in Law and Practice, from
* Members
of the advisory committee serve in their independent and individual capacities.
PROJECT PARTNERS
COLETTE DE
Director, European Women’s Lobby Observatory on Violence
Against Women
A sociologist and
criminologist by profession, Collete joined the EWL in 1998 to work on violence
against women and today heads its Observatory, bringing together VAW experts
from 30 European countries. She has managed transnational projects such
as the V-Day Stop Rape Project and awareness campaigns on sex trafficking in 14
countries. Colette has worked as co-director of an information services
cooperative on women in Europe, consultant for the European Commission on
training and employment of migrant women, director of a Brussels-based
grassroots NGO for young migrant women, researcher on Belgian prisons and
director of the
NORAIDA ENDUT -
Senior Lecturer, Women’s Development Research Centre
(KANITA), Universiti Sains
Noraida Endut is Senior Lecturer at the Women’s
Development Research Centre (KANITA), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Her
academic and research interests are in law and women issues. She is currently
involved in various research projects, the majority of which looks into the
issue of violence against women and women’s access to law and justice. She is
also a lead researcher in an ongoing inter-institutional research collaboration
looking into the impact of polygamous marriage on Muslim family lives. Noraida
has published articles and monographs on the issues of intervention in domestic
violence cases, legal pluralism and its relation to marriage and divorce,
women’s access to the legal system in
YASMINE ERGAS -
Associate Director, Institute for the Study of Human
Rights,
Yasmine Ergas is an Adjunct Associate Professor of
International Law and International Human Rights Law at the
JULIE GOLDSCHEID -
Professor of Law,
Julie Goldscheid is a Professor of Law at CUNY School of
Law, where she teaches subjects including contracts, civil procedure,
lawyering, and gender equality. She writes and speaks widely about gender
equality, with a particular focus on gender-based violence and economic
equality. Before joining the CUNY faculty, she held positions including
Acting Legal Director at Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense and
Education Fund) where she spearheaded that organization’s legal work
to end violence against women, including defending the constitutionality of the
civil rights remedy of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act before the U.S.
Supreme Court in
HOMA HOODFAR -
Professor of
Anthropology,
Homa Hoodfar’s primary research and expertise lies in
legal and political anthropology. She examines the intersection of political
economy; gender and development; and citizenship rights in Muslim contexts. She
has extensively studied survival and empowerment strategies in those
communities marginalised by legal constraints particularly in the area of
family law and citizenship in
SARA HOSSAIN -
Barrister, Supreme Court of
Sara Hossain mainly practices in the areas of
constitutional, public interest and family law, since 1992. She is a partner at
the law firm of Dr. Kamal Hossain and Associates responsible for, among others,
pro bono work. Sara is associated with several legal aid and human rights
groups nationally and internationally. She is currently serving as Honorary
Director of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Service Trust. She is also Chairperson
of Bangladesh’s pioneering a member of the Dhaka-based human rights organization
Ain o Salish Kendra. Internationally, Sara is, among others, a Commissioner of
the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Member, of the Human Rights
Committee of the International Law Association (ILA), Member of the Advisory
Committee of the Women’s International Coalition on Gender Justice (WICG).
Sara’s recent cases relevant to gender equality have been on challenges to
government inaction regarding extra judicial penalties in the name of ‘fatwa’
in traditional dispute resolution processes, on the practice of forced veiling,
on forced marriage, and on sexual harassment. Sara has also published several
articles on, inter alia, the issues of gender, sexual violence and so-called
crimes of ‘honour’.
AFAF JABIRI -
Senior Advisor, Academy for Educational Development
Afaf has 16 years of experience in leading human rights
initiatives and defending neglected groups such as migrants, refugees, women,
and disabled persons throughout the Middle East and
MADHU MEHRA -
Executive Director, Partners for Law in Development (PLD)
Madhu Mehra (
SALLY ENGLE MERRY -
Professor of Anthropology, Law and Society,
A distinguished writer, lecturer, and researcher of
women’s human rights, vernacularization, and numerical rankings in global
governance, Sally is the current president-elect of the American Ethnological
Society, a board member of the Association of Political and Legal Anthropology,
and a recipient of both the President’s Award of the American Anthropological
Association and the J.I. Staley Prize of the School of Advanced Research for
her 2006 book, Human Rights and Gender Violence. She recently
authored another book, Gender Violence: A Cultural Perspective (2009),
and justfinished a three-year term chairing the AAA Executive Board’s Committee
on Scientific Communication.
ALDA FACIO MONTEJO -
Director, Women, Gender and Justice Program, United
Nations Latin American Institute for Crime Prevention (ILANUD)
Alda is a jurist, writer, lecturer, and international
expert on women’s human rights, gender violence, and gender-based legal
analysis. She is also the founder and first director of the Women’s
Caucus for Gender Justice in the International Criminal Court and co-founder of
the Women Human Rights Education Institute at the
TENESHA MYRIE -
University of the West Indies, Mona Campus,
Tenesha Myrie served as consultant to the United Nations
Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Caribbean
Office, the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition and the Jamaica AIDS
Support for Life. She has carried out extensive research on issues affecting
women in the English-speaking
HANAN ABOU GHOUSH MUADDI -
Director of Advocacy and Documentation,
Hanan has worked with the
VRINDA NARAIN -
Assistant Professor,
Vrinda Narain is an Assistant Professor at
MARIA NASSALI -
Ann Marie Nassali holds a Doctor Legum in Human Rights
from the Center for Human Rights,
GEETA RAMASESHAN -
Constitutional, Family, and Criminal Lawyer; Special
Prosecutor, Central Bureau of Investigation
Geeta is a lawyer practising in
ZOYA JUREIDINI ROUHANA -
Director, KAFA (enough) Violence & Exploitation
Zoya is founding member and director of KAFA (enough)
Violence & Exploitation,
KATHLEEN STAUDT -
Professor of Political Science,
Kathleen (Kathy) Staudt, PhD (University of Wisconsin,
1976) is Professor of Political Science at the
KAREN STEFISZYN -
Programme Manager, Gender Unit, Centre for Human Rights,
University of
Karen Stefiszyn is the Programme Manager of the Gender
Unit at the Centre for Human Rights, at the
GENOVEVA SPASSOVA TISHEVA -
Director, Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation; Women’ s
Human Rights Training Institute
Genoveva currently coordinates the Bulgarian Gender
Research Foundation’s legal projects and research. She has drafted gender
equality legislation in
VIVIENNE WEE -
Institute for Women’s Empowerment (IWE),
Vivienne Wee is an anthropologist who has done extensive
research on issues of gender, power, religion, and ethno-nationalism,
especially in
INSTITUTIONAL COLLABORATORS
Northeastern
Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE),
The Project is
currently hosted at and supported by Northeastern University School
of Law (NUSL) in
Institute for the Study of Human Rights
The Institute for the
Study of Human Rights was established in 1978 at
Universiti sains
Women’s Development Research Centre (KANITA)
KANITA is a
research centre set up by the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and is committed
to research, advocacy and community engagement utilising and promoting a gender
and social equality framework. It strives to impact in the academe, the state,
women and the society at large as well as offering high quality graduate
studies in the field of gender studies. Its focus areas are health; policy and
law; sustainable development; economic and social development; leadership and
governance; and education and culture.
Centre for Human Rights (CHR),
CHR, based at the
Faculty of Law,
PARTNER
ORGANIZATIONS
KAFA (ENOUGH) VIOLENCE & EXPLOITATION -
Established in 2005 by a group of multi-disciplinary professionals and human rights activists, KAFA is a non-profit, non-political, non-confessional civil society organization committed to gender-equality and non-discrimination, and the advancement of women’s and children’s human rights. KAFA envisions a society where all its citizens live free of violence and exploitation and where they have equal access to opportunities and results and their human rights are respected, protected and enjoyed. Its mission is to work towards eradicating gender-based violence and exploitation of women and children through legal and policy reform, influencing public opinion, and empowering women and children. KAFA’s guiding principles are those of the universality of human rights and the participation and inclusion of all target groups and marginalized people in our endeavors.