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http://www.trustwomenconf.com/about/news/conference-to-put-rule-of-law-behind-womens-rights/

Trust Women - Putting the female factor at the heart of development

Conference Registration: http://www.trustwomenconf.com/how-to-register/

LONDON (Trust Women)Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the world’s leading provider of news and information, and the International Herald Tribune, the global edition of the New York Times, will co-host a high-level women’s rights conference in London on December 4-5, 2012.

Trust Women Conference: Putting the rule of law behind women’s rights will bring together women and men from the legal, financial, government, corporate and non-profit sectors to drive pragmatic action to fight violence against women and other injustices including trafficking, domestic slavery and discrimination.

“In many countries, basic human rights are systematically denied to women,” said Monique Villa, chief executive of Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Trust Women has been created to help women know and defend their rights. We believe that empowering women helps tackle the very roots of poverty. In the developing world, when a woman works, her children are better fed and better educated because they spend their money on their family.”

Prominent speakers and advisory board members include Queen Noor of Jordan; Christy Turlington, model, author and founder of Every Mother Counts; Cherie Blair, lawyer and founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women; Kiran Bedi, India's first and highest ranking female police officer; Emma Bonino, founder of No Peace without Justice and vice-president of the Italian Senate; Beth Brook, vice-chair of public policy at Ernst & Young; and Benjamin Skinner, a journalist and expert in modern slavery.

A unique legal framework

The event, sponsored partly by international law firms Latham and Watkins and Linklaters, will promote innovation and partnerships by connecting legal expertise with financial, technological and educational resources that enable women to exercise their rights.

The first day of the conference will explore clashes between “culture” and the law, honing in on concrete strategies to tackle such wrongs as child marriage, female genital mutilation, acid attacks and honour killings. Delegates will delve into what the Arab Spring means for women and how to embed women’s rights in new constitutions.

Day two will embrace issues ranging from financial independence and the corrosive effects of corruption to how to put the trafficking business out of business and end domestic slavery.

Comprised of 350 delegates from around the world – female and male leaders in their fields – the conference will offer a provocative mix of keynote speeches, multimedia, plenary discussions, debates, break-out “action groups” and opportunities to engage online.

This joint venture between the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the IHT reflects their respective efforts to ensure women’s issues are covered in the media. The Foundation’s TrustLaw Women and the IHT’s Female Factor are both global hubs of news and information on women’s issues.

The conference’s legal framework was inspired by work the Thomson Reuters Foundation is doing with its TrustLaw Connect pro bono legal platform. TrustLaw Connect was launched in 2010 with the aim of spreading pro bono work globally by helping lawyers put their professional skills to work for non-governmental organisations and social entrepreneurs. It has more than 750 members, of which 250 are law firms and in house legal teams.