WUNRN
Nomination
Form:
Judges in the Spotlight
2014 Gender Justice Uncovered Awards
Women’s
Link exposes unfair and sexist judicial decisions that set back women’s rights
(Bludgeon Awards) and honor rulings that protect human rights by fostering
respect for equality (Gavel Awards) in the Sixth Annual Gender Justice
Uncovered Awards.
January
20, 2014 – A judge in the United States sentenced a man to 15 years in
prison for the rape of a 14-year-old girl, but then reduced the sentence to 30
days, because he found that the victim acted older than her age.
Every
year, judges around the world rule on thousands of cases like this one, broadly
affecting the lives of women and children, and their families, and communities.
However, most of these discriminatory decisions, based on prejudices and
stereotypes, go unnoticed.
This is why Women’s Link
created the Gender Justice Uncovered Awards, which also honor decisions
that uphold fundamental rights, such as the European Court of Human Rights
case in which the Republic of Moldova was found to have failed to
adequately protect a woman who was subjected to domestic violence, denying her
right to live free of torture and inhumane treatment.
An
international jury will grant the gold, silver, and bronze “Bludgeons” for the
most retrograde and sexist decisions, as well as the gold, silver, and bronze “Gavels”
for the decisions that have done the most to promote gender equality. Women’s
Link encourages the public to get involved by nominating cases for deliberation
by the jury and voting for the People’s Choice Award.
This
year’s jury will be made up of three distinguished judges:
Héctor
Abad Faciolince (Colombia), writer, translator, and journalist. Currently a
columnist and member of the editorial board of the newspaper El Espectador.
He also works with several other domestic and international media outlets. His
novels have been translated into several languages.
Kerry
Kennedy (USA),
president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. She has
dedicated her life to working for equal rights before the law, the promotion
and protection of fundamental rights, and the preservation of the rule of law.
Yvonne
Mokgoro (South
Africa), who was appointed as Justice to the Constitutional Court of South
Africa by Nelson Mandela at the high court’s inception in 1994, a post she held
for 15 years until the end of her term in 2009.
Anyone
from anywhere in the world may nominate a good, bad, or ugly decision on the
Awards’ web site. The winning decisions will be announced in June 2014.
For more information:
Spain.
Cristina Sánchez Velázquez
M: +34 669 464 490
T: +34 91 185 19 04
c.sanchez@womenslinkworldwide.org
Colombia.
Carolina Dueñas Orozco
M: +57 301 550 7330
T: +57 (1) 257 5491
c.duenas@womenslinkworldwide.org