U.S. Human Rights Experts To Make Recommendations For Advancing Women’s Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 3, 2009

CONTACT: Rachel Myers, (212) 549-2689 or 2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union will co-host a roundtable discussion on the advancement of women's rights as human rights on Thursday at the United Nations Church Center in New York. The event will underscore issues facing the 53rd session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, one of the first international forums the U.S. will participate in under the Obama administration.

The roundtable will feature U.S. human rights advocates sharing their visions and plans for engaging with the Obama administration to address, among other things, human trafficking, violence against women, issues facing women in the criminal justice system, women workers’ rights issues, reproductive rights and police brutality against women of color.

WHAT:
Roundtable discussion featuring U.S. human rights experts on how to advance women’s rights under the Obama administration

WHO:
Moderated by Lenora Lapidus, Director of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, and Jamil Dakwar, Director of the ACLU Human Rights Program

Special remarks by Professor Yakin Ertürk, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women

Speakers to include:
Malika Saada Saar, Executive Director of the Rebecca Project for Human Rights;
Ivy Suriyopas, Staff Attorney at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund;
Betsy Hawkings, Managing Director of Government Relations at Amnesty International;
Andrea Ritchie, Director of the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center;
Cathy Albisa, Executive Director of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative;
Sarah Paoletti, Director of the University of Pennsylvania Law School Transnational Legal Clinic;
Louise Melling, Director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project

The event is co-sponsored by the ACLU, the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Urban Justice Center and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative

WHEN:
Thursday, March 5, 6:00 p.m. EST

WHERE:
United Nations Church Center
777 United Nations Plaza, 8th floor conference room
New York, NY 10017
   
This event is free and open to the public and members of the media. Please RSVP by Wednesday, March 4 by emailing Eliza Reshefsky at: ereshefsky@aclu.org