Gita Honwana-Welch

Last updated

Gita Honwana Welch is a freelance consultant in the field of international development aid and a former employee of the United Nations. On the basis of her varied national and international functions, she has been and is a participant and speaker at various conferences and working meetings. Honwana Welch comes from Mozambique. [1]

Contents

Career

Honwana Welch's parents are Raúl Honwana and his second wife Nely Nhaca. [2] She first studied law at the University of Lisbon (1970-1973) and at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo (1980-1982). She is considered to be the first Mozambican with a university degree in law. [2] She holds a Master's degree in Law from Columbia University in New York and a Ph.D. in Law from Wolfson College, University of Oxford, in the fields of Law and specifically International Law. [1] In her dissertation she dealt with the "Prohibition of Torture, Cruel Treatment, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment in International Law", referring to the 1984 United Nations Convention against Torture. [3]

In her home country Mozambique and in East Timor, she gained experience in rebuilding a judicial system in former crisis countries. In Mozambique, she worked as a public prosecutor from 1978, as a judge at the Maputo Provincial Court from July 1979 to July 1983, and as Director of the Investigation and Legislation Department at the Ministry of Justice until 1989. She then began working for the United Nations in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Here, she was the representative for Southern Africa in the area of women. [1] [4]

In East Timor, Honwana Welch was Minister of Justice in the first transitional government under UN administration from 2000 to 2001. In New York at UNDP, Honwana Welch worked as Director of the Democratic Governance Group from 2001 to 2006, and in Angola as Country Director of UNDP from 2006 to 2010. From 2011 to 2013, she was Director of the UNDP Regional Service Centre for West and Central Africa in Dakar, Senegal. [1] Since 2013, she has been working as an independent consultant. From January to April 2018, she served as acting Country Director of UNDP in Ghana.

Publications

See also

Related Research Articles

International human rights instruments are the treaties and other international texts that serve as legal sources for international human rights law and the protection of human rights in general. There are many varying types, but most can be classified into two broad categories: declarations, adopted by bodies such as the United Nations General Assembly, which are by nature declaratory, so not legally-binding although they may be politically authoritative and very well-respected soft law;, and often express guiding principles; and conventions that are multi-party treaties that are designed to become legally binding, usually include prescriptive and very specific language, and usually are concluded by a long procedure that frequently requires ratification by each states' legislature. Lesser known are some "recommendations" which are similar to conventions in being multilaterally agreed, yet cannot be ratified, and serve to set common standards. There may also be administrative guidelines that are agreed multilaterally by states, as well as the statutes of tribunals or other institutions. A specific prescription or principle from any of these various international instruments can, over time, attain the status of customary international law whether it is specifically accepted by a state or not, just because it is well-recognized and followed over a sufficiently long time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Convention Against Torture</span> International human rights instrument against torture and cruel or unusual punishment

The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is an international human rights treaty under the review of the United Nations that aims to prevent torture and other acts of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albie Sachs</span> South African anti-Apartheid activist leader, author and judge of the Constitutional Court

Albert "Albie" Louis Sachs is a South African lawyer, activist, writer, and former judge appointed to the first Constitutional Court of South Africa by Nelson Mandela.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fionnuala Ní Aoláin</span> Irish legal academic and U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights

Fionnuala Ní Aoláin is an Irish academic lawyer specialising in human rights law. She was the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism for the United Nations Human Rights Council from August 1, 2017 - November 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan E. Méndez</span> Argentine lawyer and activist

Juan E. Méndez is an Argentine lawyer, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and a human rights activist known for his work on behalf of political prisoners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manfred Nowak</span> Austrian human rights lawyer (born 1950)

Manfred Nowak is an Austrian human rights expert, who served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture from 2004 to 2010. He is Secretary General of the Global Campus of Human Rights in Venice, Italy, Professor of International Human Rights, and Scientific Director of the Vienna Master of Arts in Applied Human Rights at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. He is also co-founder and former Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights and a former judge at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2016, he was appointed Independent Expert leading the United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture</span> 1985 treaty created to prevent torture

The Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture (IACPPT) is an international human rights instrument, created in 1985 within the Western Hemisphere Organization of American States and intended to prevent torture and other similar activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture</span> 2002 treaty supplementing the UN Convention Against Torture

The Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is a treaty that supplements to the 1984 United Nations Convention Against Torture. It establishes an international inspection system for places of detention modeled on the system that has existed in Europe since 1987.

Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibits torture, and "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

Article 3 – Prohibition of torture

No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Nils Joachim Melzer is a Swiss academic, author, and practitioner in the field of international law. From 2016 until 2022, Melzer was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. He is a professor of international law at the University of Glasgow. From 2011-2013, he was Swiss Chair of International Humanitarian Law at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Melzer has criticised the governments of the U.S., the U.K., Ecuador and Sweden over their treatment of Julian Assange.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a population of 6.8 million, nearly half of which is under 18 years of age. Public trust in the justice system has been eroded, and the country’s significant crime problem exacerbated, by brutal responses from police against those they suspect of having committed offences, and the routine violence, abuse and rape carried out by police against persons, including children, within their custody. Many incidents are cases of opportunistic abuses of power by police instead of their following official processes. While a raft of measures have been assembled in order to improve conditions and processes for youths within the justice system, their success has been hampered by a severe lack of implementation, insufficient resources, and failure to impose appropriate penalties on authorities for failure to adhere to their provisions.

The Republic of Uruguay is located in South America, between Argentina, Brazil and the South Atlantic Ocean, with a population of 3,332,972. Uruguay gained independence and sovereignty from Spain in 1828 and has full control over its internal and external affairs. From 1973 to 1985 Uruguay was governed by a civil-military dictatorship which committed numerous human rights abuses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights</span>

The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights is a postgraduate joint center located in Geneva, Switzerland. The faculty includes professors from both founding institutions and guest professors from major universities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agnès Callamard</span> Secretary General of Amnesty International since 2021

Agnès Callamard is a French human rights activist who is the Secretary General of Amnesty International. She was previously the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, and the former Director of the Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alcinda Honwana</span> Mozambican anthropologist

Alcinda Manuel Honwana is a Mozambican anthropologist who is a Centennial Professor and the Strategic Director of the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research considers young people, social movements, political protests and social change. She served as a Senior Adviser for the United Nations in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (CIDT) is treatment of persons which is contrary to human rights or dignity, but is not classified as torture. It is forbidden by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Although the distinction between torture and CIDT is maintained from a legal point of view, medical and psychological studies have found that it does not exist from the psychological point of view, and people subjected to CIDT will experience the same consequences as survivors of torture. Based on this research, some practitioners have recommended abolishing the distinction.

The prohibition of torture is a peremptory norm in public international law—meaning that it is forbidden under all circumstances—as well as being forbidden by international treaties such as the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Jill Edwards</span> Australian human rights lawyer and academic

Alice Jill Edwards is an Australian lawyer and scholar. She is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

The Fulmati Nyaya rape case involved the rape, child labor and torture of 14 year old girl, pseudonym Fulmati Nyaya, a member of an indigenous community living in the southern region of Terai, by Armed Police Force and Royal Nepalese Army in April 2002 during the Nepalese Civil War in Kailai District of Nepal.

Ahmad Manasra is a 22-year-old Palestinian who was arrested in 2015 at the age of 13 in relation to the Pisgat Ze'ev stabbings in an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Dr Gita Honwana Welch". Chatham House. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  2. 1 2 Signe Arnfred: Sexuality & gender politics in Mozambique: rethinking gender in Africa. Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2011, ISBN   978-1-84701-035-3, p. 73. Excerpts from books.google.de
  3. "OHCHR | Convention against Torture". www.ohchr.org. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  4. "Moçambicana Gita Welch é a nova directora do PNUD em Angola". Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  5. copac: bibliographical reference. at www.copac.jisc.ac.uk
  6. copac: bibliographical reference. at www.copac.jisc.ac.uk
  7. National Library of Australia: bibliographical reference. at www.nla.gov.au