International Association of Women Judges

Last updated
International Association of Women Judges
AbbreviationIAWJ
Founded1991
Headquarters Washington, D.C., United States
Susan Glazebrook
Immediate Past President
 Vanessa Ruiz
Vice-Presidents
 Binta Nyako
Margarita Beatriz Luna
Executive Director
Christie Jones
Award(s)Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law 2022
Website www.iawj.org

The International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) is a non-profit non governmental organization founded in 1991 whose members are judges from around the world committed to equal justice for women.

Contents

History

The IAWJ was founded in 1991 after fifty women judges from around the world were invited to participate in the tenth anniversary meeting of the United States National Association of Women Judges. [1] It was decided that gender discrimination in the judiciary would be easier to combat with the forming of an international alliance. In October 1991, women judges in 15 countries approved the inaugural constitution of the IAWJ. [1] Its first meeting was held in October 1992, bringing together 82 judges from 42 different countries in San Diego. The issue that interested them most was family violence. [2] Women judges sponsored workshops and conferences around the world to teach about the prevalence of domestic violence, how to prevent it, and how to enact laws to define it as a crime with penalties. [2] The IAWJ also took on a project to educate judges on how to apply international human rights instruments to cases affecting women in local courts. [2]

The IAWJ's first president was Arline Pacht. [2] In May 1994, it held a conference in Rome on domestic violence. [2]

In 2010, when the UK's Baroness Hale was elected President of IAWJ, it had over 4,000 members from over 90 countries. [1] By 2017, it had over 5,000 members. [3] By 2019, it had over 6,000 members. [4]

Structure

The IAWJ is based in Washington DC and is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation. Its members represent all levels of the judiciary worldwide. It seeks to pioneer judicial education programs to advance human rights, uproot gender bias from judicial systems and promote women's access to courts. [5] It has a ten-member Board of Directors and a seven-member Executive Council. [5]

The IAWJ holds a biennial conference, where new board members are elected. [6] [5] The 2023 IAWJ general conference will be held Marrakesh, Morocco from May 11–15. [7]

Susana Medina (left) transferring presidency of the International Association of Women Judges to Vanessa Ruiz (right), in Argentina in 2018 Susana Medina, and Vanessa Ruiz at the International Association of Women Judges.jpg
Susana Medina (left) transferring presidency of the International Association of Women Judges to Vanessa Ruiz (right), in Argentina in 2018

Presidents

Programs

The IAWJ works on six main themes: advancing women's leadership in law, ending gender based violence, strengthening judicial integrity, fighting sextortion, promoting inclusive justice, and combatting human trafficking. [8]

The IAWJ is credited with creating the term "sextortion" in 2009 to describe the pervasive form of sexual exploitation that occurs when people in positions of authority seek to extort sexual favours in exchange of something within their power to grant or withhold. [9] [10] IAWJ also published a toolkit to "raise awareness about sextortion and provides the “tools” – guidance, information, and resources – with which to address a pervasive, but often hidden, form of corruption that degrades its victims and undermines social institutions around the world." [11]

The IAWJ works with national associations in five regions to develop and implement training on issues concerning discrimination and violence against women, including its judicial training initiative, the Jurisprudence of Equality Program. [12] Through its Towards a Jurisprudence of Equality Program (JEP), the International Association of Women Judges and its partner national women judges associations have enabled judges and magistrates in Africa and Latin America to implement effectively the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). [8]

In 2021, the IAWJ committed to rescuing and resettling endangered Afghan Women Judges. [13] The IAWJ Afghan Women Judges Rescue Committee was awarded the PILnet Global Partnership Award. PILnet is a global non-governmental organization that creates opportunities for social change by collaborating with public interest and private lawyers to provide high-quality, free legal assistance for civil society organizations. The PILnet Global Partnership Award "recognizes the best, most innovative pro bono legal project undertaken as a cross-sectoral collaboration with an impact felt in more than one country". Let's congratulate the members of this committee for their inspiring work and for many other recognitions to come. [14] The Bolch Judicial Institute has named the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) as the 2023 recipient of the Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law in recognition of the organization's remarkable efforts to evacuate, support, and resettle Afghan women judges who, because of their gender and work as judges, have faced persecution and violence since the Taliban took control of the country in late 2021. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Wald</span> American judge (1928–2019)

Patricia Ann McGowan Wald was an American lawyer and jurist who served as the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1986 until 1991. She was the Court's first female chief judge and its first woman to be elevated, having been appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. From 1999 to 2001, Wald was a Justice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations, and needs equally, regardless of gender.

Human rights in Afghanistan are severely restricted, especially since Taliban's takeover of Kabul in August 2021. Women's rights and freedom are severely restricted as they are banned from most public spaces and employment. Afghanistan is the only country in the world to ban education for women over the age of eleven. Taliban's policies towards women are usually termed as gender apartheid. Minority groups such as Hazaras face persecution and eviction from their lands. Authorities have used physical violence, raids, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, enforced disappearances of activists and political opponents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zbigniew Ziobro</span> Polish politician (born 1970)

Zbigniew Tadeusz Ziobro is a Polish politician. He served as the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Poland in the Cabinet of Mateusz Morawiecki until 27 November 2023. He previously served in the same role from October 2005 to November 2007, simultaneously serving as the Public Prosecutor General. He was elected to the Sejm on 25 September 2005 in the 13th Kraków district, running on the Law and Justice party list. He received over 120,000 votes in the parliamentary election, the highest percentage constituency results in the election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navi Pillay</span> South African lawyer, judge and human rights activist

Navanethem "Navi" Pillay is a South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. A South African of Indian Tamil origin, Pillay was the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa. She has also served as a judge of the International Criminal Court and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Her four-year term as High Commissioner for Human Rights began on 1 September 2008 and was extended an additional two years in 2012. In September 2014 Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad succeeded her in her position as High Commissioner for Human Rights. In April 2015, Pillay became the 16th Commissioner of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty. She is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Afghanistan</span> Overview of the status of women in Afghanistan

Women's rights in Afghanistan have oscillated back and forth depending on the time period as well as the regime in power. After King Amanullah Khan's attempts to modernize the country in the 1920s, women officially gained equality under the 1964 Constitution. However, these rights were taken away in the 1990s through different temporary rulers such as the mujahideen and the Taliban during the Afghan civil war. During the first Taliban regime (1996–2001), women had very little to no freedom, specifically in terms of civil liberties. When the Taliban was overthrown by the United States following the September 11 attacks, women's rights gradually improved under the presidential Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Women were de jure equal to men under the 2004 Constitution.

Jack Anthony Panella is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as a judge of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. He previously served as the President Judge up until January 6, 2024. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to his election to the Superior Court, he was a Judge on the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County, Pennsylvania.

Legal Momentum, founded in 1970, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the nation's first and longest-serving legal advocacy group for women in the United States. Betty Friedan and Muriel Fox were its co-founders and Muriel Fox is an ongoing leader of the organization. Carol Baldwin Moody became President and CEO in April 2018. The organization, founded as the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, became Legal Momentum in 2004. Legal Momentum is a multi-issue organization dedicated to advancing women’s rights and gender equality, particularly in the areas of equal education opportunities; fairness in the courts; ending all forms of gender-based violence; workplace equality and economic empowerment. The organization employs three main strategies: impact litigation, policy advocacy, and educational initiatives. It is headquartered in New York City.

Sextortion employs non-physical forms of coercion to extort sexual favors from the victim. Sextortion refers to the broad category of sexual exploitation in which abuse of power is the means of coercion, as well as to the category of sexual exploitation in which threatened release of sexual images or information is the means of coercion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penelope Andrews</span> South African and American legal scholar

Penelope (Penny) Andrews is a South African and American legal scholar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Development Law Organization</span>

The International Development Law Organization (IDLO) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the promotion of the rule of law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irene Mambilima</span> 7th Chief Justice of Zambia (1952–2021)

Irene Chirwa Mambilima was the Chief Justice of Zambia from 2015 until her death in 2021. She also served as Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Zambia and presided over the 2006 and 2011 general elections and the January 2015 presidential by-election. She was part of several election observer missions including in Liberia, Kenya, Mozambique, and Seychelles. Her other international assignments included serving as Sessional Judge of the Supreme Court of The Gambia in 2003. Mambilima sat on the International Board of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) as a Director of the Africa Region. She was also a member of several professional associations including the Zambia Association of Women Judges, the Editorial Board Council of Law Reporting, the Child Fund (Zambia), Women in Law Southern Africa, and the Council of the Institution of Advanced Legal Education.

National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) is an American professional organization founded in 1979. Members are lawyers and women judges who are dedicated to preserving judicial independence to women, minorities and other historically disfavored groups while increasing the number and advancement of women judges, and providing judicial education. The NAWJ is not to be confused with the International Association of Women Judges, which is a separate organization that was born out of the NAWJ's ten-year anniversary conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mandisa Maya</span> South African judge

Mandisa Muriel Lindelwa Maya is the Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa. She was formerly the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal from 2017 to 2022. She joined the bench in May 2000 as a judge of the Transkei Division of the High Court of South Africa and was elevated to the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2006.

Nazmun Ara Sultana first woman in Bangladesh to serve as head of an Appellate Division bench in Supreme Court. Supreme Court, the apex court that gives a final verdict in the country's judicial system. Nazmun Ara Sultana took oath as a first female justice of Appellate Division on February 23 in 2011. She goes into retirement on July 7, 2017.

Ayesha A. Malik is a Pakistani judge. She is the first female judge of the Supreme Court in the history of Pakistan. On 6 January 2022, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan approved her appointment to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. She took her oath of office on 24 January 2022. Malik has also served as a Judge of the Lahore High Court in Pakistan from 27 March 2012 to 5 January 2022.

Eusebia Munuo is a Tanzanian jurist who was a Judge of the Court of Appeal of Tanzania and served as president of the International Association of Women Judges from 2012 to 2014.

International Day of Women Judges holds every March 10 to recognize the contributions of women judges worldwide and is part of global effort to ensuring gender equality and to address gender-related judicial integrity issues. It aims to incorporate women’s representation issues into judicial systems.

Fatima Abdullah Al-Mal is a Qatari judge on the Supreme Judiciary Council. She was one of the first female judges in Qatar, the first Qatari woman to serve as a criminal judge and is one of a small number of women to work as a criminal judge in the Arab League.

Justice Binta Nyako is a judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria from Katsina State. She is the current President of the International Association of Women Judges and has previously served as the President of the Nigeria's National Association of Women Judges. She served as the chief judge of Bauchi State from 2014 to 2017, becoming the first woman to hold this position in the state and the first woman to lead a high court bench in Nigeria.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Coogan, Laura (21 May 2010). "Lady Hale becomes President of the International Association of Women Judges". UK Supreme Court Blog. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Mann, Judy (13 April 1994). "Making the Law Fair for All Aomen". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  3. ↑ "DISE's Shaheen Shariff delivers address to International Association of Women Judges". McGill University News. 1 June 2017. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  4. ↑ "Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands to speak at the United Nations". Akron Legal News. 8 March 2019. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 "SC justice De Castro is IAWJ president". University of the Philippines Diliman. 9 June 2014. Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  6. ↑ "International forum encourages judges to 'mind the gap'". The Supreme Court. 31 May 2012. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  7. ↑ Conference, IAWJ 2023. "International Association of Women Judges. Biennial Conference, 11th to 14th May 2023". IAWJ 2023 Conference. Archived from the original on 2023-02-16. Retrieved 2023-02-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. 1 2 "Our Programs - International Association of Women Judges". iawj.org. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  9. ↑ Jaques, Ken (26 July 2016). "Democracy that Delivers podcast #26: Nancy Hendry Discusses the Pervasive, but Often Ignored Problem of "Sextortion"". Centre for International Private Enterprise. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  10. ↑ Fatoorehchi, Cléo (27 February 2011). "Time to Drag Sextortion into the Light". Inter Press Service. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  11. ↑ "Naming, Shaming, and Ending Sextortion: A Toolkit - International Association of Women Judges". www.iawj.org. Archived from the original on 2023-02-16. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  12. ↑ Barberet, Rosemary (2014). Women, Crime and Criminal Justice: A Global Enquiry. Routledge. p. 73. ISBN   9781135005757.
  13. ↑ Cooper, Cynthia L. "Women Judges Mobilize to Help Endangered Afghan Counterparts". American Bar Association. Perspectives. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  14. ↑ "PILnet Global Partnership Award - International Association of Women Judges". iawj.org. Archived from the original on 2023-02-16. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  15. ↑ "Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law - International Association of Women Judges". iawj.org. Archived from the original on 2023-02-16. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.