2007 News Archive
US and Kurdish Women's Rights NGOs Launch Gender Equality Legal Training
Kurdish Regional Government, 2 December 2007
Global Justice Center, a New York-based legal NGO, has launched a legal training course in Erbil in cooperation with Kurdish Women's Rights Watch. The course will inform participants how to enhance the rights of women through the alignment of local laws with international standards....more
UPDATE: NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security Presents on Accountability and Implementation of SCR 1325 at the Security Council Annual Open Debate
November 2007
The NGO Working Group, of which the Global Justice Center is a member, was selected to represent civil society in the Security Council open debate to review implementation of SCR 1325 on October 23, 2007. The Working Group called for more effective monitoring and reporting on the implementation of SCR 1325. The statement, delivered by Gina Torry, coordinator of the Working Group, stressed that seven years after the adoption of SCR 1325, women are still excluded from decision-making bodies and are subjected to widespread and systemic violence in situations of armed conflict...more
PRESS RELEASE: The Burma Lawyers Council and the Global Justice Center urge the United Nations Security Council to take all actions necessary to stop the murders of innocent people in Burma and hold the military junta commanders criminally accountable.
October 2007
This includes authorising peacekeeping forces and creating an independent commission of inquiry to investigate ongoing crimes. Violence is a tool of the military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), to retain control over the people of Burma who are prisoners, not citizens...more
The Security Council is Obligated under Resolution 1325 to Act Now to Stop the Wide-Spread Crimes of Sexual Violence against the Women of Burma
Women's E-News, September 2007
The current violence being employed against the people of Burma by the ruling military junta is not new. Violence has been used as a means to retain control over the people of Burma for decades and the rape and torture of ethnic women has been and still is a central component of this terror....more
UPDATE: Kurdistan Regional Government's Prime Minister Barzani Likens Honour Killing to Murder
July 2007
In a recent meeting with senior religious clerics, several ministers, and leaders of
human rights and women's groups, Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan
Barzani expressed his commitment to women's rights by addressing the rise of gender-based violence
in Kurdistan and vowing to take tougher measures against those guilty of honour killings...more
UPDATE: National Policy and Legislation on Women, Peace and Security: SCR 1325 was successfully utilized by two of the major women's organizations in Colombia.
June 2007
The Women's Initiative for Peace (Iniciativa de Mujeres por la Paz) and The National
Women's Network (Red Nacional de Mujeres) utilized 1325 to ensure that the Justice and
Peace Law adequately reflects and protects women's rights and enshrines justice for
sexual and gender based violence...more
PRESS RELEASE: Global Justice Center's Partner Group Submits Recommendations to UK Iraq Commission
June 2007
The UK-based International Coordination for Gender Justice in Iraq (ICGJI) last week submitted
recommendations to the Iraq Commission, the independent cross-party UK commission to examine the
future of British commitment in Iraq...more
Victims of Sexual Violence in Darfur Face Stigma, Unresponsive Justice System
PBS, June 2007
While the situation continues to deteriorate and has threatened to spread across borders, some promising advances are showing up in the international court. The International Criminal Court issued warrants in May for two men accused of war crimes, including rape. The recognition of rape as one of the crimes is significant, said Janet Benshoof, president of the Global Justice Center in New York...more
UPDATE: Call from Iraqi Women to Ms. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives
May 2007
The Iraqi Women Movement through its members' personnel, are thrilled of your achievements at the national and international levels, and consider them an asset to all women globally, and would like call upon you and our friends in the international community, to stand up to their commitment to Iraqis against all kinds of violations of human rights and terror, that is happening in Iraq, while Iraq relation with international community and partners is clearly identified with commitments and obligations under mandates of UNSC Resolutions 1483, 1511, and 1546,...more
PRESS RELEASE: Global Justice Center Commends Iraqi Prosecutor for Including Rape in Closing Arguments of Kurdish Genocide Trial
April 2007
The Global Justice Center, an NGO that advocates for women's human rights through the
rule of law, commends Prosecutor Monquth Al Faroon for including the charges of rape and sexual violence against
the perpetrators of the Kurdish genocide in his closing arguments for the Al-Anfal trial in Baghdad...more
Iraqi Judges Trained on International Law and Crimes of Sexual Violence
National Lawyers Guild-NYC News, Winter 2007
From November 13-15, 2006, the Global Justice Center (GJC), a new INGO based in New York, provided the first training on international law and gender for women leaders from Iraq and judges of the Iraq High Tribunal (IHT). The training was requested by the IHT judges to provide them with information on international law regarding crimes of sexual violence...more