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Jurisprudence of Equality Program | Other Notable Programs | International Conferences
Other Notable Programs
The United Nations (UN) has honored the IAWJ for the Jurisprudence of Equality Program it conducts. Since 2004, the UNIFEM Trust Fund has honored the IAWJ and its Jurisprudence of Equality Program at UN headquarters twice by inviting the IAWJ and its members from Tanzania to speak at the United Nations at special events to highlight their work to combat discrimination and violence against women. The UNIFEM Trust Fund also featured JEP as its lead story and justice project in its 10th Anniversary Book in 2007. In 2006 the United Nations Division on the Advancement of Women similarly recognized the IAWJ and the Jurisprudence of Equality Program by featuring its work at the launch of the U.N. Secretary-General's In-depth Study on Violence Against Women presented to the Third Committee of the General Assembly
Judicial Education Programs: The IAWJ conducts special education programs targeting specific countries and issues.
- Africa: The IAWJ has worked closely with its partner associations in Africa. Most recently, in 2008 a new program in Tanzania funded by the UN Democracy Fund was launched titled "Jurisprudence on the Ground (JOG)" that provides training for judges as well as community leaders through our partners, the Tanzania Women Judges Association (TAWJA) and the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa-Tanzania (SWAA-T). In 2008 the IAWJ provided expertise assessment of continuing JEP programs in Uganda and in 2009 facilitated a four-day Train- the- Trainers Workshop in Mombasa, Kenya, under the leadership of the Kenya Women Judges Association. In 2009, the IAWJ and its partner association in Zambia launched a new, UNIFEM-funded program, "Jurisprudence, Justice, Accessibility and Accountability in Zambia" (JJAAZ) in Lusaka, with the Zambia Women Judges Association.
- Central America: In 2006-2007 judges from El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, and the U.S. met first in El Salvador and then in Washington for multi-day judicial consultations on cross-border issues, such as trafficking, labor migration, and child custody.
- Jordan: In 2005 and 2006, the IAWJ conducted trainings in Amman, Jordan.
- Afghanistan: Since 2004 the IAWJ along with its partners, the Association of Women Judges Afghanistan (AWJA) and the Rural Women's Leadership Institute of Vermont (RWLIV), has conducted four three-week judicial education programs for women judges from Afghanistan. In addition to looking at all levels of the judiciary and rule of law issues, the women judges participated in capacity-building workshops to strengthen their leadership roles in the AWJA. In June 2005, the IAWJ and its partner, the Afghan Women Judges launched a new program in Afghanistan: Legal Awareness for Women and High School Girls in Kabul High Schools. Through this program, the AWJA educated approximately 1000 teachers and girl students about their human rights under the new Afghan Constitution.
International Biennial Conferences: Since 1992, the IAWJ holds biennial membership conferences that focus on different critical and international judicial issues. Held in different geographic regions, conferences have addressed such issues as: vulnerable and marginalized women, (Argentina, 2000), creative justice (Ireland, 2002), access to justice for women (Uganda, 2004), and judicial independence (Australia, 2006). In 2008 the 9th Biennial Conference in Panama City, Panama, explored the theme of Equal Justice for All: Access, Discrimination, Violence, Corruption. The next conference is set for May 11-15th, 2010 in Seoul, South Korea with the theme, Judicial Challenges in a Changing World.
Public Outreach: The IAWJ sponsors lectures by noted international members and other experts, films for an invited public, and events honoring the achievements of women judges. For example, in March 2009 the IAWJ planned and convened with support from the Avon Foundation, the Global Forum for Women and Justice, which allowed participants to share their expertise in helping women access their rights through the law. The IAWJ honors individual members through reception such as one held in Washington in 2007 featuring IAWJ former president Justice Carmen Argibay of the Supreme Court of Argentina as she received the prestigious 2007 Gruber International Prize for Justice. The IAWJ also annual participates and presents panels at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW annual meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Newsletter: Counterbalance International is the well-regarded, semi-annual newsletter of the IAWJ that highlights IAWJ programs and membership activities, addresses issues of importance to women judges, and features judicial opinions breaking new ground in women's human rights. The newsletter is available in electronic and hard copy, which is sent to members all over the world, and is published online in English, Spanish and French.
Website: The IAWJ offers an active website which contains information about the IAWJ, pictures, human rights resources, JEP cases, news updates, discussion boards, and online newsletters in English, French, and Spanish.
Membership Directory and Global Database: The IAWJ maintains a biennial membership directory that is updated annually. The IAWJ is also developing a global database that would allow rapid classification of women judges according to their nationality, expertise and language fluency.
Honoring contributors to women's human rights: The IAWJ presents awards at its international conferences to member judges who have made notable contributions to advancing women's human rights. Past honorees include former President of the Women Judges Association of Panama, Hon. Esmeralda Arosemena de Troition; former IAWJ President, the Hon. Carmen Argibay, member of the Supreme Court of Argentina; the former Ambassador Gertrude I. Mongella, first elected woman President of the Pan-African Parliament; the Hon. Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, former Presiding Justice of the UN War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; and the Hon. Navathem Pillay, former Presiding Justice of the UN War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda, former member of the International Criminal Court and current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights..
Law Book Projects: In 2007, the IAWJ and the US. National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ-USA) conducted a program where law codes in Dari, the new constitution, and international human rights law were distributed to the women judges of Afghanistan. In 2000, the IAWJ and the U.S. National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) collected several thousand used but still useful law books, and shipped them to Ghana where the women judges of Ghana resented them to the Supreme Court library. A similar shipment was sent in 2001 to the Supreme Court of Tanzania.
Collaborating with other international organizations: The IAWJ collaborates actively with other international organizations and donors to advance the rights of women, especially through judicial systems. For example:
- In 2008, the IAWJ collaborated with UN Development Program, UNIFEM, the International Legal Assistance Consortium, the Judiciary of Ghana, and Brandeis University Center for International Ethics, Justice and Public Life to plan and convene a colloquium for Partners for Gender Justice held in Accra, Ghana.
- In 2007, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization invited the IAWJ to participate in a consultation in Rome, Italy on property rights and HIV/AIDS.
- In 2006 and 2007 the IAWJ worked with the World Bank on a project that built the capacity of indigenous African NGOs to generate funding proposals for programs that address the issues of discrimination, violence, HIV/AIDS and gender in Africa
- In 2006 the IAWJ recommended African judges to The Hague Convention on Private Family Law for a consultation the Hague Conventions.
- In 2006 the IAWJ worked on a USAID-funded project with Chemonics to bring together women judges from around Russia.
- In June 2005 the IAWJ collaborated with the World Bank to bring together JEP-trained jurists from Tanzania and Uganda to participate in a global distance learning dialogue designed to explore relationships of gender, law, violence, property, and HIV/AIDS in Africa. The objective of this consultation was to raise issues and generate ideas to expand the capacity of national judiciaries to address the legal and gender dimensions of HIV/AIDS.
- In May 2005 the IAWJ collaborated on a USAID-funded project with DPK Consulting Inc for the judiciary in Jordan, working specifically with the Jordanian Ministry of Justice on their Judicial Upgrading Strategy (JUST), the Judicial Institute of Jordan (JIJ), and the women judges of Jordan. The IAWJ conducted a gender assessment of judicial education programs, the empowerment of the judiciary, particularly women judges, and a national survey on perceptions of the judiciary.
- The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) invited the IAWJ to participate in a May 2005 workshop held in Utrecht, Netherlands. The workshop discussion guided the development of a manual that will serve as a practical guide for government officials and other stakeholders on how to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
- In March 2005 the IAWJ and its Jurisprudence of Equality Program was featured as a panel discussion at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., during International Women's Week.
- In 2002, the IAWJ was the first non-government organization to be invited to send a Special Observer to the Special Session of The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and as of 2004 was elevated to one of the few NGOs to hold Expert Status.
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