The International Institute will host Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams and Perseus Strategies Managing Director Jared Genser at a Human Rights Initiative panel discussion on March 17.
“Women’s Rights in the Twenty-First Century: Fifteen Years after U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security” begins at 3 p.m. in Room 1636 of the School of Social Work Building, 1080 S. University Ave. Kiyoteru Tsutsui, director of the Human Rights Initiative, will serve as moderator.
The event is free and open to the public, and the discussion will be live-streamed at ii.umich.edu. People can also follow @iimichigan live on Twitter.
In 2000, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1325, shaping the global understanding of the roles of women in conflict situations and peace-building processes. It called on member states to take measures to increase the participation of women in peace-building processes and to protect women from gender-based violence.
Dozens of countries have developed National Action Plans to implement Resolution 1325, and several Security Council resolutions have been adopted to reinforce the norms codified in the resolution.
This year, the Security Council will re-evaluate the resolution’s agenda. To close the gap between the promise of Resolution 1325 and its implementation, 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Williams, commissioned Perseus Strategies to prepare and submit a report to the Security Council evaluating the impact of Resolution 1325 and recommending how its implementation can be addressed.
In anticipation of the report that is to be submitted later this month, Williams and Genser will join the U-M Human Rights Initiative to preview its findings and its implications, and to discuss women’s rights in the 21st century.
Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which shared the prize with her that year.
Since 2006, she has worked with the Nobel Women’s Initiative, which she currently chairs. The initiative uses the prestige of the prize and the influence and access of female Nobel laureates to support and to amplify the efforts of women around the world working for sustainable peace with justice and equality.
Genser is managing director of Perseus Strategies, a law and consulting firm that focuses on human rights, humanitarian, and corporate social responsibility projects. He is also founder of the Freedom Now, which works to free prisoners of conscience worldwide.
He is also an associate of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University and a columnist for The Diplomat, a current affairs magazine focused on the Asia-Pacific.
