EWL national coordination for Spain, LEM España, is hosting a series of lectures on CEDAW titled “CEDAW today.”
All sessions will be on Mondays, at 18:00 (CEST, Spanish time) and through Zoom (previous registration is requested). This project has been funded thanks to EWL’s Membership and Activities Support Fund. All sessions will be moderated by de LEM España General Secretary Teresa Nevado.
The first session took place on 13th September with Alda Facio an internationally renowned jurist. She talked about “CEDAW: origins, elements and guiding principles”. Alda is a Costa Rican feminist lawyer and writer. In 2014, she was elected by the Human Rights Council (OHCHR) to be part of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls until 2020. She is also the founder of the Women’s Human Rights Institute and president of the Justice and Gender Foundation. She was one of the drafters of the first drafts of the Belém do Para Convention, as well as the UN Declaration on the elimination of violence against women. She also participated in the drafting of the Optional Protocol to CEDAW.
The second session will take place on Monday 20th September at 18:00 (CEST) with two speakers: Anna Zobnina and Drisha Fernandes. Anna is policy coordinator at European Network of Migrant Women. She has over 10 years of experience in the area of feminist analysis of male violence & discrimination against migrant women with a specific focus on migrant and refugee women, sexual and reproductive exploitation and domestic work. Anna’s lectur will talk about “Mechanisms for the international protection of the rights of women and girls”.
On the other hand, Drisha is an anthropologist and human rights defender. He has led organizations, alliances and projects in armed conflict / post-conflict to resolve and prevent disappearances, extrajudicial executions and torture. She is currently fighting against trafficking for prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation of women and girls. Drisha will speak about “Substantive equality for women and the industries that violate it today”. Here is the link for the second session.
The last session will take place on Monday 27th September at 18:00 (CEST) with two speakers: Ana Peláez and Susana Martínez. In addition, EWL’s President, Réka Sáfrány will join the session.
Ana Peláez is High Commissioner for Solidarity and International Cooperation of the ONCE Social Group and Vice President of the ONCE Foundation for Latin America (FOAL). She is also Commissioner for Gender and Equality and Executive Vice President of the CERMI Women Foundation. At the European Disability Forum, she is its Vice-President and President of the Women’s Committee. At the United Nations, from 2009 to 2016, she was a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, of which she has been its Vice-President. Since 2019 she has been a member of the UN Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. In February 2021, she was elected as one of the vice-presidents of the CEDAW Committee for the period 2021-2022. Her lecturer’s title is “The challenges facing CEDAW today”.
Susana is a practicing lawyer and a member of the Family Lawyers Association. In addition, she is the founder of the firm Martinez Novo Abogados. Since 2010, she has presided over the women’s association Comisión para la Investigación de Malos Tratos a Mujeres (CIMTM), focused on the fight against gender violence. Susana participates in the CEDAW’s shadow platform in Spain. She also works as a teacher and writes articles on legal news in various media. Her intervention will be “CEDAW: its influence and recommendations on national policies. Here there is the link for this last session.
