Global Women’s Leadership Project
Penn Law’s Global Women’s Leadership Project (GWLP) provides research for UNESCO and UN Women in support of their work on women, peace and justice and women’s human rights.
Distinguished Advisors
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Irina Bokova |
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka |
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Ambassador Melanne Verveer Executive Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the first U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues |
Mission Statement
“Global citizens like you know that fairness and equality start with empowering women and girls.” - Justin Trudeau
Under the distinguished leadership of UN Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (former Vice President of South Africa), and Irina Bokova, the Secretary-General of UNESCO (the leading female candidate for UN Secretary General in 2016), Penn Law launches the Global Women’s Leadership Project. The Project, the first of its kind, is distinctive in its unique vision: to bolster the primacy of SDG Goal 5 C’s target on gender equality law reform through research support for UN Women’s and UNESCO’s work on gender-based justice sector reform.
Founded on the spirit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of 2015, Penn Law’s Global Women’s Leadership Project strives to provide research support to UNESCO’s gender-related work on peace and justice and UN Women’s work in women’s human rights, specifically relating to legal reform, and the elimination of discrimination in justice systems. Adopted by 193 countries, The SDG’s is the crowning achievement of the global development agenda and one of the most ambitious platforms of action. Goal 5 is inextricably interlinked to all 17 SDG goals and recognizes that gender equality and ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls everywhere is linked to sustainable development and security.
UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls around the world. In 2007, UNESCO designated Gender Equality as one of its two Global Priorities. Gender equality is central to UNESCO’s overarching objectives of peace and sustainable development.
Working with Student Fellows, Penn Law’s Global Women’s Leadership Project’s research will build on the Beijing Platform of Action, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and its intersectional treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015). Further, taken together, the UN Security Council’s eight resolutions 1325 (2000); 1820 (2009); 1888 (2009); 1889 (2010); 1960 (2011); 2106 (2013); 2122 (2013); and 2242 (2015) provide landmark guarantees to promote and protect the rights of women in conflict and post-conflict under the rubric of the Women Peace and Security Agenda. Penn Law’s Global Women’s Leadership Project will convene important global leaders on critical conversations and build a single umbrella of research on one of the key targets of Goal 5 of the SDGs, the adoption, and strengthening of sound policies and enforceable legislation on gender equality.
Founding Director
- Rangita de Silva de Alwis, Associate Dean of International Affairs and Advisor, UN Sustainable Development Goals Fund
Program Coordinator
- Kait Johnstone, Program Coordinator, International Programs
Global Advisors
- Radhika Coomaraswamy, former Under Secretary General for Children in Armed Conflict and first UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women. Currently, member of the High Level Fact Finding Mission to Myanmar
- Asma Jahangir, UN Special Rapporteur for Iran
- Hina Jilani, member of the Elders and former UN Special Representative for Human Rights Defenders
- Indira Jaising, former member of the CEDAW Committee and currently, Chair of the High Level Fact Finding Mission to Myanmar
- Aisha Oyebode, CEO of the Murtala Muhammed Foundation (MMF)
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Gülser Corat, Director of the Division for Gender Equality in the Office of the Director-General at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris
2015-2018 Global Women Leaders Forum
From 2015-2018, Penn Law has hosted leading women trailblazers from around the world creating a platform to amplify women’s leadership as an urgent cause of the 21st century.
Featured Global Women Leaders: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President Mary Robinson, Navi Pillay, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Irina Bokova, Zainab Hawa Bangura, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Ambassador Moushira Khattab, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Asma Jahangir, Hina Jilani, Indira Jaising, MK Tzipi Livni, Penny Wong, Lubna Olayan, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Making Laws, Breaking Silence: Case Studies From the Field
Making Laws, Breaking Silence: Case Studies from the Field grows out of a high-level roundtable convened by Penn Law, UN Women, UNESCO, UN SDG Fund, and IDLO in March 2017. The convening brought together over 30 legislators, judges, and policy experts from more than 15 countries to examine new developments and challenges in gender equality lawmaking under Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The following case studies and essays expand on those deliberations and interactions and highlight some tensions in evolving law reform efforts around the world. Closing the enforcement gap in gender equality laws is often called the “unfinished business of the 21st century.” These reflections offer fresh insights and policy guidelines for UN agencies, multilaterals, government entities and civil society organizations charged with gender-based law reform.
Project News
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November 16The Women Leaders: Power, Together session will be a roundtable of extraordinary women leaders (current and former female Heads of State/Government and other special guests) addressing the most complex challenges of our times. It will be held in cooperation with the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL) on a yearly basis at the WLGF. The inaugural event will be held at the Höfði House, a historically significant building where the Cold War came to an end with a momentous summit between American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986. In 2018, in a moment where the global focus is once again on fractures, chaos and violence, women leaders will gather at this historic site to accelerate progress toward peaceful societies.
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November 7During the World Bank’s 2018 Law, Justice, and Development Week, Penn Law’s Associate Dean for International Programs Rangita de Silva de Alwis spoke with UNWOMEN’s Constitutions and Access to Justice Advisor Beatrice Duncan about the impact of gender discriminatory laws around the world, including the pernicious economic effects of laws that control women’s and girls’ status in the family. -
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October 12The #MeToo movement has made significant progress exposing the prevalence of sexual violence in today’s society, while also helping to dispel myths that prevent victims from speaking out against their abusers. The movement has gained more power than ever over the past year, holding once untouchable men, such as Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and Matt Lauer, accountable for their actions. #MeToo has also dismembered myths surrounding sexual assault and harassment, including the idea that such violence is unpreventable because “boys will be boys,” or that a woman is “asking for it” if she dresses or acts a certain way. However, even with such significant progress, the treatment of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court Nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh show the steps that still must be taken before the country takes sexual violence seriously. -
August 29In honor of Gender Equality Day, Penn Law celebrates Sophie L’Hélias LLM ’87, founder of the Gender Diversity Exchange℠ (GDE). In the story below, she digs deep into her intimate narrative and the powerful forces, both personal and political, that led her to create this groundbreaking index described by L’Hélias as “a search engine for positive impact, that draws upon my experience as an investor, lawyer and board director.”
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August 28In the wake of these movements, India saw a “Naming and Shaming” Campaign spread through social media. Raya Sarkar, then an LL.M. Candidate at University of California, Davis School of Law, posted a crowd-sourced list of Indian academicians who were alleged to have committed acts of sexual harassment or assault on her Facebook account in October 2017, which soon became viral. -
August 27Students explore feminism and shared experiences through conversations with each other. -
August 26Through student conversations, the new blog series will serve as a platform to advance knowledge about gender through the voices of emerging women leaders at Penn Law. Starting out with a conversation between two women leaders of Penn Law, Leah Wong and Teresa Akkara, both trailblazing women of their generation, these conversations will recognize what the movement for the 19th Amendment did not: that gender intersects with other axes of inequality, such as race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, religion, age, and nationality and can help cross-fertilize ideas across cultural and other divides.
