News
View AllAmplifying Global Voices in a Pandemic: Three New Podcasts to Follow
April 9, 2020
Penn Law International Follow Penn Law’s vibrant programs across the spectrum of international, transnational and foreign law. Law Leadership, and Influence Highlights from Rangita de Silva de Alwis’ ground-breaking course, which brought together women leaders in law and business for engagement with Penn Law students on the radical changes in public leadership in law and business around the world. In our Own Voice Student voices discuss various legal topics through a feminist lens.
Associate Dean of International Affairs to Moderate 2019 High Level Political Forum Side Event on “Innovating Partnerships with the Private Sector: How to achieve greater SDG Impact?”
July 10, 2019
“This event, co-organised by the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) and the Fourth Sector Group, in collaboration with the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD, will bring together senior level officials from governments, business, and civil society for an inspiring discussion on a new generation of partnerships that use public resources in ways that contribute to the realisation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The event will introduce the “Kampala Principles” for Effective Private Sector Engagement (PSE) in development co-operation. Based on specific examples presented by business leaders and governments, the event will demonstrate how the principles are already being applied in specific partnerships and what is needed to encourage others follow suit and scale up such successful partnerships in different contexts and sectors. The event will be organised as a moderated panel discussion, comprised of a range of senior level speakers which will be followed by an interactive discussion with the audience.”
“When Law is Complicit in Gender Bias”: Associate Dean Rangita de Silva de Alwis published in SDG Goal 5 Book
May 20, 2019
This publication by the SDG Fund and Thomson Reuters examines the ways in which gender must be integrated into all 17 of the SDG Goals. Goal 5 on gender equality is not only a goal in itself but also a precondition for the achievement of all 17 SDG Goals. Rangita de Silva de Alwis, along with other scholars and practitioners around the world, examines gender discrimination in the law in a chapter named: “When Law is Complicit in Gender Bias.”
Students in “New Debates in International Women’s Rights” seminar present policy proposals to United Nations leadership
May 9, 2019
Few law school classes involve convenings at the UN. Even fewer give students a forum to discuss their policy proposals with UN leadership. Yet Penn Law students in Associate Dean for International Programs Rangita de Silva de Alwis’s seminar on “New Debates in International Women’s Rights” did just that when they convened at the United Nations on April 29 to present their research to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN Women, Office of Legal Affairs, and the newly appointed Office of the Secretary-General’s Victims’ Rights Advocate. The students had the opportunity to present to Under-Secretary-General and Legal Counsel Miguel de Serpa Soares and Assistant Secretary-General Jane Connors and other experts. For students eager to share a semester or more of research, this audience of key policy leaders was an inspiration.
The Use of Lethal Force by Law Enforcement Officials on Persons with Mental, Cognitive, and Developmental Disabilities
April 22, 2019
STUDENT WORKING PAPER Allyson Reynolds L’19 & Allison Perlin L’20 as part of an Independent Study supervised by Rangita de Silva de Alwis, Associate Dean of International Affairs. Report presented to Agnes Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions & Ambassador Valentine Rugwabiza, Rwanda’s Permanent Representative to the UN
Celebrating Women’s History Month
March 1, 2019
To mark Women’s History Month, we present four extraordinary stories that change the public conversation. On a personal level, I celebrate the women who have made history and shaped my thinking: Radhika Coomaraswamy, Asma Jahangir, Hina Jilani, Mary Robinson, Martha Minow, Nancy Gertner, Hillary Clinton, Melanne Verveer, Deborah Rhode, Paula Johnson, and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The Female Mentors of Male Leaders
February 28, 2019
In The Odyssey, before he leaves for the Trojan War, Odysseus asks Mentor, a wise old friend to watch over his son, Telemachus. While Odysseus was on the battleground, goddess Athena, also disguised herself as Mentor to watch over Telemachus, creating Western history’s first interpretation of a female-male mentor relationship. Below, Bill Burke-White, Richard Perry Professor and Inaugural Director of Perry World House, speaks of the role of powerful female mentors and role models in his journey to leadership with Associate Dean of International Affairs Rangita de Silva de Alwis.
In Their Own Voice: Penn Law Women Speak: What it Means to be a Feminist Lobsterer
February 27, 2019
In a special edition of the Penn Law Feminism Podcast Series to acknowledge International Women’s Day, Sophie Gaulkin speaks to Jake Romm on becoming a woman lobsterer.
Celebrating Dorothy Roberts
February 27, 2019
Twenty-two years ago Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty changed the national conversation on race, gender and reproductive justice. Two decades later, it remains more critical than ever before–a rallying cry around the world, for education, awareness, and action. Its vision for reproductive justice for all women engages in the global conversations on Female Genital Mutilation, virginity testing, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization and asks questions on how women’s ability to control their bodies is constantly challenged by politics, economics, race, cultural traditions, and injustice. A whole generation of feminist scholars and practitioners are trained on Dorothy Robert’s groundbreaking scholarship. In marking International Women’s Day, we speak to her about the way she continues to exert an influence on the study of law, gender, and its intersections. A Q&A with Rangita de Silva de Alwis, Associate Dean of International Affairs
When Male Leaders Sponsor Women
February 27, 2019
For Women’s History Month, Sharada Srinivasan, CTIC Fellow, talks about the way in which a global leader at Penn Law has championed her academically, professionally, and personally.