Monday, 23 July 2007
Topic: What is dignity? Definitions/understandings. Is
dignity universal and/or is it individualistic? What is the utility for a
concept of dignity in social justice work? What are measurable manifestations in
life that tell us whether dignity is realized in a particular context? What
measurements constitute failure? What is the
role of the State in ensuring right to dignity for
all? (Register by Thursday, 19 July)
Facilitator: Priti Darooka (India) is
Founder and Executive Director of the new intíl Program on Womenís Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (PWESCR). Previously at the Ford Foundation in the
New York Human Rights unit, her work has focused on promoting women and ESCR.
Prior to the Ford Foundation, she worked with UNIFEM on violence against women
indicators & assessment and coordinated UNIFEMís work in Afghanistan. As a consultant to the
Center for Women's Global Leadership, she organized a women’s human rights
hearing at the UN conference against Racism in Durban, South
Africa. She was National Campaign Coordinator
with UNITE for their Global Justice for Garment Workers Campaign. Priti
has also worked with Manavi, a
South Asian womenís organization working with women and children who faced
violence in their lives. At Urban Justice Center (UJC), she worked with the NYC
Welfare Reform & Human Rights Documentation Project, where she developed
policy briefs on welfare reform and women, which were used as a media and
advocacy tool by welfare advocates of NYC to expose human rights violations. She
was also involved in the Stop FTAA (Free Trade Area of Americas) campaign and
focused on different aspects of trade, and women’s lives, from a feminist and
human rights perspective.
*This is
event is hosted by equalinrights in cooperation with
PWESCR. PWESCR is a new
international initiative in the area of gender and economic, social and cultural
rights (ESCR). PWESCR works with its partners in the region (South
Asia) and internationally to develop new strategies to focus more
effectively on building capacity and strengthening women’s research, analysis
and activism on ESCR. PWESCR’s mission is to promote women’s human rights,
especially in the context of economic, social and cultural rights, by bringing a
gender framework to policy, law and practice at the local, national, regional
and international levels through continually-evolving strategies and activities
in both the conceptual and the practical realms. We are requesting funding for
the first year of activities.
In order to get conceptual clarity and to learn from
experiences globally, PWESCR plans to facilitate several e-discussions on the
Right to Dignity in the next 6 months. Additionally, we have personally invited
20 individuals from various parts of the world to comment on the paper, Thoughts
on dignity. We plan to conduct some additional interviews and continue our
research on the issue. Based on what kind of responses we get, PWESCR plans to
organize a 2 day international consultation in early 2008 on Dignity and how to
make it real. We plan to capture all our learning and various conversations with
some thought
on indicators,
and forward strategies in a paper/report that we will publish in 2008. For
PWESCR, dignity is crucial as we have realized in South Asian context given how
severe the impacts of poverty are that we cannot talk about women’s ESC rights
without talking about dignity.
Monday,
30 July 2007
Topic: Have human rights-based strategies been successful
in ensuring
more grassroots
voices are heard and listened to during local and
national policy development processes? (Register by
Thursday, 26 July)
Facilitator: Aye Aye Win (Burma) is the
Co-founder and Executive Director of Dignity International and responsible for
the organisation's overall operation. Dignity International works to: support
human rights advocacy of the communities in the frontline of the struggle for
survival - people whose basic human rights are denied; connect the different
struggling communities across national borders; and build a global family for
lasting social change. She has initiated a number of programmes including the
Linking & Learning Programme on Human Rights in Development. She is involved
in facilitating learning programmes and developing participatory learning
materials on human rights based approaches. Previously, Aye Aye worked with the
Council of Europe (1997-2002), the London-based NGO International Alert
(1993-1996) and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Japan on
secondment.