Confronting Violence - Patricia Allen Lecture with Radhika Coomaraswamy
Join us for a Patricia Allen Lecture, which is part of the Annie Macdonald Langstaff Workshops series, with Radhika Coomaraswamy in conversation with DCL candidates Vishakha Wijenakaye and Luisa Castaneda-Quintana. Professor Shauna Van Praagh will act as moderator. This year's theme for the Annie Macdonald Langstaff Workshops series is “Mothers-in-law”: Intergenerational Dialogues on Women and Human Rights, and is organized in collaboration with the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.
About the speaker
Radhika Coomaraswamy is a lawyer, diplomat, and human rights advocate. She is a graduate of the United Nations International School in New York. She received aBA from Yale University, a JD from Columbia University, an LLM from Harvard University, and honorary PhDs from Amherst College, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Essex, and the University of Leuven.
Radhika Coomaraswamy served as the Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (2003-2006). She was the first Special Rapporteur on violence against women (1994-2003). She was also a former Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (2006-2012).
In 2005, the McGill Faculty of Law recognized her with the Centre for Human rights and Legal Pluralism's Litvack Award, during which she gave as speech titled "The Struggle for Human Rights - A Personal Story."
In 2014, Ms. Coomaraswamy was appointed by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as lead author on the Global Study on the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325, on Women, Peace, and Security. More recently, she was appointed as a member of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar established by the United Nations Human Rights Council (2007-2019).
About the theme
The theme for the 2021-2022 Annie MacDonald Langstaff Workshop series - “Mothers-in-Law: Intergenerational Dialogues on Women and Human Rights” - underscores the value of conversation across generations for enriched knowledge and understanding, meaningful commitment to equality, and inspired feminist action. As was the case in 2020-2021, the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism is co-sponsoring the Faculty of Law’s series dedicated to the memory of Annie MacDonald Langstaff, the first woman to graduate in law from McGill. Following the same format as last year, women jurists who are leaders and mentors in their respective fields of study and practice are invited to engage in dialogue with women doctoral students associated with the Centre. The intergenerational conversations will focus, in turn, on “Finding Voice”, “Changing the Rules”, “Confronting Violence”, and “Caring for our World”.
