A discussion among international lawyers and experts, this panel explores what might be the components of a feminist peace, how such a vision might be possible in today’s international law and what changes to the structures of international law might be needed.
The panel will be chaired by Louise Arimatsu with speakers Monica Feria-Tinta, Patricia Viseur Sellers, Cordula Droege and Mohbuba Choudhury. This panel is part of the Visions of Feminist Peace programme, supported by an AHRC grant title A Feminist International Law of Peace and Security led by Prof Christine Chinkin and Dr Louise Arimatsu. The Visions of Feminist Peace programme is co-hosted with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
About the speakers:
Mohbuba Choudhury is a Policy Officer at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangladesh working on the Rohingya refugee response.
Cordula Droege (@CDroegeICRC) is the chief legal officer and head of the legal division of the ICRC, where she leads the ICRC’s efforts to uphold, implement and develop international humanitarian law. She joined the ICRC in 2005 and has held a number of positions in the field and at headquarter, including as head of the legal advisers to operations, and most recently as chief of staff to the President of the ICRC. She has some twenty years of experience in the field of international law, and in her earlier career worked for the International Commission of Jurists, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Max Planck Institute for International Law. She holds a law degree and a PhD from the University of Heidelberg and an LL.M from the London School of Economics
Monica Feria-Tinta (@MFeriaTinta) is a barrister at Twenty Essex and acts for States and private parties before international courts and tribunals. She was lead counsel in the ground-breaking case of the Castro Castro prison, which initiated the feminisation of human rights law in the Americas, and in which the Inter-American Court ordered the prosecution of a former Head of State for crimes against humanity (including violence against women). She has advised on gender justice cases arising from South Sudan (before CEDAW) and is counsel on a number of cases relating to de-colonising processes (South Pacific), extractivism in the Americas, and climate change world-wide. In 2018-19, Monica served as Assistant Legal Adviser to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Prior to the Bar, Monica had a stint at the ICTY and ICJ working on the adjudication of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and as legal adviser to a State in the negotiation of the Rome Statute. She is currently a Partner Fellow at the LCIL.
Patricia Viseur Sellers is an international criminal lawyer. She is the Special Advisor for Gender for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Ms. Sellers is a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College of the University of Oxford and a Practicing Professor at London School of Economics. She was the Legal Advisor for Gender and a prosecutor at the Yugoslav (ICTY) Tribunal and Rwanda Tribunal (ICTR).
Chair: Louise Arimatsu (@larimatsu10) is Distinguished Policy Fellow in the Centre for Women, Peace and Security, where she works on the AHRC project 'A Feminist International Law of Peace and Security' and the ERC project 'Gendered Peace'. Her current research projects include 'A Feminist Foreign Policy' and 'Women and Weapons'.
See the full Visions of Feminist Peace programme here
