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For Immediate Release
Contact: media@aclu.org

U.S. Human Rights Experts To Make Recommendations For Advancing Women's Rights

ACLU Co-Sponsoring Roundtable On Thursday Featuring Special Remarks By U.N. Special Rapporteur On Violence Against Women

NEW YORK

The
American Civil Liberties Union will co-host a roundtable discussion on
the advancement of women's rights as human rights on Thursday at the
United Nations Church Center in New York. The event will underscore
issues facing the 53rd session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of
Women, one of the first international forums the U.S. will participate
in under the Obama administration.

The roundtable will feature U.S.
human rights advocates sharing their visions and plans for engaging
with the Obama administration to address, among other things, human
trafficking, violence against women, issues facing women in the
criminal justice system, women workers' rights issues, reproductive
rights and police brutality against women of color.

WHAT:
Roundtable discussion featuring U.S. human rights experts on how to advance women's rights under the Obama administration

WHO:
Moderated by Lenora Lapidus,
Director of the ACLU Women's Rights Project, and Jamil Dakwar, Director
of the ACLU Human Rights Program

Special remarks by Professor Yakin Erturk, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women

Speakers to include:
Malika Saada Saar, Executive Director of the Rebecca Project for Human Rights;
Ivy Suriyopas, Staff Attorney at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund;
Betsy Hawkings, Managing Director of Government Relations at Amnesty International;
Andrea Ritchie, Director of the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center;
Cathy Albisa, Executive Director of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative;
Sarah Paoletti, Director of the University of Pennsylvania Law School Transnational Legal Clinic;
Louise Melling, Director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project

The event is co-sponsored by the
ACLU, the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, the Asian American Legal
Defense and Education Fund, the Urban Justice Center and the National
Economic and Social Rights Initiative

WHEN:
Thursday, March 5, 6:00 p.m. EST

WHERE:
United Nations Church Center
777 United Nations Plaza, 8th floor conference room
New York, NY 10017

This
event is free and open to the public and members of the media. Please
RSVP by Wednesday, March 4 by emailing Eliza Reshefsky at: ereshefsky@aclu.org

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

(212) 549-2666