IntLawGrrls |
| Posted: 05 Nov 2010 11:51 AM PDT  Santa Clara is pleased to again host with the International Committee of the Red Cross an intensive, hands-on workshop on international humanitarian law. Details and application materials are available here. Now in its fifth year, the Workshop is free to law students and will be held January 4 - 7, 2011, at Santa Clara University School of Law. (We will also consider applications from LLM and other special students.) The Workshop features faculty drawn from the ICRC, the U.S. Armed Services' JAG Corps, lawyers from the Department of Defense/State, and law professors specializing in humanitarian law. The Workshop involves a series of lectures as well as exercises on the various topics, including target selection and proportionality, protected persons, internment/detention rules, the interface of IHL with human rights law and the crime(s) of terrorism, and war crimes prosecutions. The Workshop includes three and a half days of instruction and culminates in a final drafting/negotiation simulation on Friday morning that consolidates the prior material in a real-world context. Participants who complete the program will receive a certificate from the  ICRC.Because there is no registration or other fee, the only cost involves travel and lodging costs. We arrange for a block of hotel rooms at a discounted rate for students. Some law schools have assisted their students with these costs. The Workshop is quite competitive; in the past, we have received over 100 applications for the 40 available spots. Nearly all of the students accepted were 2nd or 3rd year law students, and most had substantial experience in this field. As a result, we cannot guarantee that everyone who applies will be accepted, but we do appreciate recommendations for good candidates for the program. Our student evaluations are consistently high; all students attending last year agreed that the course was an excellent supplement to their legal education and a great opportunity to meet IHL practitioners and learn more about this important area of law. IHL was once a somewhat obscure, technical, and highly specialized area of law. It now is a topic of everyday conversations. This process pre-dated the events of 9-11, but those attacks thrust IHL into a spotlight in which it has remained ever since. Indeed, not a day goes by when there is not a story in the major newspapers implicating IHL, and dozens of cases are proceeding in U.S. and foreign courts adjudicating IHL rules and treaties. Notwithstanding this greater attention to the field, misunderstandings persist about when IHL applies and what it dictates. This misinformation is found within the press, among government policymakers, within the general public, and among the judiciary and lawyers. One of the goals of this course is to give future young lawyers the tools they need to understand and apply IHL, evaluate arguments and claims about IHL, and be effective advocates in situations and cases that implicate IHL. Given the globalization of law, a basic understanding of international law in general and of IHL in particular are an essential part of any lawyer's legal literacy. If you have any questions about this program, please feel free to contact Elyse Segnit. For our prior posts on the workshop, see here and here.  |
| Posted: 05 Nov 2010 03:16 AM PDT  The International Organization for Migration has released a report examining the gender dimensions of remittances. Drawing on several studies of gender differences in patterns of sending and receiving remittances, the report suggests strategies for helping women on both ends of the remittance chain to ensure that they and their families can maximize the benefits of these money flows. As the report recognizes, remittances are the second largest source of external funding for developing nations, and thus an important tool in poverty reduction and local development; understanding the gender dimensions of these flows is vital to achieving these goals.The report lays out several interesting findings. While female and male migrants send approximately the same amount of remittances, women tend to send a higher proportion of their income and over longer periods of time. Women also send money more regularly, which means that they may be more significantly harmed by high transfer fees. While male migrants largely send remittances to their spouse, female migrants send money to the person, often also female, who cares for their children. Women also tend to take more responsibility for money transfers to extended family members. Because of this sense of familial responsibility and due to traditional gender roles, female migrants may face particular pressure to remit much of their earnings. As a result, they may accept very challenging living and working conditions. The constraint of gender roles from home may be compounded by a lack of legal status in the destination country. Women without lawful means of migration may have to rely on smugglers simply to enter that country. They may then be forced to spend much of their earnings repaying debt. Once they arrive, female migrants are often restricted to low-skilled jobs in domestic work, agriculture, hotel and catering, and sex work. Women in these fields face significant challenges, including low pay and withheld wages, which makes them even more vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation -- particularly if they are under pressure to remit. Women in these sectors also face barriers to formal remittance channels both because of a lack of lawful status and because they may be isolated in their workplace and accommodation. These challenges faced by female migrants are not new to readers of this blog, but it is important to note that they affect not only the human rights of these migrants but also the development goals of their home countries. In the home country, women are often recipients of remittances. In some countries, women are empowered to manage these funds, while in others, male relatives control the use of remittances. In the latter case, women and children become more vulnerable to poverty and sexual abuse from their family and from the broader community. From a policy perspective, it is important to ensure that women are direct recipients of remittances in order to increase economic empowerment. Moreover, programs should focus on making investment options more accessible to female remittance recipients, who may have limited access to credit and financial literacy.  |
| Posted: 05 Nov 2010 01:04 AM PDT  On this day in ...... 1917, a daughter, Jacqueline Marie-Thérèse Suzanne Douet, was born into a weathy family in Challans, a town southwest of Nantes, France. After completing university and art studies, she married the son of a Socialist Party leader, became known as Jacqueline Auriol, and gave birth to 2 sons. During World War II she aided the French Resistance. Becoming a pilot at war's end, Auriol is known as "France's most distinguished aviatrix." Among her achievements, for which she was admitted to the Legion d'Honneur: "the world's first woman test pilot"; setting of "a new women's speed record"; and "second woman to break the sound barrier"; and "one of the first pilots to fly the supersonic Concorde." She did humanitarian work, too: Madame Auriol worked with the Ministere de la Cooperation, using remote sensing techniques to gather information for agricultural development. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization presented her with the Ceres Medal for her significant contributions.Auriol, who published her autobiography (above right) in 1968, died in 2000 at age 82.  |
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