Nov 2, 2017 | Multimedia items, News, Video clips
The ICJ ends its series of profiles of its women Commissioners with an interview with Judge Kalthoum Kennou is currently serving her second term as ICJ Commissioner.
Kalthoum Kennou is a Judge of the Tunisian Cassation Court.
She previously served as an investigating Judge at the Tribunal of Tozeur in Tunisia (2010 – 2012), an investigating Judge at the Tribunal of Kairouan (2005 – 2010) and a Judge at the Court of Appeal of Tunis (2001-2005).
She is a strong advocate of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in Tunisia, and for women’s rights.
She was active in opposition to the dictatorship of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
As a consequence of her work, she was subjected to politically motivated personal attacks including arbitrary transfers to remote parts of the country.
After the political revolution in January 2011, she became President of the Association of Tunisian Judges.
She has worked on the new Tunisian Constitution and was the first female candidate in the November 2014 Presidential elections.
In this interview, Judge Kennou speaks about the reasons that prompted her to take up a legal career.
Her father was wrongly accused of high treason and imprisoned and she wanted to show people that there could be fair judges who worked independently.
On his release, her father also supported her decision to study the law.
She was appointed a judge in 1989 but said that other women had been appointed before her so it was not that difficult.
The main problems were that male judges were reluctant to discuss certain issues in front of her and she had to stand up for herself.
“However what was a bit troublesome was with the police when I gave them instructions and I think they would have preferred it was a man and not a woman. But I stood up for myself and I became an investigating judge and I was there to give orders to the police, to the clerk of court, as a judge and as a woman judge.”
Under the dictatorship of Ben Ali, she explains in the interview that there were a quite an important number of judges who resisted and defended the independence of the judiciary.
“… I think our resistance had some results. The proof was that just after the revolution, the question of the independence of the judiciary became a demand of the people, not just the judiciary.”
She explains in the interview that now 43% of the judiciary in Tunisia are women.
This is because there are more women studying law, more women than men, and because the government is promoting women’s equality.
However, many women may take up a legal career without wishing to become a judge.
This is because of family reasons, as they don’t wish to be appointed to a court away from home and in some families, parents might feel that women should be protected from some of the real problems of society.
“But actually I think this kind of thinking is less common now and will disappear bit by bit. Judges have shown that they can have an impact and society accepts female judges more than male judges. They consider that female judges are less corrupt, that they are more serious and are making more efforts to deliver justice.”
The main problems for women in accessing justice in Tunisia are related to pressure from the family not to file complaint in cases of domestic violence.
Also there is a problem with the attitudes of the police who do not take physical aggression against a woman seriously.
The third issue is the mentality of some judges, including some women judges, who are not really convinced that a husband does not have the right to beat his wife.
“The law exists but we should also work on people’s mentalities so that the law is correctly applied.”
Judge Kennou concludes the interview with some advice for young women considering a legal career. She said that a young woman must learn to “stand up for herself and for her rights at home because you cannot be free, you cannot give to others, if your own rights are not realized… I think that a woman who wants to be a judge should be really convinced and well trained about human rights so she can apply the law in a correct manner. “
Watch the interview:
The series of profiles introducing the work of ICJ Commissioners and Honorary Members on women’s rights was launched on 25 November 2016 to coincide with the International Day to Eliminate Violence against Women and the first day of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign.
Jul 28, 2017 | Multimedia items, News, Video clips
The ICJ continues its series of profiles of its women Commissioners with an interview with Prof. Jenny E. Goldschmidt, who is currently serving her third term as an ICJ Commissioner.
She was first elected to the Commission in 2003 and re-elected in 2008 and 2013.
She is a Member of the Advisory Board of Nederlands Juristen Comité voor de Mensenrechten (NJCM), and NJCM Public Interest Litigation Group. The NJCM is the ICJ’s National Section in the Netherlands.
In this wide-ranging interview, Jenny describes how she started out her career as a lawyer by studying Constitutional law; how her interests began to focus on the haves and the have nots and from there her interest in human rights developed.
She explains how she has always combined academic research and teaching with practical work, particularly during her years as the President of the Equal Treatment Commission in the Netherlands. She also stresses the importance of working in an inter-disciplinarian manner.
For example, she explained that after academics had developed concepts of direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, and systemic discrimination, these concepts were taken on board by lawyers and have been incorporated into case law.
She gave the example of how the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice are now incorporating this type of stereotyping into their equality concept.
She emphasized human rights law must protect women and that this protection must be embodied in law.
She considered that it is vital to take cases to the Treaty Bodies and courts everywhere to establish severe measures against discrimination and domestic violence.
But human rights lawyers also need sociologists to help find the arguments that convince people and how we can influence their behavior.
“Sometimes soft law and mediation can be effective and you need other disciplines to show in which cases which instruments are most effective,” she said.
She explained that because women are not a homogenous group and because of migration and all the divisions in society, inter-sectionality has become one of the crucial challenges for women’s rights.
She believes in combining a focus on the general problems which all women face as well as taking into account that some women are even less equal than others – that women who belong to minorities, that women who are disabled, that girls are more vulnerable than the majority of women.
“I think one of the things that the disability convention tries to do by giving a specific provision for women and girls rights is that it forces the authorities, the Treaty Bodies, the national and international institutions to be aware of the fact that we are talking about women and disabled people and that we have to take two perspectives at the same time into account,” she added.
When asked what advice she would give a woman who wants to pursue a career in human rights she said: “Don’t give up! And don’t think it will be easy. Human rights world still is a man’s world.”
Jenny Goldsmith is currently Emeritus Professor of Human Rights Law, and was from 2007-2014 Director of the Netherland Institute of Human Rights at the University of Utrecht.
From 1994-2003 she was President of the Equal Treatment Commission of the Netherlands.
She is on the board of Disability Studies in the Netherlands and involved in several NGOs of disability rights, democracy, and human rights.
Watch the interview:
The series of profiles introducing the work of ICJ Commissioners and Honorary Members on women’s rights was launched on 25 November 2016 to coincide with the International Day to Eliminate Violence against Women and the first day of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign.
Oct 6, 2015 | News
Judges and representatives of judicial training institutions from 9 countries across Southeast Asia gathered in Jakarta, Indonesia, to discuss how judicial decision-making can be further strengthened from a gender perspective.
A two-day event (5-6 October 2015), this judicial dialogue, entitled Regional Judicial Dialogue on Judging with a Gender Perspective, was organized by the ICJ, in collaboration with the Supreme Court of Indonesia and UN Women.
Participants discussed key topics such as initiatives of various courts in Southeast Asia that promote and protect women’s human rights, what are gender stereotypes and how gender stereotyping could be avoided in judicial decisions.
Speakers from the Supreme Court of Mexico were invited to speak about the initiative taken by the judiciary in the country to establish a protocol on judging with a gender perspective.
Senior judges from courts in Southeast Asian countries attended the event: Justice Dr. Takdir Rahmadi of the Supreme Court of Indonesia, Justice Suntariya Muanpawong, Chief Judge of the Research Division of the Supreme Court of Thailand; Justice Teresita De Castro of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, Justice Maria Natercia Gusmao Pereira of the Court of Appeal of Timor Leste; and Ms. Natalia Calero Sanches and Ms. Macarena Saez of the Mexican Supreme Court.
This dialogue is aimed at strengthening the participants’ ability to make decisions based on the rights to equality and freedom from discrimination.
UN Women also launched an online interactive platform that seeks to enhance dialogue among judges, prosecutors, court personnel, judicial training institutions, women’s machineries, scholars and other experts in the region.
The platform called, “Equality for All: community of change makers”, will enable users to access tools such as e-discussion forums, blogs and quick fact sheets that offer tailored learning solutions.
Jul 2, 2015 | News
The Human Rights Council today adopted a resolution on the independence of judges & lawyers, with several new provisions on gender balance in the judiciary, judicial accountability, children and court proceedings, and development of professional guidance on marginalized and other groups.The resolution builds on past resolutions of the Human Rights Council.
The full text of the resolution is here: HRC29-ResolutionJudgesLawyers-2015 Its official resolution number has not yet been assigned.
The main sponsors of the resolution were Australia, Botswana, Hungary, Maldives, Mexico, Thailand. The resolution was adopted by consensus (without a vote).
A resolution on this topic will next be presented in 2017.
