Park and Siminovic with a Women's March of Minnesota t-shirt
The Advocates for Human Rights' Women's Program Director, Rosalyn Park, participated in an Expert Group Meeting convened by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its causes and consequences. Held January 13, the conference was hosted by the London School of Economics. UN Special Rapporteur, Dubravka Šimonović, invited Park to participate as part of the experts panel. The information gathered at the meeting will be included in the Special Rapporteur's report to the United Nations.
In addition, the UN Special Rapporteur on VAW has called for information from state governments, civil society and other experts on protection orders and shelters for women victims of violence. The request states that, “[p]rotection orders and shelters are extremely important for the protection of women, their sense of safety, their ability to overcome the effects of abuse and planning for the future.” The information collected will help the Rapporteur prepare her thematic report for the UN Human Rights Council in June of 2017. All interested parties should submit their information by January 30, 2017 to vaw@ohchr.org.