Marking the Tenth International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

nov25_stamp_96x96As I wrote about a year ago today, November 25th has been designated by the United Nations as “International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women” since 1999.  The date was selected to “commemorate the lives of the Mirabal sisters,” who were assassinated on November 25, 1960 during the Trujillo dictatorship (as explained more fully in the General Assembly resolution to which I just linked).

Today Vice President Biden issued a statement marking the occasion:

Violence against women is found in every culture around the world. It is one of our most pervasive global problems, yet it is preventable.  When gang rape is a weapon of war, when women are beaten behind closed doors, or when young girls are trafficked in brothels and fields – we all suffer. This violence robs women and girls of their full potential, causes untold human suffering, and has great social and economic costs….

Indeed, it is hard to overestimate the impact of pervasive violence against women in the lives of women, men, and children all over the earth.  According to a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report,

The UN Development Fund for Women estimates that one in three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused.

It describes domestic violence against women as perhaps the most pervasive human rights violation known today.

Women are more at risk of death or disability from violence than from cancer, road accidents, war, or malaria.

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Mainstreaming International Law in Legal Education

globeThis week is “International Education Week”, a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education to promote “programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States.”  Schools and other educational institutions around the country have been carrying out activities around this national theme, including Marquette University.

The thematic week prompts me to explore the role of international law in the American law school setting. Although the curriculum of law schools in the United States has traditionally offered a narrow focus on domestic law, it has slowly expanded over the last century to include an international focus, albeit a limited one.   While this development can be seen most readily with the proliferation of foreign exchange programs such as Marquette Law School’s own summer program in Giessen, Germany, it also appears through the positioning of international law classes in the curriculum of traditional legal education.

Since the mid-century, it has become common for law schools to sprinkle course listings with upper-level and elective classes in international law. 

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Feingold: Sept. 11 Prosecutions Will Advance Justice and American World Standing

The decision to prosecute five people accused of involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in federal court in New York drew support Friday from US Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) in comments at a one-hour discussion at Marquette University Law School.

“That’s the way to go,” said Feingold, who has been highly critical of the long confinement, without trial, of the suspects at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

At the same time, US Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. announced that several other suspected terrorists will be tried in military courts. That group includes Ad Al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who allegedly planned another major attack, the bombing of the Navy destroyer Cole in 2000 in Yemen.

The decisions to go the two different routes in the cases will provide an interesting opportunity to compare civil and military handling of cases of this kind, Feingold told Mike Gousha, who moderated the session and who is a distinguished fellow in law and public policy at the Law School.

Feingold said bringing the Sept. 11 suspects, including Khalid Shaikh Muhammed, who has claimed he masterminded the attacks, into civil courts and allowing the justice system to proceed to a verdict on their cases is the appropriate course, said Feingold, a member of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee. “This advances not only our legal system, but our credibility in the world,” he said.

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