October 22-23, 2011–New Delhi, India–Virtue Foundation is proud to support and participate in the Second Annual Women and Justice Conference, “Gender-Based Violence and Justice in South Asia,” hosted by the Cornell Law School’s Avon Global Center for Women and Justice, Jindal Global Law School and developed in collaboration with UN Women, Virtue, Kriti Team, the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life at Brandeis University, and Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI). The Conference is taking place in New Delhi, India, on October 22nd and 23rd, 2011 at the India Habitat Centre.

The Conference brings together stakeholders working on eradicating violence against women and girls from around the world, particularly from South Asia—including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka—and the United States to, among other things, share knowledge and strategies, and to network. Dr. Joan LaRovere, Virtue’s Co-Founder and Vice President, will present our program goals and current justice track projects in Ghana in the plenary session entitled “Comparative Approaches to Advancing Access to Justice for Women and Girls.” Additionally, Program Director Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum will chair one of the parallel session discussions on “Drafting and Enacting Laws to Combat Gender-Based Violence: A Focus on Acid Violence.”

In addition to creating a dialogue across national boundaries, the Women and Justice Conference is aimed at fostering interactions between people who often operate in isolation from each other although working toward shared goals. To this end, this event brings together judges, scholars of law and other disciplines, human rights activists, survivors of violence, health care and legal professionals, and policy makers to: foster discussion on law, policy developments, and advocacy strategies to address gender-based violence; enhance international collaboration and networks of stakeholders working to advance access to justice for women and girls; examine opportunities for using international human rights frameworks and mechanisms to address gender-based violence; engage academia and scholarly works to inform the development of advocacy tools and strategies to address gender-based violence; and support and strengthen national and international women’s movements.

The conference will convene over 200 people from nearly 15 countries. Participants include senior and distinguished judges from national and international courts, including judges from the highest courts of Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka, as well as judges from high and appeal courts of the United States and India. Reaching across disciplines and borders, the event will engage economists, women’s studies scholars, legal professionals and scholars, and health professionals, as well as leading human rights advocates who are key figures in the global movement to end violence against women.