Past Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitors

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (2006 Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor) has been a key player in helping develop and strengthen the indigenous women’s movement not only in the Philippines but in Asia as well as in other developing countries and is currently Chairperson of the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

She is an indigenous woman, herself, a Kankana-ey, Igorot from the Cordillera region in the Philippines. She organized the Asian Indigenous Women’s Network (AIWN) in 1993 and, as Convenor of the AIWN, was the main organizer of the Indigenous Women’s Tent in Huairou, China during the World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. This came up with the “Beijing Indigenous Women’s Declaration” which has become a main framework for the global indigenous women’s movement.

From being a community and indigenous women’s organizer since the late 1970s and into the 1980s under the martial law regime in the Philippines, she has emerged as one of the main leaders of the global indigenous peoples’ movement. She is published widely on globalization, militarism, ecology, sustainability, bio-diversity, technology, traditional spirituality, and women’s and indigenous organizing, including articles on: Biodiversity, Traditional Knowledge and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2003), Biotechnology and Indigenous Peoples (2001), Thirty Years of Lobbying and Advocacy by Indigenous Peoples in the International Arena (1999), Globalization and its Impacts on Indigenous Women: The Philippine Case (1998), Reclaiming the Earth Based Spirituality of Indigenous Women (1995), Depoliticising Gender in Beijing (1995).

She is co-founder and executive director of Tebtebba (Indigenous People’s International Centre for Policy, Research and Education) and the Cordillera Women’s Education and Resource Centre. She co-organized the Indigenous Caucuses at the WTO Ministerial meetings in Seattle (1999) and Cancun (2004) and is a founding member of the Indigenous Initiative for Peace set up by Rigoberta Menchu Tum in 1994. She played a key role in the establishment in 2000 of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues within the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The Forum is mandated to provide advice to governments, UN Bodies, agencies and funds on issues of indigenous peoples especially in the areas of economic and social development, environment, education, culture, health and human rights.

LECTURE: "Indigenous Women and Feminism: Human Rights and Canadian Corporations." Click here to view a video of the lecture.
COURSE: "Indigenous Women and Feminism: Opportunities, Gains and Challenges"

Marieme Hélie-Lucas (2005 Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor), an Algerian sociologist, was in charge of the policy of education and training for the new industries and for gas (1962-66). Ms. Helie Lucas has also taught epistemology in the social sciences at Algiers University (1967-80). In 1984, she founded Women Living under Muslim Laws (WLUML), an international solidarity network that provides information, support and a collective space for women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws and customs said to derive from Islam. She was the International Coordinator of WLUML from 1984 to 2000.

Women Living under Muslim Laws now extends to more than 70 countries ranging from South Africa to Uzbekistan, Senegal to Indonesia and Brazil to France. The network aims to strengthen women’s individual and collective struggles for equality and their rights, especially in Muslim contexts by: breaking the isolation in which women wage their struggles by creating and reinforcing linkages between women within Muslim countries and communities, and with global feminist and progressive groups; and sharing information and analysis that helps demystify the diverse sources of control over women’s lives, and the strategies and experiences of challenging all means of control. WLUML’s current focus is on the three themes of, fundamentalisms, militarization, and their impact on women’s lives, and sexuality. As a theme, violence against women cuts across all of WLUML’s projects and activities.

LECTURE: "Women Living Under Muslim Laws: Struggles Against Fundamentalism in Europe and Norht America."

Indai Sajor (2004 Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor) is an internationally known activist and educator in the field of women’s human rights. She is currently Senior Advisor of the International League for Human Rights in New York, and was in 2003-4 a Rockefeller Fellow on Human Security and Gender at the City University of New York. She is Founder and former Executive Director of Asian Women’s Human Rights Centers, and has been Executive Director of the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice at the International Criminal Court. In 2001, Indai organized a conference on “Justice and Accountability: Obstacles and Strategies toward International Justice, Peace and Security after September 11.” From 1998 to 2001, she served as co-convener of the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery, a landmark initiative to redress the Japanese military’s sexual enslavement of women from nine Asian countries and recognize sexual violence against women as a crime against humanity. Indai documented the experiences of Filipino comfort women, eventually filing a case against the Japanese government for its abuses in April 1993. Much of her career has been devoted to articulating and training others to defend women’s human rights throughout Asia and Africa, and to documenting women’s human rights violations in situations of armed conflict. She has made formative contributions to numerous regional and international feminist networks, among other things in their work connecting and mobilizing women around United Nations world conferences on Human Rights (Vienna 1993), Population (Cairo 1994), Social Development (Copenhagen 1995) and Women (Beijing 1995). Her numerous publications include The Impact of Chemical Warfare into the Reproductive Rights of the Women and Men in Vietnam (2000, co-edited with Le Thi Nham Tuyet), Common Grounds: Violence Against Women in War and Armed Conflicts (1998), Women and Human Rights and the Challenge of HIV/AIDS (1994), Seizing the Alternative to Forge a Better Future (1994).

LECTURE: "Put Wrong on the Scaffold and Truth on the Throne: The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal."
COURSE: "Women, War and Human Rights."

Alda Facio (2003 Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor) is a jurist, writer and international expert on women's human rights, violence against women and feminist analysis of the law. In September 1996, Alda was awarded the first Women's Human Rights Award from International Women, Law and Development in Washington D.C. As one of the founders of the Women's Caucus for Gender Justice in the International Criminal Court (ICC), she was its first Director from July 1997 to September 1999. Since 1990, she has been the Director of the Women, Gender and Justice Program at the United Nations Latin American Institute for Crime Prevention (ILANUD) based in Costa Rica. The Program focuses its work around the elimination of gender inequality and violence against women from a criminal and human rights perspective. It does legal, social and political analysis and research; and trains judges, parliamentarians, police, lawyers and women. Alda has written widely on these issues and was one of the first women in Latin America to denounce the androcentric bias in Human Rights law and practices. For 14 years she was a correspondent for FEMPRESS, a Latin American Feminist Magazine.

LECTURE: "The Empire Strikes Back But Finds Feminism Invincible."
COURSE: "Women's Human Rights and Peacemaking, Feminist Theory and Practice in Latin America and Around the World."

Rita Thapa (2002 Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor) has over twenty years experience as a feminist educator and community activist, initiating and supporting institutions for women's empowerment and for peace in Nepal and Asia as well as internationally. She is widely recognized for her groundbreaking work in founding Tewa, The Nepal Women's Fund, and is currently involved in founding Nagarik Aawaz, an initiative for conflict transformation and peace-building in Nepal. In recognition of this exceptional "innovative contribution to the public good" Rita has received the rare honour of being named an Ashoka Fellow. She has also served on the International Committee of the Regional Center for Strategic Studies, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, is a past Board Member and Chair of the Global Fund for Women, and serves on the International Board of the newly formed Urgent Action Fund.

LECTURE: "Tewa - Doing the Impossible: Feminist Action in Nepal -The Founder's Story."
COURSE: "Special Topics in Women in Development and Community Transformation: The Politics of Development and Women's Global Advancement: Perspectives from Nepal and South Asia."

Moema Libera Viezzer (2001 Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor) is a Brazilian feminist, with a Master of Sociology and Adult Education, specializing in Popular Education and leadership learning. Her work focuses mainly on themes of gender relations and environmental education. Moema is known worldwide for her concern for feminist and women's movements and she has contributed to the start-up and development of several websites, forums, councils and local, national and international NGOs. In 1980, Moema founded Rede Mulher de Educação (RME), a Brazilian women's network dedicated to popular feminist education. She was a co-founder of the Brazilian Instituto ECOAR para a Cidadania (São Paulo/Brazil), an NGO dedicated to Environmental Education and she is a co-founder of the Instituto de Comunicação Solidária (Paraná/Brazil), dedicated to building the capacity of grassroots groups and social movements dealing with communication media. Among her publications the following are most well-known: Let me speak... Domitila (Siglo XXI Editores, 1976, translated into 18 languages); Women Are Not The Problem (Ed. Cortez, São Paulo, 1992); Latin American Manual for Environmental Education, with Omar Ovalles and Rachel Trajber (Ed. Global, São Paulo, 1995). She is also organizer and co-author of many types of educational materials (documentary videos, radio programs, booklets, periodicals), among which the most outstanding are the training manual on "Gender Relations in the Cycle of a Project" (Rede Mulher de Educação, São Paulo, 1995) and the KIT of educational materials, "Changing the World with Rural Women" (Rede Mulher de Educação, São Paulo, 2001). She has received honourable mentions from the International Council for Adult Education and the Baha'i Foundation for her contributions to development of popular education and citizenship action. Presently, Moema is director of her own consulting enterprise, MV Consultoria, and works as a national and international consultant. She is also coordinator of Programs at the Instituto de Communicacao Solidaria. She lives with her family in Toledo, Paraná, Brazil.

LECTURE: "Feminist Transformative Leadership: A learning experience with peasant and gatherer women in Brazil."

Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi (2000 Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor) is founder of the African Women's Development Fund, and Director of Akina Mama wa Africa, an international, pan-African, non-governmental organization for African women based in the UK with an African regional office in Kampala, Uganda. Translated from Swahili, AMwA means "solidarity among African women," signifying African sisterhood. AMwA coordinates local, regional and international initiatives and serves as a networking, information, advocacy and training forum for African women in order to build their leadership capacities to influence policy and decision-making.

Ms. Adeleye-Fayemi took over the Directorship in 1991 and under her leadership AMwA established the African Women's Leadership Institute (AWLI) in 1996 as a contribution towards the post-Beijing initiatives in the African region. AWLI serves as a network of young African women for professional support, advice and information, and sharing of expertise. It convenes an annual residential leadership training institute in Kampala, Uganda for women from a number of African countries.

In addition to her work with AMwA, Ms. Adeleye-Fayemi has lectured on feminist theory and activism at universities throughout the UK and the USA. She has presented at conferences in various parts of Africa, Western and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and the United States. She serves as an advisor and consultant to UN agencies such as UNIFEM and UNDP. Among her recent publications are Taking the African Women's Movement into the 21st Century (1997); Leadership Development as a Tool for African Women's Empowerment (1997); Feminist Leadership in Africa (1999).

LECTURE: "Creating and Sustaining Feminist Space in Africa: Local-Global Challenges in the 21st Century."
COURSE: "Feminist Leadership Development in the African Women's Movement."
URL: http://www.famafrique.org/

Le logo de famafrique combine représentation traditionnelle de la fertilité en Afrique de l'Ouest et le symbole international des femmes, rappelant l'appartenance des femmes africaines à la communauté mondiale, solidaire dans le respect de la diversité des richesses culturelles régionales.

Nighat Said Khan (1999 Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor) is Dean of the Institute of Women's Studies in Lahore, Pakistan, Executive Director of the Applied Socio-Economic Research and Resource Centre and a founding member of Women's Action Forum. She is a noted feminist activist and scholar. She has been active in women's groups and networks at the local, regional and global level and has published widely on feminism, political economy and development. Her publications include Unveiling the Issues (1995), Aspects of Women and Development (1995), A Celebration of Women (1995), and an edited collection entitled Voices Within: Dialogues with Women on Islam (1992) and a co-edited volume Locating the Self: Perspectives on Women and Multiple Identities (1994).

LECTURE: "Women's Human Rights, Women Versus the State: Women's Action Forum and the Women's Movement in Pakistan."
COURSE: "Women Versus the State, The Pakistani Women's Movement, Implications for the Global Women's Movement."

Peggy Antrobus (1998 Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor) established the Women and Development Programme (WAND) of the University of the West Indies in 1978, and was co-ordinator until her retirement in 1995. She is co-founder of the DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era) Network (1984) and was general co-ordinator from 1990 to 1996.

Dr. Antrobus obtained her BA in Economics from Bristol University in 1958 and her Doctorate of Education of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1998.

Her recent publications include Women’s Defense of Local Politics in the Face of Structural Adjustment and Globalization, Advances of Women in the Caribbean, and Women as Agents of Economic, Ecological and Political Change.

She is a recipient of several awards including the CARICOM Triennial Award for Women (1990) for her contributions to women’s programs in the Caribbean region and the UNIFEM Anniversary Award for extraordinary commitment of the world’s women.

LECTURE: "Women's Leadership: Catalysts for Change."
COURSE: "Women Organizing Globally from Mexico City to Beijing and Beyond."

Eudine Barriteau (1997 Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor) was chosen by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) to inaugurate the Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor Program. She is Director of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies, University of The West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados.

Dr. Barriteau obtained her Ph.D. at Howard University, Washington, D.C. She has received many scholarships and awards including IDRC/IRRI Scholarship – Manila Philippines; Latin America Scholarship; McNamara Memorial Fund Scholarship; American Association of University Women Scholarship Howard University Departmental Fellowship and Staff Fellow – The Hague, Netherlands.

Dr. Barriteau’s recent publications include Structural Adjustment Policies in the Caribbean; The Implications of Feminist Theory for Development Policy, Research and Action; Postmodernist Feminist Theorizing and Development Policy and Practice and Socialist Feminist Theory and Caribbean Women.

She is presently co-ordinating a research project called “Caribbean Women: Catalyst for Change.” The first phase will be the publication of a volume of critical essays on Dame Nita entitled Stronger, Surer, Bolder: Ruth Nita Barrow, Social Change and International Development. She is currently developing a course entitled “Men and Masculinity in the Caribbean.”

LECTURE: "Are Caribbean Women Taking Over? Contradictions for Women in Caribbean Society."
COURSE: "Women Leaders as Catalysts for Change."