Asia Cause Lawyers Network is born
On January 3-4, 2007 the Asia Cause Lawyers Network (ACLN) was organized in New Delhi, with the Lawyers Collective Women’s Rights Initiative as the secretariat. This is a new regional organization of women’s human rights lawyers who are trial lawyers or who are in the academe. “Cause Lawyering’ is described as using law, litigation and law reform as an instrument of social change.
Among those who attended the organizational meeting and who will compose the Steering Committee are:
Indira Jaising of Lawyers Collective (New Delhi); Savitri Goonessekere (Sri Lanka), a former member of the CEDAW Committee of experts and former Vice-Chancelor of Colombo University; Guo Jianmei, founder Director of the Centre for Law Studies and Legal Services of the School of Law, Peking University (China); Anna Wu, current advisor to the Shantou University in Hong Kong, former founding head of the Equal employment Opportunity Commission; Salma Ali (Bangladesh),Executive Director of Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers Association; Akiko Ito, japanese laywer and head of the Disability Division of the U.N. , Rita Kalibonso (Indonesia), heads the organization Mitra Perempuan, and member of the Steering Committee of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, Komnas Perempua, Sapa Malla (Nepal), is a known fearless lawyer in Nepal; Ramamurti Vaigai is an eminent lawyer from Chennai, India, specializing in labour law litigation;Yaowalka Anupaha (Thailand), the Chair of the Human Rights Sub-Committee on Children, Women, Elders and Disabled Persons of the Lawyers Council of Thailand, and Rowena Guanzon (Philipppines), a litigation lawyer, advocate of children’s rights, women’s human rights and judicial reform, writer and lead author of two books on gender and women’s rights in the Philippines.
The ACLN is supported by the Wellesly Centers for Women.
