Professor Lisa Davis, Co-Director of the Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic (HRGJ), serves as Special Advisor on Gender Persecution to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. She led the dialogue on “Persecution by gender, racism and/or ethnicity in transitional justice.”
Lisa brought the support and expertise of HRGJ to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, the Colombian transitional justice mechanism through which members of the Public Force and third parties who have participated in the Colombian armed conflict are investigated and put on trial.
On November 9, the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC released the Draft Policy Paper on the Crime of Gender Persecution for public consultation.
Dr. Beth Van Schaack is the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice in the U.S. State Department office, which advises on issues related to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. On November 28, Van Schaak submitted the United States’s observations —including Lisa Davis’s work — to the draft policy on gender persecution to the International Criminal Court
Van Schaak notes that the U.S. policy towards gender “aims to address intersecting forms of discrimination in underserved communities, including communities of color, to advance equity, equality, and dignity for all,” and that the collective efforts encouraged more references to intersectionality in the policy. Lisa’s work as Special Advisor on Gender Persecution was cited as the cornerstone of the U.S. draft policy.
