Lee Waldorf Email
Lee Waldorf is the Human Rights Advisor at UNIFEM Headquarters in New York. Prior to joining UNIFEM she worked with UNICEF’s Division of Evaluation, Policy and Planning. She was a practicing lawyer in Canada. She is an author and a lead editor of a number of significant publications regarding CEDAW and the human rights based approach, such as ‘CEDAW and th Human Rights Based Approach to Programming; A UNIFEM Guide’ (2007); ‘Pathway to Gender Equality: CEDAW, Beijing and the MDGs’ (2004); and ‘Turning the Tide: CEDAW and the Gender Dimensions of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic’ (2001).
Countries of work: Global
Working languages: English
Madhu Mehra Email
Madhu Mehra is feminist lawyer and a founding member and the Executive Director of the Partners for Law in Development, Senior Member for Asia Pacific Forum for Women, Law and Development (APWLD) and IWRAW-AP. She has worked with UNIFEM South and Southeast Asia Regional Offices on CEDAW training for government officials in India and Cambodia from 2005, and took part in the CEDAW training programmes for judicial officers by British Council and the University of Warwick. As a researcher and consultant on women’s rights, she has contributed to CEDAW training, implementation and reporting and promotion of domestic and international human rights law from a feminist perspective at national, regional and international levels through advocacy, and designing and conducting training programmes for governmental and non-governmental institutions.
Countries of work: India; Asia Pacific
Working languages: English
Pramila Patten Email
Pramila Patten is a CEDAW Committee Member since 2003; and also consultant for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), and Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) and ILO, Geneva. Within these functions, she has provided technical assistance on CEDAW training, implementation and reporting to state parties and parliamentarians. She was also invited as a key speaker and resource person to a number of international conferences and seminars. In her home country, Mauritius, she has been practicing barrister since 1982, served as district court magistrate for two years, and as a legal advisor to the government ministries. She drafted for the government, bills on protection from domestic violence (amendment), sex discrimination, and family laws amongst others.
Countries of work: Global
Working languages: English, French
Rea Chiongson Email
Rea Chiongson is a lawyer and a consultant on gender, human rights and international law. She is involved in UNIFEM’s Southeast Asia Programme (SEAP) on CEDAW as a consultant to provide technical assistance to assess compliance of national laws with CEDAW in Indonesia and Cambodia. She has worked as a programme officer and a resource person at IWRAW Asia Pacific for a number of CEDAW trainings. She formerly served as the Deputy Secretary-General for the Manila-based Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism and as a member of the Human Rights Committee, LAWASIA.
Countries of work: Southeast Asia
Working languages: English
Dr. Saisuree Chutikul Email
Dr. Saisuree Chutikul is a former Minister attached to the Office of the Prime Minister of Thailand and a current member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women from 2007. She is a senator in the Thai Parliament and the chair of several bodies working against trafficking of children and women. She has been the leading advocate of progressive views on children, women, education, and social development, and has represented her country on various United Nations committees concerning the rights of women and children, including the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as the Vice Chairperson 2001-2005. She is also currently Thailand representative to the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children.
Countries of work: Thailand, Southeast Asia
Working languages: English
Salbiah Ahmad Email
Salbiah Ahmad is a legal practitioner of Syariah and civil laws in Malaysia and Singapore and teaches, inter alia, Islamic Family Law, Constitutional Law and Land Law at the International Islamic University, Malaysia. She also served as the Deputy Head of Office and Senior Gender Adviser to the Office of the UN Recovery Coordinator for Aceh and Nias (UNORC) in Banda Aceh, Indonesia from 2006. She has extensive experience in gender, human rights and Islam and has worked on these concerns with Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) and the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD). She also co-founded the Malaysian NGO, Sisters in Islam (SIS), where she worked until 1997 on contextualising the principles of convergence of Islam, Gender, Human Rights and developing reformation within the Islamic Framework.
Countries of work: Asia Pacific; Global
Working languages: English
Salma Khan Email
Salma Khan is a former member and the first Asian elected as the chairperson of the CEDAW Committee. She is currently the Chairperson and Project Coordinator of NGO Coalition of Beijing Plus Five (NCBP); board member of Women for Women (a research study group), Bangladesh; and a member of the National Council on Women and Development and National Education Commission. She is also founder of CEDAW Forum, an action and lobbying group for full implementation of the Women’s Convention in Bangladesh. She held public office and has been involved in the area of women’s development for over 19 years. As an economist and human rights expert, her professional and publishing work has focused on economics, women, children, labour, credit and NGOs.
Countries of work: South Asia; Global
Working languages: English
Sapana Malla Pradhan Email
Sapana Malla Pradhan is Nepal Constituent Assembly Member. Advisor, Committee on Violence Against Women, Office of the Prime Minister; Board Member of IWRAW-AP; Chair of the Executive Board, Equality Now. Over the last fifteen years, she has been engaged in advocacy, preparation of national action plan and shadow report and capacity building for the implementation of CEDAW, working with Governments, NGOs and international organisations. She has published extensively on the legal status of women in Nepal. As a practicing lawyer before the Supreme Court of Nepal, she has been an advocate for the rights of Nepali women in several landmark cases. She has been involved in almost all leading public litigation in the country, including cases involving legalisation of abortion, criminalisation of marital rape, and equality in marriage and family law. Due in large part to her efforts, more than 64 discriminatory laws of Nepal have been struck down.
Countries of work: Nepal; South Asia
Working languages: English
Savitri Goonesekere Email
Dr. Savitri Goonesekere is a former CEDAW Committee Member from 1999-2002. Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She was formerly Vice Chancellor, University of Colombo. She has contributed to advocacy and law reform initiatives in Sri Lanka and has regularly acted as a consultant for a wide range of international bodies and as an advisor to several UN agencies working on law and human rights projects in the Asian region. She has represented Sri Lanka at a number of international forums. She has published widely on family law, women and children’s rights, human rights, law and development issues.
Countries of work: South Asia
Working languages: English
Shantha Mohan Email
Dr. Shantha Mohan is a former member of the NGO Forum for the Review Session of the CEDAW, United Nations, New York, 2000. Fellow and the Head of the Gender Studies Unit, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore since 1997 to date; also served as an Assistant Professor to the Department of Education, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore from 1990-1997. Executive Member of Mahila Samakya (Education for Women’s Equality), Karnataka; and Coordinator, Country Group, IWRAW-AP. While engaging in advocacy and study projects and publishing a number of work on various gender issues such as water management, economic empowerment, governance and violence, she has also worked on sensitising government and non-government officials, grassroots workers and police officers on gender issues through training and orientation programmes.
Countries of work: India; South Asia
Working languages: English
Shanti Dairiam Email
Shanti Dairiam is a former CEDAW Committee Member. For the last twenty-seven years she has focused her professional and community work on the promotion of women’s rights in a variety of contexts. She has undertaken collaborative projects with women’s NGOs, Governments and international institutions that aim to contribute to the effective implementation of international human rights standards for the advancement of women. Her work has included creating and developing conceptual clarity and tools in regard to: the practical application of CEDAW Convention, methodologies for research oriented advocacy, and training. She is the founder of IWRAW Asia Pacific.
Countries of work: South Asia
Working languages: English
