1 Forced Marriage in Conflict Situations Conference Biographies

Forced Marriage in Conflict Situations Conference Biographies
Sierra Leone, February 24-26, 2011
Principal Investigator:
Annie Bunting, Associate Professor in Law and Society, York University
Research Assistant:
Karlee Sapoznik, Ph.D. Candidate in History, Harriet Tubman Institute, York University
Invited Participants:
• Grace Ogwal Achan, Justice and Reconciliation Project (Uganda)
• Jean Allain, Senior Lecturer in Law Queen’s University of Belfast; Principal Investigator
Slavery as the Powers attaching to the Right of Ownership Network (United Kingdom)
• Teddy Atim, Feinstein International Center (Uganda)
• Caroline Bowah, Medica Mondiale (Liberia)
• Gaëlle Breton-LeGoff, Faculty, l'Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada)
• Eugène Lurhondere Buzake, Coordinator of Synergie pour l’Assistance Judiciaire aux
victimes de violations des droits humains (DRC)
• Khristopher Carlson, Feinstein International Center, Tufts University (Uganda)
• Gisèle-Eva Côté, Rights & Democracy (Canada)
• Jim Johnson, Deputy Prosecutor, Special Court for Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone)
• Jon Kamanda, Special Court for Sierra Leone President (Sierra Leone)
• Paul Lovejoy, Director, Harriet Tubman Institute; Canada Research Chair in African
Diaspora History, York University (Canada)
• Julienne Maliyabwana Lusenge, President of SOFEPADI (DRC)
• Binta Mansaray, Registrar of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone)
• Rosaline M’Carthy, President, Women's Forum (Sierra Leone)
• Didacienne Mukahabeshimana (Rwanda)
• Godeliève Mukasarasi (Rwanda)
• Mary Kanue Passie, Medica Mondiale (Liberia)
• Joel Quirk, Wilberforce Institute on the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of
Hull
• Edward Sam, Chair, Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone
• Suzanne Schwarz, Liverpool Hope University
• Gulnara Shahinian, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of
Slavery
• Isabelle Solon-Hélal, Rights & Democracy, Coalition for Women’s Human Rights in
Conflict Situations
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Annie Bunting
Professor Bunting is the principal investigator of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council (SSHRC) funded project on forced marriage in conflict situations. She is an Associate
Professor in the Law and Society Program at York University, teaching in the areas of social
justice and human rights. Her research interests are international human rights, women’s rights,
culture and legal anthropology. She has expertise and publications on international women’s
rights and early, forced and child marriage with a focus on West Africa. In 2003, she participated
in the expert group meeting in Burkina Faso that led to the Ouagadougou Declaration on Forced
and Child Marriage. She is a member of the Coalition for the Women’s Human Rights in
Conflict Situations. More recently, she has written on marriage of girls and teens, the legal
distinction between sexual slavery and forced marriage in conflict zones, and early marriage in
northern Nigeria.
Karlee Sapoznik
Ms. Sapoznik is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Graduate History Program at York University, which is
affiliated with the Harriet Tubman Institute. She has a Master’s in historical anti-slavery, and
training and publications in contemporary slavery, human rights, transnational history, genocide
and memory, women’s and gender history and the Holocaust. She is a member of the Harriet
Tubman Executive Committee, and the President and Co-founder of the Alliance Against
Modern Slavery, a nonprofit organization in Toronto, Canada. Her dissertation research focuses
on servile and forced marriages from 1945 to the present.
Grace Achan
Ms. Grace Ogwal Achan works with the Justice and Reconciliation Project with Ms Erin Baines
of the Lui Institue in Gulu Uganda. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree at Guly
University in Northern Uganda and Volunteering with Ododo War, a project through the Justice
and Reconciliation Project, which works with women formerly abducted by the Lord’s
Resistance Army in Northern Uganda. For more information on this project, please see
http://justiceandreconciliation.com/#/about/4540199587
Jean Allain
Dr. Jean Allain is a Reader in Public International Law at Queen’s University, Belfast and
Extraordinary Lecturer with the Centre of Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of
Pretoria. He is the co-Editor of the Irish Yearbook of International Law and is currently a
Leverhulme Research Fellow. Dr. Allain is the author of The Slavery Conventions and the
forthcoming Slavery in International Law. He has acted as a consultant for various organizations
including the International Labour Organisation and Anti-Slavery International. Dr. Allain is the
recipient of a 2009-2011 Arts and Humanities Research Council Research Network Grant to
consider slavery as the ‘powers attaching to the right of ownership’.
Teddy Atim
Teddy Atim is the Feinstein International Center Team Leader for northern Uganda, where she
currently heads a multi-year research project on community-based and community-informed
reparation. She is herself a member of one of the conflict affected communities. Beginning her
humanitarian work with Concerned Parents Association in 2001 she worked on a number of
research and documentation processes regarding abduction and return of captives. Teddy was
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then recruited by Save the Children in Uganda as a child protection officer, helping to design and
implement the first studies of child prostitution and street children in northern Uganda, a
phenomena greatly increased as a result of the war. She was asked to play a role in facilitating
services for women and children remaining with the LRA as part of the Juba Peace Talks. In
2007-2008, Teddy became one of the first young women from northern Uganda to receive a Ford
Foundation Fellowship, which she used to complete her Masters in Humanitarian Assistance at
Tufts University, graduating in spring 2008. Teddy is committed to developing herself to her
fullest capacity and to serve as a role model for other young women in northern Uganda.
Caroline Bowah
Caroline Bowah Brown works as Assistant Head of Mission for Medica Mondiale, an
international NGO and women’s rights organization working in Liberia. Ms. Bowah is a
consultant in the areas of human rights, gender and transitional justice. She was a member of the
Gender and SSR Training Resource Package Project Advisory Board that reviewed the DCAF
Training Manuals. In 2008, she was also appointed by Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to
serve on the Board of Directors of the National Bureau of Veteran Affairs, an agency established
to seek the welfare of former members of the Armed Forces of Liberia. She is an economist by
profession and lectures at the University of Liberia.
Gaëlle Breton-LeGoff
Professor Breton-LeGoff is a lecturer at the University of Quebec at Montreal, where she teaches
international human rights law and public international law. She studies and has written
numerous articles and books on the role of NGOs in international standards development and
their contribution to international justice. She is a member of the Coalition for the Women’s
Human Rights in Conflict Situations and has worked for the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Canada. Her paper is based on her research on rape and gender violence in the DRC.
Eugène Lurhondere Buzake
Mr. Eugène Buzake est militant des droits humains depuis une dizaine d’années alors que la
République démocratique du Congo était déchirée par les guerres civiles successives. Il a été
cofondateur de plusieurs initiatives dans la protection et la défense en justice des victimes de
tortures, de disparitions forcées et d’exécutions extrajudiciaires dans le contexte de conflits
armés. Il est actuellement coordinateur de l’Organisation dénommée « Synergie pour
l’Assistance Judiciaire aux victimes de violations des droits humains », gestionnaire de la
Clinique juridique de Goma spécialisée dans l’aide judiciaire gratuite aux femmes et orphelins, la
vulgarisation des droits avec l’appui de la Division des droits de l’homme/MONUSCO,
REDRESS, Avocats sans Frontières, Droits et Démocratie, Hope In Action, etc. Eugène est aussi
Avocat au Barreau de Goma et, c’est cette qualité qui lui permet de mieux défendre les droits des
vulnérables dans les provinces de l’Est du pays. Tout en étant membre de la Coalition pour les
droits des femmes en situations de conflits, Eugène est consultant juriste au Projet de lutte
contre l’impunité et le droit de réparation aux victimes de violences sexuelles à l’Est de la RD
Congo financé par Droits et Démocratie du Canada. Il a également participé à plusieurs missions
de plaidoyer et lobbying dans le cadre de la Coalition pour défendre notamment, le droit des
réparations aux victimes des crimes de la compétence de la CPI.
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Khristopher Carlson
Mr. Carlson is a Senior Researcher and Instructor at the Feinstein International Center of Tufts
University. He specializes in international human rights and humanitarian law, with an emphasis
on youth and armed conflict. His latest works include “Forced Marriage within the Lord's
Resistance Army, Uganda” and “War Slavery: The Role of Children and Youth in Fighting
Forces in Sustaining Armed Conflicts and War Economies in Africa.” He has worked as a
consultant and advisor on projects regarding youth in conflict and post conflict situations in
Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Northern Uganda, South Sudan, and Sierra
Leone. Additionally, he was a contributing author to Women, Peace and Security: Study of the
United Nations Secretary-General as Pursuant Security Council Resolution 1325 (United Nations
2002). His current areas of research include forced marriage and gender-based violence within
armed conflict as well as informal justice systems in East Africa and South Sudan. He is also a
member of the working group for the Coalition for Women's Human Rights in Conflict
Situations and a photographer.
Gisèle-Eva Côté
Gisèle Eva Côté is a social anthropologist and a long-time women’s rights activist. She has
worked on various international cooperation projects in Latin America (especially in Peru) and in
the African nations of Togo, Burkina Faso and Mozambique over the course of many years.
Since 2005, she has been involved in the Women’s Rights programme at Rights & Democracy,
through which she oversees initiatives related to the campaign against impunity for perpetrators
of sexual violence in the DRC as well as the issue of reparations for victims of sexual crimes.
She has been responsible for the coordination of the Coalition on the Human Rights of Women
in Conflict Situations from April 2005 to July 2006. Since then, she has been acting as cocoordinator of the Coalition.
Jim Johnson
Mr. Johnson is the Chief of Prosecutions and Head of Office, Office of the Prosecutor, Freetown.
As such, he supervised four trial teams, prosecuting ten accused, as well as directing the
Investigations Section. Since assuming the duties of Head of Office, he is also responsible for
supervising closure issues and legacy projects for the Office of the Prosecutor. Before assuming
duties as Chief of Prosecutions, Mr. Johnson was a Senior Trial Attorney with the Special Court
and was responsible for trying the former leaders of the Civil Defence Forces, the progovernment militia that fought in the decade-long conflict within Sierra Leone. Before joining
the Special Court in January 2003, Mr. Johnson served for 20 years as a Judge Advocate in the
United States Army. He attended law school at the University of Nebraska, and holds an LL.M.
from The Judge Advocate General’s School.
Jon Kamanda
Justice Kamanda holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and International Relations from
Durham University (FBC), and a Diploma in Education from the University of Sierra Leone. He
trained as a Barrister at the Inns of Court School of Law in London, and was called to the Bar at
the Middle Temple in 1975. From 1976-1980 he worked as State Prosecutor in the Government
Law Office, rising to the rank of Senior State Counsel. In 1980 he entered private practice in
criminal law. Justice Kamanda has served as an Appeals Court Justice in the Sierra Leone
judiciary since 2004, and is the Presiding Judge in criminal appeals. He has also served as a High
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Court Judge in the Civil Division. In 1982 he was elected to Parliament, and he has served as
Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources and Minister of Health. He was sworn in as a Special
Court Appeals Judge in November 2007.
Paul Lovejoy
Professor Lovejoy is a Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History and the Director of
the Harriet Tubman Institute at York University, which coordinates international research by 50
scholars on the African Diaspora in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and North
America. He is recognized as a world-leading scholar in the study of slavery. For the past
40 years, he has explored the dynamics of the African Diaspora. His award-winning book,
Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (1983, 2000) is a classic text on the
subject. He brings to the research team expertise in slavery, past and present, and has written on
concubinage and women in the slave trade in West Africa.
Julienne Maliyabwana Lusenge
Originaire de l’Est du Congo, Madame Julienne Lusenge est une militante convaincue de la
justice, de la paix et des droits humains, en particulier des droits des femmes. Elle est
actuellement présidente du C A de SOFEPADI, une ONG créée en 2000 qui œuvre à la
promotion des droits des femmes et des filles à Beni (dans la province de Nord-Kivu) et Ituri
(dans la province Orientale). La SOFEPADI est membre de la Coalition congolaise pour la
justice transitionnelle (CCJT) et l’organisation à la tête d’ESSAIM, une coalition de 40 groupes
de femmes mise sur pied en 2003 pour défendre et protéger les droits des femmes dans les
provinces de l’Est de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC). La SOFEPADI est
également le point focal en RDC de la Coalition pour les droits des femmes en situation de
conflit. Depuis 2003, la SOFEPADI s’attaque prioritairement aux violations des droits des
femmes, plus spécifiquement aux crimes de violence sexuelle et violence socio-culturelle. Dans
le cadre de son programme de lutte contre l’impunité des agresseurs sexuels à Beni, Bunia et
dans tout l’est du Congo, la SOFEPADI s’engage à apporter une aide judiciaire aux femmes
victimes de violence sexuelle. Militante engagée, elle coordonne la campagne nationale des
femmes congolaises contre les violences sexuelles lancée en novembre 2007 à Montréal, cette
campagne a été à l’origine de la mise sur pied d’un fonds pour les femmes congolaises qui est
opérationnel depuis juillet 2010.
Binta Mansaray
Binta Mansaray was appointed Registrar of the Special Court in February 2010. She was
previously appointed Deputy Registrar in July 2007 and Acting Registrar in June 2009. Binta
Mansaray joined the Special Court for Sierra Leone in 2003 as Outreach Coordinator, where she
designed the Court’s acclaimed grassroots programme to keep the people of Sierra Leone, and
later Liberia, informed about the Court and the trials. Prior to joining the Court, she was a human
rights advocate for victims and ex-combatants with a number of organizations. She held the post
of Country Representative for the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children in
Sierra Leone, worked with the Campaign for Good Governance, and served as consultant with
the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and a number of civil society
organizations. During her time as Acting Registrar, Ms. Mansaray has overseen the end of trials
in Freetown and the transfer of convicted persons to serve their sentences, as well as the
downsizing of the Court and consideration of residual issues. She has also continued to focus on
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the legacy of the Special Court and the continuing trial of former Liberian President Charles
Taylor in The Hague. Ms. Mansaray is a graduate of the University of Sierra Leone, and she
received her Master's degree from Fordham University in New York, U.S.A.
Rosaline M’Carthy
Ms. M’Carthy is the President of the Women's Forum, a national network of grass roots
women’s organizations in Sierra Leone. She brings invaluable experience, contacts and
knowledge of the conflict in Sierra Leone (1991-2002), the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC), the Sierra Leone Special Court (SLSC), and the AFRC trials. She has years
of experience in development, peace and conflict resolution, gender equality issues, research and
curriculum development. In addition, she has led a number of training sessions on peace,
security, human rights, violence, conflict and the law in Sierra Leone, Kenya, Ghana, and Togo.
She has also presented at and participated in dozens of conferences in collaboration with a
number of organizations, including UNICEF, Rights and Democracy, UNFPA, UNIFEM and the
Coalition of Women’s Rights in Conflict Situations.
Didacienne Mukahabeshimana
[Rwandan NGO - Biography to be completed]
Godeliève Mukasarasi
De formation sociale, Activiste des droits des femmes et des enfants il ya 22 ans , elle est
Coordinatrice de l’Association Solidarité pour l’Epanouissement des Veuves et des Orphelins
visant le Travail et l’Auto promotion (SEVOTA) qu’elle a initié le 28 décembre 1994. Depuis
1995, à travers le Réseau des femmes pour la paix « URUNANA », elle accompagne 230
femmes victimes de violation et d’autres abus sexuels dont le mariage forcé. Avec elles, elles
ont influencé la catégorisation des acteurs de viol de pendant le génocide lors de l’élaboration de
la loi organique du 30/08/1996. Elle a mobilisé les survivantes à documenter les organismes
nationaux et internationaux de défense et de protection des droits des femmes relativement au
viol, dans le processus de lutte contre l’impunité. Elle a motivé les violées à donner des
témoignages de viol subi au Tribunal Pénal International pour le Rwanda. En 1996, elle a reçu de
la Fondation Sommet Mondial des Femmes à Genève, le Prix pour la créativité de la femme
rurale de part son courage de mobiliser les personnes après les conflits. En 2001, le Réseau des
femmes oeuvrant pour le développement rural au Rwanda lui a octroyé le premier prix, comme
membre activiste de promotion des droits de la femme rurale. En 2004, Droit et Démocratie au
Canada lui a donné le prix John - Humphrey pour la liberté 2004 pour son engagement et
contribution exceptionnel auprès des femmes violées. Depuis 2006, elle accompagne les femmes
violées dont celles ayant subi le mariage forcé dans la période de conflits. Elle organise des
ateliers des mamans et leurs enfants issus de viol. En 2010, elle organise les victimes de viol et
ou témoins à travers le Forum pour la Justice Equitable (FOJUE) en partenariat avec la coalition
des droits des femmes en situation de conflits dont elle est membre.
Mary Kanue Passie, Medica Mondiale
Mary Kanue-Passie currently works for Medical Mondiale Liberia as Assistant to the Senior
Management, an International Women Rights group working in Liberia. Her passion for working
with children led her in 2004 to participate in the National Disarmament, Demobilization,
Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DDRR) process of Liberia. She was involved in extracts
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statements from Child Soldiers about their involvement in the Liberian Civil Crisis, placed them
in the Interim Care Center for reunification with families for those ones with family and foster
care homes for those ones whose families could not be found. She later joined the International
Rescue Committee (IRC) as a Child Protection Officer, advocating for children rights in Liberia.
Joel Quirk
Dr Joel Quirk is Deputy Director of the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and
Emancipation, and RCUK Fellow in Law, Culture and Human Rights, University of Hull. His
research focuses upon the relationship between the legal abolition of slavery and contemporary
forms of human bondage. Joel is the author of Unfinished Business: A Comparative Survey of
Historical and Contemporary Slavery (UNESCO, 2009) and The Anti-Slavery Project: From the
Slave Trade to Human Trafficking (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). He currently sits on
the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Slave Route Project. He brings
knowledge of wartime enslavement and forced marriage in sub-Saharan Africa and expertise in
linking historical slave systems to modern problems.
Edward Sam
Edward Sam was a former Commissioner in the now separated National Commission for
Democracy and Human Rights (NCDHR) in Sierra Leone where he was focal person for human
rights, civil society and media relations. He coordinated the Committee on Women and Children
that addressed issues affecting women. He is a holder of a Master of Arts degree in Adult
Education from the University of Ghana and a Diploma in Transitional Justice from the Institute
for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa. He has undertaken courses, both
local and international, including completing courses in Human Rights and Conflict
Managements at Hidding Campus, University of Cape Town. A former intern at the Centre for
Conflict Resolution, Cape Town, Edward has vast experience in human rights, transitional
justice and conflict management. A trainer, Edward has organized and facilitated local and
international workshops in human rights and conflict management, in the process conducting
awareness raising programmes on various international human rights and regional human rights
instruments. In 2007, he joined Sierra Leone’s delegation in presenting the CRC report to the
Child Rights Committee in Geneva. He has been very instrumental in providing technical
assistance to the government of Sierra Leone to report on the Universal Periodic Review on May
11, 2011. For the past four years, as commissioner with the overall responsibility to promote
women and children’s’ rights, Edward contributed immensely to the production of the manual on
Child Rights and to two successive reports of the State of Human Rights on Sierra Leone.
Currently Chairman of the nation’s human rights Commission, he has forged links with civil
society, international and local NGOs including the UN System and generated a lot of support
and goodwill from these institutions culminating in the hosting of national conference on
National Human Rights Action Plans where the former UN Commissioner presented a key note
address and which produced a number of publications.
Suzanne Schwarz
Suzanne Schwarz is Professor of History at Liverpool Hope University. She is also an Honorary
Fellow at the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University
of Hull. Her current research interests focus on the development of Sierra Leone in the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. She is engaged in a British Library project, led by
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Professor Paul Lovejoy, which focuses on the preservation of rare and endangered archives in
Sierra Leone.
Gulnara Shahinian
In May 2008, the Human Rights Council appointed Ms. Gulnara Shahinian as the first Special
Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of slavery, its causes and consequences. Ms. Shahinian is a
lawyer and has extensive experience working as an expert consultant for various UN, EU,
Council of Europe, OSCE and government bodies on children’s rights, gender, migration and
trafficking. In 2005, she was selected to chair the Expert Group meeting on CEDAW and
violence in the family for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
Ms. Shahinian earned a degree in international law from the Saint Petersburg Institute of
International Relations and one in English and Russian Linguistics from Yerevan State
University. She has conducted regional trainings on peace and conflict resolution and is the
author of a number of articles and studies, including an edited book on best practices in the fight
against trafficking, the book “Old Problem – New Realities,” and a book on human trafficking
published by the UN Institute of Management.
Isabelle Solon-Hélal
Isabelle Solon-Hélal has been working as Programme Officer for the Women’s Rights
Programme at Rights & Democracy since 1997. She coordinates the work of the Coalition for
Women's Human Rights in Conflict Situations. She received her LL.M. from the London School
of Economics and Political Science in 2001, and recently coordinated the meeting that produced
the Nairobi Declaration on Women's and Girl's Rights to a Remedy and Reparation. She has
participated in United Nations and NGO missions to Afghanistan, Bosnia, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, among other countries, working on
various issues, including women's rights in conflict situations.
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