A two-day event, “Gender Violence and the Phenomenon of Femicides in the Americas,” will explore issues of violence against women throughout Mexico and in other Latin American countries.
One part is a panel discussion on Friday, Feb. 18 at noon in the FedEx Global Education Center, room 4003. A reception will follow the discussion. There will also be a conversation with visiting scholars the day before on Thursday, Feb. 17, at 4 p.m. in room 5043 at the UNC School of Law.
“We hope to address the climate throughout the Western Hemisphere in which enforcement officials throughout Latin America have failed or refused to undertake investigations and prosecutions after incidents of violence against women,” says Deborah Weissman, Reef C. Ivey II Distinguished Professor of Law at UNC School of Law. Weissman notes that this has created a climate of impunity for perpetrators and has denied victims and survivors of violence and their families appropriate access to truth and justice.
Speakers include:
Cynthia Bejarano
Department of Criminal Justice
New Mexico State University
Rosa-Linda Fregoso
Latin American & Latino Studies
University of California, Santa Cruz
Marcela Lagarde
Department of Anthropology
National Autonomous University of Mexico
Hilda Morales Trujillo
Attorney
Guatemala’s Network for Non-Violence Against Women
Deborah Weissman
UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law.
As part of a feminist effort to categorize violence rooted in gender power structures as a violation of human rights, the discussion and panel will explore the analytical framework and response to the escalation of violence against women in Latin America during the past two decades.
Sponsors include the UNC School of Law Immigration/Human Rights Policy Clinic, UNC Center for Global Initiatives, UNC Institute for the Study of the Americas, Carolina Women’s Center, UNC School of Law Immigration Law Association and UNC School of Law Domestic Violence Advocacy Project.