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THE HUMAN DIGNITY OF WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY:

ADDRESSING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

GOALS

·        Identify the key contemporary social, economic and legal issues raised by the phenomenon of violence against women;

·        Discuss these issues through the prism of the dignity of each human person;

·        Describe current best practices in both preventing and addressing violence against women;

·        Provide a forum for the exchange of knowledge and experience across nations and enhance communication among participants.

PRESENTERS

Marilyn Martone, Ph.D., (Moderator) Associate Professor of Theology, St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. John’s University, New York  

·        Domestic Violence:  Service and Policy

Candy S. Hill, Sr. Vice President for Social Policy for Catholic Charities-USA  

·        Sexual Exploitation: Trafficking, Prostitution and Weapons of War

Lisa A. Kurbiel, Social Affairs Officer, Best Practices Unit, Department of Peace-keeping Operations, United Nations 

·         Gender-based Violence as Torture: International Protections, Rights, and Remedies

Lori A. Nessel, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall University, School of Law

PROGRAM

Welcome:  Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See

·        Moderator: Overview of program, purpose, structure, ethical framework and introductions of panelists.

·        Panel Presentations

·        Open Discussion:  Comments by the panelists on the presentations and solicitation of questions and comments from the audience.

·        Concluding Remarks:  Archbishop Migliore

SERIES

Co-Sponsors:  Holy See Mission to the United Nations, Path to Peace Foundation, Vincentian Center for Church and Society at St. John’s University, New York

Future Side Events - Tentative Calendar 

Fall 2007:          The Human Dignity of Women in Contemporary Society:  Caregiving in Families

Spring 2008:       The Human Dignity of Women in Contemporary Society:  Aging with Dignity and Security

For more information:  www.holyseemission.org

Moderator:   Marilyn A. Martone, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Theology, St. John’s University, New York 

Dr. Martone is a moral theologian whose research and teaching focus on the distribution of health resources and issues of rehabilitation of brain-trauma victims.  She is presently serving as a Weill Cornell Medical College Disabilities Fellow for 2007.  She holds a Ph.D. from Fordham University and teaches graduate and undergraduate theology students in St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  She offers courses in Theology in the Marketplace, Health Care Ethics, and Women, Children and Justice.  She is widely published in many academic journals and has lectured internationally, most recently in Padua, Italy.  

PANELISTS:

Candy S. Hill, J.D.
Senior Vice President for Social Policy, Catholic Charities, USA

As senior vice president for social policy for Catholic Charities USA, Candy S. Hill is responsible for directing the organization’s federal advocacy efforts; representing Catholic Charities USA on Capitol Hill and with the administration; and serving as the organization’s spokesperson on social policy.  Ms. Hill, a native of Michigan, joined Catholic Charities USA in the summer of 2005 after serving for five years as the president and CEO of Catholic Charities of Monroe County in Michigan. From 1999 to 2001, Hill was the diocesan director of agencies and institutions for the Archdiocese of Detroit, serving as liaison between the Archdiocese and its eight social services agencies and 33 affiliates. Prior to joining the Archdiocese, she worked for more than 25 years for the State of Michigan’s Department of Human Services, formerly the Family Independence Agency. She holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.  Ms. Hill teaches family law as an adjunct professor at Catholic University School of Law and has extensive experience in issues of domestic violence.  She also represents the CCUSA on the Gender Committee of Caritas North America. 

Lisa Kurbiel, J.D.

Social Affairs Officer, Best Practices Unit, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, UN

Lisa Kurbiel is a Training Officer within the United Nation’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) Integrated Training Service.  Ms. Kurbiel oversees the development, coordination and dissemination of departmental policy guidelines, manuals and trainings related to sexual exploitation and abuse, human trafficking, child protection and human rights.  Prior to joining ITS, Ms. Kurbiel served as DPKO’s trafficking focal point and as the child trafficking advisor at the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF).  Ms. Kurbiel has served the United Nations since 1992 in Mongolia, Somalia, southern Sudan, Kenya, Albania and New York. She is widely regarded as an expert and has authored and been quoted in articles and reports on the sexual exploitation of women, human trafficking and women affected by armed conflict.   She serves as an adjunct professor at St Johns University School of Law where she initiated and teaches the International Human Rights Externship.  She is a Board Member for the Girl’s Education and Mentoring Services (GEMS), a non-profit that assists sexually exploited youth in New York City.

Lori A. Nessel, J.D. Professor, Dean’s Fellow and Director of the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall University School of Law

Professor Nessel began teaching at Seton Hall in 1995 after completing a Skadden Arps Public Interest Law Fellowship representing migrant farm workers in Upstate New York.  At Seton Hall she teaches immigration and refugee law courses, including running the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic. Her Clinic provides free legal services on matters including: political asylum, Torture Convention, human trafficking and human rights complaints.  The Clinic has won ground-breaking decisions, including one of the first decisions to recognize domestic violence as torture under the United Nations Convention Against Torture.   She has written extensively on gender based violence abroad and U.S. immigration laws including: “Willful Blindness” to Gender-Based Violence Abroad: United States Implementation of Article Three of the United Nations Convention Against Torture, 89 Minn. L. Rev. 71 (Nov 2004). 

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