UNCA to Host Talk on Women's Rights
by LaShawn Jefferson of Human Rights Watch

LaShawn R. Jefferson

UNC Asheville will host a talk on "Why Women’s Rights Matter" at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, at UNCA’s Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall. LaShawn R. Jefferson, executive director of the Women’s Rights Division of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) will speak. The event is free and open to the public.

On the staff of the HRW for nearly 10 years, Jefferson has worked extensively on women’s human rights in the Americas and Africa. She is the author or editor of numerous reports on women’s human rights, among them "Rape in Haiti: A Weapon of Terror," "Taking Cover: Women in Post-Conflict Afghanistan" and "From the Household to the Factory: Sex Discrimination in the Guatemalan Labor Force." Jefferson was recently in Uganda where she looked at the link between violence against women and the vulnerability, and in Kenya where she investigated women’s property rights. She was a member of the HRW delegations to the NGO Conference, the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women and the U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Jefferson has conducted documentation-training workshops with women’s rights activists in the U.S., Latin America and Africa.

The HRW, which was founded in 1978, is the largest U.S.-based human rights organization. Established in 1990, the Women’s Rights Division focuses on investigating

state-sponsored and state-tolerated violence and discrimination against women. The Division draws attention to women’s human rights abuses, increases accountability for such violations and takes action to help curb the problem.

For more information about Jefferson’s talk, call Mark Gibney, UNCA Belk Professor, at 828/250-3870.

Media Contacts:

• Mark Gibney, UNCA Belk Professor, 828/250-3870.
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526