UN CEDAW Member visits Utrecht

On 16 October 2017, Julie Fraser and Dr Marjolein van den Brink hosted Ms Hilary Gbedemah of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Committee) at Utrecht University. Ms Gbedemah presented a Masterclass for students, and was the keynote speaker at a seminar entitled: Gender-related Dimensions of Disasters in a Changing Climate. The seminar addressed the topic of climate change from a gender perspective, focusing on the UN CEDAW Committee’s draft General Recommendation on the Gender-Related Dimensions of Disaster Risk Reduction in a Changing Climate. Ms Gbedemah introduced the draft and underlined it’s importance by explaining and giving examples of how climate change related disasters affect women and girls differently. Ms Gbedemah was joined in this discussion by a number of experts in the field: Marlies Hesselman (Groningen University); Irene Dankelman (Radboud University); Richard Harvey (Greenpeace); and Dr Joke van Wensem (Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment).

The event was jointly organised by the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), the Utrecht Centre for Global Challenges (UGLOBE), and  Utrecht University’s focus research area Cultures, Citizenship and Human Rights.