While women are less likely than men to be formal combatants, women experience heightened levels of sexual and gender-based violence in times of conflict. Further, female civilians may suffer disproportionately more consequences of war than male civilians. This event seeks to explore these gender-based effects of conflict. Jackson School World Fellows Roba El Husseini and Priya Pillai will join the Schell Center to discuss conflict-related sexual violence, surges in domestic violence linked to displacement and crisis situations, and custody and property rights for women in the aftermath of conflict. This event will be moderated by Schell Center Executive Director Dina Francesca Haynes.
Our distinguished speakers include:
Roba El Husseini, Iraq’s Deputy Bureau Chief, Agence France Presse: Professor Roba El Husseini is a journalist, having spent the past decade working with the French news agency AFP in Beirut, covering war-torn Syria and crisis-hit Lebanon, relaying breaking news and resulting human tragedies. Roba has reported on numerous military operations launched by various actors in Syria—a country bursting with regional and global powers. She has also deployed multiple times to Syria and Iraq to cover battles against the Islamic State group in Mosul, Raqa, and the jihadists' last stronghold of Baghouz. In Lebanon, Roba covered the unprecedented 2019 protests against a corrupt ruling elite, the deadly Beirut port blast, and years of economic fallout that threaten to push the country into the abyss. She has published long-form, in-depth investigations into the extortion of property from those displaced by the Syrian war, primitive mortuaries known as "salt rooms" in a notorious Syrian regime-run prison, and Captagon – an amphetamine now taking the Middle East by storm. Roba has also reported in Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan and was recently appointed as AFP's deputy bureau chief in Baghdad. Roba received her BA and MA degrees in international relations from Saint Joseph University in Lebanon.
Priya Pillai, International Lawyer & Director, Asia Justice Coalition: Priya Pillai is an international lawyer with over two decades of experience, in international law and advocacy. Priya leads the Asia Justice Coalition, focused on international justice and accountability, helming it since inception. The coalition has been key to efforts to hold the Burmese military accountable by supporting legal proceedings in international and domestic courts. Previously, she worked at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on trials in the Balkans, and on global humanitarian issues at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva. Priya holds a PhD in international law from the Graduate Institute, Geneva, an LL.M from NYU as a Global Public Service Scholar, and is a gold medalist from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. She is currently a Yale World Fellow, spending this semester at Yale.
(Moderator) Dina Francesca Haynes, Executive Director, Schell Center for International Human Rights: Dina Francesca Haynes is the Executive Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights, a Lecturer in Law, and a Researcher in Law at Yale Law School. During her career, she has been a Professor of Law, Practitioner in Residence at law schools including American University’s Washington College of Law and Georgetown Law. She has taught constitutional law, public international law, human rights courses, and courses related to refugee and asylum law, migration, and human trafficking. She has also taught in international human rights clinics. Dina Francesca Haynes is the author of two books on gender and conflict: The Oxford University Press Handbook on Gender and Conflict and On the Frontlines, which were selected for Leading Works in International Law.
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Schell Center for International Human Rights