From October 3-5, the GQUAL Conference: Changing the Picture of International Justice will take place in The Hague, Netherlands, organized by GQUAL and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) along with the support of States, Foundations, and Partner organizations.

Women are under-represented across almost all international tribunals and monitoring bodies that play key roles in developing international law, human rights, international relations, and cooperation. For example, in 2017, only 18.1% of judges sitting on international tribunals are women. Within the United Nations Treaty Bodies, several Committees have less than 30% of female representation, among them the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR, 27%), the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED, 10%) and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, 6%). In response to this critical dearth of women serving across international justice, GQUAL was launched in 2015 at the UN Headquarters as a global campaign to achieve gender parity within these entities.

On its second anniversary of the campaign, the GQUAL Conference will convene, at the Hague, Vice-Presidents, high level representatives of States and members of international tribunals and organizations, international law and gender experts, academics, advocates and activists from all over the world to build on the work done over the past two years. The goal of the conference is to approve an Action Plan that will build upon the campaign’s three strategies outlined in the GQUAL Declaration. The conference will include a series of workshops where participants will discuss the multiple angles that influence the representation of women and possible avenues for improvement, at the national and international level.

Check out the event splashpage to RSVP and see the full program of the conference, the organizations and States supporting the initiative, and a preview of participating speakers at https://gqualconference.splashthat.com .  The Opening Ceremony will take place at The Peace Palace on October 3rd and will be live streamed starting at 5:00 PM (Netherlands) here: https://goo.gl/gbx97t .

For more information, please contact Alex McAnarney at amcanarney@cejil.org.