Portrait of the Artist as Activist and April's focus

Yesterday, OMB hosted it's fourth Sunday bone making workshop with the addition of a special panel in honor of the Women and Creativity project organized by the National Hispanic Cultural Center and Creative Albuquerque. 

Our thanks to Carol Boss for hosting the event, to Valerie Martinez, Chrissie Orr, Kirbie Platero, and our own Naomi Natale, for sharing their passion, artwork and time. Thanks also to our wonderful audience, all of whom returned to the office afterwards to make bones and enjoy the ice cream cake Travis brought.  It was an inspiring and fun afternoon.

We also introduced our April focus, Women Living and Working During War.  You can check back over the next month for all kinds of information, or email susan "AT" onemillionbones "DOT" org for our April Advocacy packet.

Today, we're thinking about Judge Navi Pillay, and this is why we're writing about her:

Within her first term [on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda], Jean-Paul Akayesu, the mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba, was tried for inciting fellow Hutus to murder, rape and torture thousands of Tutsis. He was found guilty and became the first person to be convicted of genocide in an international court. The tribunal also held that rape was a crime against humanity and constituted genocide when it was meant to destroy a targeted group.

"Rape had always been regarded as one of the spoils of war," Pillay said in a statement after the verdict. "Now it is a war crime, no longer a trophy."

The case also introduced a broader definition of rape into international law. The precedent has since been followed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia--established by the U.N. in 1993--and is reflected in the law of the International Criminal Court, which recognizes a range of acts of sexual violence as among the most serious crimes under international law, and which was set up to defend the rights of women and children, so often targeted during warfare.

The Akayesu judgment was "a real turning point for criminal law, especially when it comes to crimes committed against women in armed conflicts," said Elizabeth Odio Benito, who served as a judge on the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and is now Pillay's colleague on the International Criminal Court. "Before, they were totally hidden, never mentioned in any international jurisdiction."

Although Pillay was one of three judges who signed their names to the Akayesu judgment, she is credited with shaping and articulating its arguments.              –excerpted from the Harvard Law Bulletin. 

Full text is here. 

Judge Pillay observed recently: "Who interprets the law is at least as important as who makes the law, if not more so.... I cannot stress how critical I consider it to be that women are represented and a gender perspective integrated at all levels of the investigation, prosecution, defense, witness protection and judiciary."  

You can find information on Judge Pilly's life and career here, and here.

And, this is an article she wrote recently for the Huffington Post, inspiring words from an inspiring woman.

Check back on Wednesday for a new post.