Justice Rapid Response is pleased to welcome two new members to its Executive Board, UN Women and the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation.
UN Women is the United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. Justice Rapid Response has been working with UN Women since 2009 to provide the international community with expertise in investigating conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) crimes. This innovative partnership is unique in that it seeks out the best qualified SGBV justice professionals from every part of the world, specifically trains them in investigating and documenting SGBV as international crimes, and ensures they are rapidly deployed to requesting accountability mechanisms. These experts regularly assist States, institutions, United Nations (UN) entities, and regional organizations – any entity with the mandate to document or investigate.
There are close to 150 experts on the joint JRR-UN Women SGBV Justice Experts Roster, who have been deployed on 31 missions to date. Results of the work of these experts include:
- A SGBV Investigator to every United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) since 2009;
- Establishment of a global benchmark for how SGBV should be addressed in human rights accountability mechanisms (the report of the COI on Human Rights in DPRK is one of the most gender-sensitive reports to date);
- Unanimous confirmation by ICC Judges – for the first time – of all SGBV charges sought by the Prosecution against Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda, enabling SGBV survivors to see their case addressed in court;
- Heightened attention to SGBV crimes committed by extremist groups – Some of the most comprehensive analysis of rights violations committed by violent extremist groups, including against women and girls, has been documented by the Commission on Inquiry for Syria as well as Fact Finding Missions for Iraq, Boko Haram and Libya. Gender advisors/ SGBV investigators have been deployed to each of these mechanisms through the Roster.
The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation is a global venture philanthropy firm supporting early stage, high impact social enterprises. Founded in 2002, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation has funded over 82 social entrepreneurs operating both domestically and internationally. They provide unrestricted, multi-year capital to help their portfolio organizations build capacity to scale their impact. Draper Richards Kaplan also takes a board seat for the three-year grant cycle to provide hands-on support to the leader. Some of the earlier organizations supported by Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation include Room to Read, Kiva, GrassRoots Soccer, One Acre Fund, The Mission Continues, Food Corp and many others.
JRR is a multi-stakeholder facility that recruits criminal justice, human rights and related professionals from around the world. JRR trains, certifies and rapidly deploys those professionals to ensure that atrocities and human rights violations can be investigated professionally, impartially and promptly anywhere in the world.
In less than six years of operations, JRR has assisted States, international institutions and regional organizations in almost 70 investigations around the world. Demand for JRR’s services has grown more than 75% last year. JRR currently has over 530 experts comprising 60 professional categories, who come from over 95 countries and speak over 80 languages. JRR’s roster is more than 40% from the global South and over 50% women, ensuring cultural, legal and linguistic diversity for any investigation.
PressRelease_EB members_UNW & DRK_201511
For information about Justice Rapid Response contact: Vicky Edgecombe, v.edgecombe@justicerapidresponse.org
For information about UN Women, contact: alison.davidian@unwomen.org.
For information about DRK, contact: Nancy Huang, nancy@drkfoundation.org