It's IntLawGrrls' great pleasure to welcome Pam Spees (left) as a guest blogger. Today she joins IntLawGrrl Valerie Oosterveld to contribute the joint post below from the Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which began last week in Kampala, Uganda.Pam is a senior staff attorney in the international human rights program at the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. She has a background in international criminal and human rights law with a gender focus, as well as criminal trial practice. Prior to joining CCR, she practiced criminal law in Louisiana, where she primarily represented indigent persons in state and federal courts. In addition, she has worked as a consultant in international law with a focus on women's human rights, and previously served as Program Director of the Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, an international advocacy network dedicated to ensuring accountability for crimes of sexual and gender violence included in the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court. Pam now serves as an advisor to the Hague-based Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice, which monitors the Court and continues the Women's Caucus mission of advocating for accountability gender-based violence.
Pam and Valerie dedicate their guest post below to Rhonda Copelon (pictured below right in the post below), who passed away this past May 6. As they write below and as IntLawGrrl Rebecca Bratspies also has posted, Rhonda was a pathbreaking human rights lawyer and law professor. We're honored to recognize her as an IntLawGrrls foremother. Today Rhonda joins the other remarkable women on our list just below the "visiting from..." map at right.
Heartfelt welcome!
