gender justice uncovered

The Jury

Lydia Cacho Ribeiro
Journalist and Writer

Lyda Cacho Ribeiro is a Mexican journalist and writer. Her work has had significant social impact and she has been awarded several times for her journalistic achievements and for her work on behalf of human rights and against gender violence.

In 2000 she founded the Integral Center for Women (CIAM) in Cancún, Quintana Roo, which provides services to women and children victims of domestic and sexual violence.

She has worked as a political columnist for La voz del Caribe, as editor-in-chief of the magazine Esta boca es mía: Apuntes de equidad y género, as host for the TV show with the same name, as analyst in the news program Detrás de la Noticia, as advisor on violence and gender issues for UNIFEM and for the University of the Caribbean, and as a correspondent for CIMAC News. She also authored various essays on violence and HIV/AIDS for the Universidad Laval of Québec, Trillas Publishers and the magazine La Ventana, issued by the University of Guadalajara.

In 2004 she published the book: "Los demonios del edén: el poder detrás de la pornografía" (The Demons of Eden: the Power behind the Porn Industry), denouncing the participation of important Mexican business men in a child pornography network. After the publication of her book, which compiled testimonies of girls subjected to sexual abuse by an important Hotel businessman, Lydia Cacho was subjected to what Amnesty International calls "judicial harassment". One of the businessmen mentioned in the book filed a complaint for perjury against her and she was arrested as a result. The Supreme Court of Mexico found that Ms. Cacho's detention and arrest, as well as the following events were a result of corrupt actions.

She has received numerous awards, among them the World Award "Bravery in Journalism" (2007) and the UNESCO World Award for Freedom of the Press - Guillermo Cano (2008). Her publications include: “Las Provincias del Alma” (2003), “Los Demonios del Edén. El Poder que protege a la pornografía infantil” (2005), “Esta boca es mía” (2006), “Memorias de una infamia” (2007) y “Esclavas del Poder” (2010).

Baltasar Garzón
Justice, Spain's High Court (Audiencia Nacional) and Advisor to the International Criminal Court

Baltasar Garzón is a Justice in Spain's High Court since 1988 and an Advisor to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He obtained a law degree from the University of Seville in 1979 and has been a judge since 1981. He has also worked as a Criminal Law professor at the Complutense University of Madrid.

He received international recognition for issuing an international arrest warrant against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, for the death and torture of Spanish citizens under his government and for crimes against humanity in application of the principle of Universal Jurisdiction. He also opened an investigation for genocide against Argentine oppressor Adolfo Scilingo for acts committed during the dictatorship between 1976 and 1983. Scilingo was sentenced to 640 years in prison by Spain's High Court, term which was increased by the Supreme Court to 1,084 years.

Justice Garzón has led important investigations in drug trafficking cases, money laundering, State terrorism and recently for crimes committed under Franco's regime. In August 2010 he participated, along with other international experts in the conference titled "Reflections on International Criminal Law and Gender in the Context of the Trials based on the Human Rights Violations committed during the last Military Dictatorship in Argentina", which took place in Buenos Aires.

Patricia Sellers
Attorney and Independent Legal Expert

Ms. Sellers was the Legal Advisor for Gender and a prosecutor at the Yugoslav (ICTY) Tribunal from 1994 until February 2007. She is a presently a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College the University of Oxford and an Independent Legal Expert. She has been a Special Legal Consultant to the Gender and Women’s Rights Division of the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human Rights and to the Secretary’s General’s Special Representative to Children in Armed Conflict.

As the ICTY Legal Advisor for Gender, Ms. Sellers developed the legal strategies that led to successful prosecutions of sexual violence under international criminal law. She tried the Furundzija case, the first international case wherein rape was recognised as a war crime. She was co-counsel and a legal strategist at the Rwanda Tribunal (ICTR) for two of the most important cases to date: Akayesu, the first international case to hold sexual violence as an act of genocide and rape as a crime against humanity and Kunarac, the first international case that led to a conviction of enslavement as a crime against humanity, based in part on acts of sexual violence.

In 2002, in Tokyo, Japan, Ms. Sellers was a Co-chief Prosecutor responsible for the legal submissions of nine national prosecution teams from Southeast Asia, at the Women’s War Crimes Tribunal, a symbolic trial that highlighted the absence of legal redress for thousands of "Comfort Women" who were enslaved by the Japanese army during World War II.

She has published several articles on international criminal law, including: “Wartime Female Slavery: Enslavement?” y “The Appeal of Sexual Violence. Gacumbitsi/Akayesu”. She has received numerous awards including the prestigious Prominent Women in International Law Award by the American Society of International Law as well as the Martin Luther King Award from the Black Law Students’ Association at Rutgers University Law School.