The Advisory Committee assists in formulating programme policy directions and evaluating the projects undertaken by IWRAW Asia Pacific.
Its members are substantive and technical experts on CEDAW from the Asia Pacific region and some also represent programme partners according to geographical sub-regions in Asia and Pacific.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Andrew Byrnes, Australia
Andrew Byrnes is Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales and Chair of the Australian Human Rights Centre. He formerly taught at the Australian National University, and the Universities of Hong Kong and Sydney. He writes on international law (in particular human rights law), and has written on CEDAW and the human rights of women, national human rights institutions, and the implementation of human rights in domestic law, among other topics. He was involved in the drafting of anti-discrimination legislation, and has advised equality commissioners, in Australia and Hong Kong, and was closely involved in the drafting of the CEDAW-OP and of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (acting as an international legal adviser to the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions). He was a member of the Asian Development Bank’s External Forum on Gender and Development from 2000 to 2009. He has acted as a consultant on gender and other human rights issues to the OHCHR, the UN Division for the Advancement of Women, the ILO, UNESCAP, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and other bodies. He was President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law from 2009-2013. He has served as external legal adviser to the Australian Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights from 2012 until 2013.
İpek İlkkaracan, Turkey
İpek İlkkaracan is Professor of Economics at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Türkiye, and elected President of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) for 2022-2023. She is a Research Associate with the Levy Economics Institute in New York and the Economic Research Forum in Cairo, and an Associate Editor of the Feminist Economics academic journal. She served as Board Member of the Middle Eastern Economics Association from 2012-2014. İlkkaracan’s areas of research entail the care economy, gender and macroeconomics, political economy of gender, labour markets, and development. Her ‘Purple Economy’ model, which depicts a gender-egalitarian, caring and sustainable economy, was adopted by various women’s organisations as an advocacy tool. İlkkaracan is a founding member of feminist organisations such as Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways (an IWRAW Asia Pacific partner), Women’s Labor and Employment Platform, ITU Women’s Studies Center, and Gender and Macroeconomics GEM-Europe Network. In addition to her academic publications, she is also the author of numerous NGO publications on women’s human rights training and mechanisms. She recently worked with UN Women and ILO to pioneer the development and implementation of a policy tool on investing in the care economy, which is currently being implemented in about half a dozen countries in Asia and Latin America. İlkkaracan joined IWRAW Asia Pacific’s Advisory Committee in 2017.
Ruth Manorama, India
Ruth Manorama is President of the National Alliance of Women (NAWO), India and the General Secretary to Women’s Voice in Karnataka, India. She is also the National Convenor to the National Federation of Dalit Women and the National Campaign Co-Convenor for International Lobby and Advocacy for Dalit Human Rights.
Savitri Goonesekere, Sri Lanka
Savitri Goonesekere is Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and a former CEDAW Committee member from 1999 to 2002. She was formerly Professor of Law and Vice Chancellor, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and a member of the Expert Committee (treaty body) monitoring CEDAW from 1999 to 2002. Being a member of several regional, national and international bodies on women’s issues, she has held fellowships in universities in the US and the UK. Professor Goonesekere has contributed to advocacy and law reform initiatives in Sri Lanka and has acted as a consultant for several international agencies such as UNICEF, ILO, WHO and UNIFEM working on law and human rights projects, particularly in the Asian region. She was also a Member of the Editorial Advisory Committee, UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence Against Children (2005 to 2006) and Chairperson of the External Forum on Gender of the Asian Development Bank (2002). She was a member of the Board of Trustees, United Nations Trust Fund for Victims of Torture (2005-2011). She has published widely on family law, women and children’s rights, human rights, and law and development issues. She was a winner of the Fukuoka Asian Culture International Award (Academic) in 2008.
Shireen Huq, Bangladesh
Ms Huq is a women’s rights activist working on gender, human rights and development. She is a founder member of Naripokkho, a leading women’s rights organisation in Bangladesh where she has worked on a voluntary basis since its founding in 1983. Currently, she is a member of Naripokkho’s Executive Committee and Coordinator of the Women’s Health Rights Advocacy Partnership project, focusing on maternal mortality and morbidity reduction in the south-western coastal districts of Bangladesh through claiming accountability of service providers in public hospitals and health facilities.