EMPOWERING GIRLS

GLOBALLY CONFERENCE ON SEXUAL ABUSE: HELPING VICTIMS

BRIEF PROJECT HISTORY: The fight against sexual violence and exploitation is one of the top priorities of both the IBCR and Lawyers without Borders (LWB) Canada. Both organisations thus decided to jointly organise a conference to increase knowledge of this issue through a multidisciplinary perspective. During the event, LWB and the IBCR launched their joint voluntary cooperation programme for the protection of children, women and other vulnerable groups.

GOALS: The conference, which took place at the Quebec Bar’s school, aimed to: Bring together speakers from various sectors in order to have a diversified programme with several fields of expertise related to helping victims of sexual abuse

Present national and international experiences that could be used to establish best practices

Enable participants to improve their knowledge so that they could continue offering quality support services that meet the needs of victims and their representatives

Over 60 participants

More than a dozen speakers, including four international guests

ACHIEVEMENTS: The event was attended by stakeholders from various Quebec universities and governmental and judicial institutions, community organisations, international agencies, law firms and civil society organisations Guests from Mali and Cote d’Ivoire were invited to speak on this issue Aimée Zebeyoux (president of Association of Women Lawyers of Cote d’Ivoire, an IBCR partner in the voluntary cooperation programme) and Fatimata Toure (executive director of Greffa, an NGO in Gao, north of Mali, and partner in the JUPREC Project) made the most of their stay in Quebec to meet with representatives of the Quebec Ministry of International Relations and Francophonie Ms Zebeyoux and Ms Toure also hosted a conference at Laval University entitled “Views from Mali and Cote d’Ivoire: Speaking out for the most vulnerable ”

PARTNERS: Lawyers Without Borders Canada, with support from the Quebec Bar Association

Our Committed Partners

Just like other countries affected by conflict, more sexual abuse cases have been reported in Cote d’Ivoire […] Data collected by NGOs working in the Centre-North and Western areas show that, between 2001 and 2007, 57% of the 8,900 cases reported involved gender-based abuse To this number, we must add the many victims of sexual abuse following the post-electoral crisis, which have yet to be tallied ”

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