The Venezuelan Crisis: Migration, Gender, and Human Rights

This event, coordinated by LASA, HAWT, and MWG, will focus on the intersections of migration, gender, and human rights within the context of the Venezuelan crisis. Beatriz Borges Urrutia, a lawyer, academic, and human rights defender from Venezuela, and Dr. Julia Zulver, a political sociologist and feminist researcher whose work focuses on women's mobilisation in violent communities in Latin America, will each give a short presentation on their work, followed by the opportunity for participants to ask questions.

Speaker Bios:

• Beatriz Borges Urrutia is a lawyer, academic and human rights defender from Venezuela. She is the Executive Director of The Justice and Peace Center (CEPAZ), a non-profit organization that works to promote and defend democratic values, human rights, and a culture of peace. Ms. Borges is also an associate professor and researcher at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello and collaborates with other universities in Venezuela and internationally.
  
  Ms. Borges is an active public speaker and has spoken at the United Nations and The Inter American System to denounce human rights violations and demand respect for international norms and standards. She works tirelessly to increase awareness of the situation in Venezuela among decision-making at the International level to improve the international response to the crisis. 
  
  She has a Masters in Political Action and Citizen Participation from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos y Francisco Vitoria in Spain, a Major Degree in Human Rights, from Andina University in Ecuador and a Professional Certificate in US Law and Methodologies from New York University. Her main focus on advocacy and research are International Human Rights System, gender equality, human mobility, political participation and human rights, peace and democracy. 
   
• Dr. Julia Zulver is a political sociologist whose work focuses on women’s mobilisation in violent and high risk contexts, mainly in Latin America. Her approach to research is interdisciplinary, drawing on social movement studies, gender studies, and peace and conflict studies.
  
  Dr. Zulver is currently a Marie Sk┼éodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas (UNAM, Mexico) and the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (Oxford, UK). Her three-year research project is entitled: “High Risk Leadership in Latin America: Women’s Pursuit of Gender Justice in Violent Contexts.” She has published research (or forthcoming) in journals including International Feminist Journal of Politics, Third World Quarterly, Latin American Perspectives, Gender, Place, and Culture, and Gender and Development and has additionally published work in the Monkey Cage (The Washington Post), the Guardian, LASA Forum, NACLA Report on the Americas, Ms Magazine, and justiceinfo.net (Oxford Transitional Justice Research).
  
  Additionally, Dr. Zulver is a Senior Researcher at Ladysmith, a feminist research consultancy, where she has contributed to research and reports that collect, analyse, and take action on gender data.She is the Head of Field Operations for Cosas de Mujeres, an initiative that leverages Whatsapp technology to collect actionable data on gender-based violence in Cúcuta, Colombia. 

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Co-hosted with: Gender Policy Working Group, Latin American Student Association, Migration Working Group (OWNER), Human Rights & Humanitarian Policy Concentration