The month of March is known as Women’s Month Celebration, particularly March 8th marking International Women’s Day. This month is to celebrate women’s achievements as well as to create awareness of the historical and contemporary hardships endured by women in all aspects of society. CHRV believes issues relating to women are an important subject and should always be the forefront of discussion about society’s development.

This year’s, 2014, International Women’s Day United Nation’s theme is “equality for women means progress for all” which highlights that empowered women lift up society. Equality cannot be achieved if women are not free from violence. Not only is violence a violation of human rights, but it also amounts to gender-based discrimination that denies women the opportunity to fully participate in economic, social, political and cultural life.

On Thursday, March 27th, 2014, the Canadian Human Rights Voice proudly hosted our inaugural Women’s Rights Seminar at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario at Queen’s Park in Toronto. The seminar was attended by nearly 100 guests — including students, elected officials and human rights advocates. At the seminar, various topics were discussed by human rights experts under the umbrella of “violence against women”, domestically and internationally. These topics covered violence against women in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran, and Native women in Canada.

Panelists: Ms. Sarah Bokhari, founder of ProLearning1: Stop Domestic Violence Against Women, and Ms.Sayeh Hassan, a criminal defense lawyer with Walter Fox & Associates.

Speakers: Mr. John Argue; coordinator for Sri Lanka, Amnesty International Canada, Ms. Cheryle Jacobs; Aboriginal Education Outreach Program Coordinator, National Canadian Centre of Toronto, Dr. Peter Silverman; Canadian journalist and the chair of CHRV, Ms. Nita Kang; Ontario PC Candidate (Scarborough Southwest), and Mr. Michael Prue, NDP MPP (Beaches-East York).

Click here for pictures from the Women’s Rights Seminar