Radhika Coomaraswamy

Radhika Coomaraswamy ( born September 17, 1953 in Colombo ) is a Sri Lankan lawyer and expert in the field of human rights. She appeared from 1994 to 2003 as Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on violence against women from 2006 to 2012 as the UN Under- Secretary General and Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. She is a professor of International Law at New York University School of Law.

Life

Radhika Coomaraswamy was born in 1953 in Colombo and studied at Yale University, where she in 1974 with a BA obtained. They also acquired three years later at Columbia University a law degree as JD and 1981 at Harvard University, an LL.M..

From 1982, she worked as deputy director and from 1989 as director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo and beyond since 2003 as President of the Human Rights Commission in their home country. From 1994 to 2003, she served for the United Nations (UN ) as the Special Rapporteur on violence against women. Kofi Annan, the then UN Secretary-General, she appointed in April 2006 to the Under-Secretary and Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. From Annan's successor, Ban Ki -moon, it was confirmed in February the following year in that office.

Awards

Radhika Coomaraswamy was awarded in recognition of their commitment to human rights several awards and honors, including the 1995 as the International Human Rights Lawyer Award from the American Bar Association and in 2000, the Bruno Kreisky Prize and the Goler T. Butcher Medal -. The Amherst College, the University of Edinburgh, University of Essex, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the University of Ulster awarded her an honorary doctorate.

Works (selection)

• A Manual on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Colombo 1988
• Introduction to Social Theory. Colombo and New Delhi 1994 ( as co-editor )
• Reinventing International Law: Women's Rights as Human Rights in the International Community. Cambridge MA 1997
• Peace Work: Women, Armed Conflict, and Negotiation. New Delhi 2004 ( as co-editor )
• Constellations of Violence: Feminist Interventions in South Asia. New Delhi 2008 ( as co-editor )
• The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict - Towards Universal Ratification, 18 The International Journal of Children's Rights 535, 2010