Mary Shanthi Dairiam
Encyclopedia
Mary Shanthi Dairiam is a Malaysian human rights
and women's rights
advocate and United Nations
(UN) official. She has since 2004 served on the UN's Gender Equality Task Force, and on the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women. From 2004 to 2008 she was also a member of the UN's CEDAW committee, within which she was appointed Rapporteur in January 2007.
Dairiam was in 2010 appointed as one of three UN experts to lead an inquiry into the Israeli navy's response to the Marmara flotilla
that sought to break a blockade of Gaza
.
Dairiam is the founder and a current director of International Women's Rights Action Watch - Asia Pacific, a charity devoted to the implementation of the CEDAW convention
.
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
advocate and United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
(UN) official. She has since 2004 served on the UN's Gender Equality Task Force, and on the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women. From 2004 to 2008 she was also a member of the UN's CEDAW committee, within which she was appointed Rapporteur in January 2007.
Dairiam was in 2010 appointed as one of three UN experts to lead an inquiry into the Israeli navy's response to the Marmara flotilla
Gaza flotilla raid
The Gaza flotilla raid was a military operation by Israel against six ships of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" on 31 May 2010 in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea...
that sought to break a blockade of Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
.
Dairiam is the founder and a current director of International Women's Rights Action Watch - Asia Pacific, a charity devoted to the implementation of the CEDAW convention
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women is an international convention adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly....
.
External links
- Vita at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human RightsOffice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human RightsThe Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is a United Nations agency that works to promote and protect the human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948...
- Interview with Dairiam for the Association for Women's Rights in Development