Please join us for this special CSW69 Parallel Event in Honor of International Women’s Day 2025
sponsored by the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York, the United Nations Association of New York, Strukturelle, Steps with Sisters, Inc., NGO-Coordination Post Beijing Switzerland, and the Medical Women’s International Association.
Maya Dougoud
Associate Professor
Fribourg School of Management, Switzerland
Founder & Co–President, Strukturelle
Allison A. Dunlop
Senior Attorney/Domestic Violence Specialist
Brooklyn Legal Services
Tani Gurkova
Founder and Executive Director
Steps With Sisters, Inc.
Jane Aeberhard-Hodges
International Gender Equality Consultant
Former Director, ILO Gender Equality Bureau
Dr. Eleanor Ann Nwadinobi, MBBS, EMA, FAAC
President
Medical Women’s International Association
Thenmozhi Soundararajan
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Equality Labs
Moderator
Fay Yvette Parris, Esq.
Co-Chair, Women's Bar Association of the State of New York,
International Women's Rights Committee
____
Thursday | 20 March 2025 | 8:30 to 10:00 a.m.
UN Church Center
777 United Nations Plaza (corner 44th St. & First Ave.)
Second Floor
New York, NY
Register for this event here
During CSW69, the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York, the United Nations Association of New York, NGO-Coordination Post Beijing Switzerland, Strukturelle and Steps With Sisters, Inc. will introduce a panel of experts who will share their personal narratives, novel global initiatives, and address the unwavering commitment to strengthen institutions with a gender perspective and eliminate harassment, as well as to provide cultures of inclusion, belonging and advancement for all in the workplace.
Thirty years have passed since governments at the Fourth World Conference on Women, through the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, pledged to safeguard principals already prescribed by international law and conventions — that “women’s rights are human rights” and that all necessary measures must be taken “to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and the girl child and remove all obstacles to gender equality and the advancement and empowerment of women.”
During this forum, we will bear witness to both progress and gaps in addressing this critical issue over the past three decades, including essential psycho/social and legal mechanisms for empowering women.
Please join us for this timely discussion with guest panelists: Maya Dougoud, Associate Professor in Switzerland at the School of Management Fribourg as well as Founder & Co–President of Strukturelle; Allison A. Dunlop, Senior Attorney/Domestic Violence Specialist at Brooklyn Legal Services in NYC; Tani Gurkova, Founder and Executive Director of Steps With Sisters; Jane Aeberhard-Hodges, International Gender Equality Consultant and Former Director at ILO Gender Equality Bureau; Eleanor Ann Nwadinobi, President of the Medical Women’s International Association; and Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Equality Labs.. The panel will be moderated by Fay Yvette Parris, Co-Chair, Women's Bar Association of the State of New York, International Women's Rights.
Panelists
Maya Dougoud
Prof. Maya Dougoud works as a legal advisor in the academic sector (University of Applied Sciences for Western Switzerland in Fribourg) with a focus on ICT law, data protection, intellectual property and public law. She also conducts research as part of her work as Associate Professor at the School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR).
After completing her training at the law faculty at the University of Fribourg, she worked in a bilingual (FR/DE) law firm specialising in commercial law and then at the public prosecutor's office. She carries out ICT projects and is also involved in social projects through her associations “38.5” and “strukturelle”. As member of the Federal Commission for Women's Issues in Switzerland, she also represents women's entrepreneurship at the federal level. A member of GEM Switzerland for more than three years, she was appointed team leader in February 2025.
Allison A. Dunlop
For over two decades, attorney Allison A. Dunlop has represented survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse. She practices law through a trauma-informed lens and has litigated extensively in the Family, Supreme, and the Integrated Domestic Violence (IDV) Courts in New York City. Allison represents survivors of intimate partner violence in complex matrimonial and family law proceedings. She also represents survivors in gender-based humanitarian applications for immigration relief.
Allison co-created a trauma-informed training series to foster improved interactions between first responders (NYPD) and dv survivors, including co-producing training videos that assists first responders in identifying trauma responses exhibited by survivors, and has trained hundreds of officers.
In her personal time, she also works to challenge abusive and discriminatory work-place practices that harm women, especially women of color and those from immigrant communities.
Allison obtained her Juris Doctorate from SUNY Buffalo School of Law, where she specialized in International Law and Human Rights. She has a B.A. from New York University.
Tani Gurkova
Tani Gurkova is the Founder and Executive Director of Steps With Sisters, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to community empowerment. With a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University and a Bachelors in Business Administration from Tennessee State University, Tani’s professional journey spans Wall Street, NBA security, Criminal Law Paralegal & Investigations, and corporate leadership as CEO of Alexander Service Corp.
Her leadership in Steps With Sisters combines her diverse experiences to shape the organization's vision, streamline operations, and foster inclusivity. Known for her hands-on leadership style, Tani mentors board members and volunteers while creating impactful partnerships and promoting organizational growth.
Tani is a member and guest speaker at organizations like the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations, NAMI, Women Empowered NYC, and the National Action Network, among others. She is dedicated to volunteerism, including feeding the homeless, providing pro bono estate planning, and supporting families in need.
Jane Aeberhard-Hodges
A post-graduate in international law and practising attorney before joining the International Labour Organization, Jane served a three-decades career at HQ and in the field in the areas of international and comparative labour law, and gender equality & human rights law. She represented ILO in all the major UN bodies, particularly advocating for effective implementation of international labour standards on non-discrimination with the treaty bodies, functional commissions and special mandates and procedures.
Since 2014, Jane edits the International Labour Law Reports (Brill Leiden) and serves as a Senior Research Associate with the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). From 2016-19, she was the Gender Equality Director of Investing in Women, an Australian Government initiative for women’s economic empowerment in South East Asia, for which she remains a go-to resource.
She is also a global policy resource for the international non-governmental organization EveryWoman Treaty working towards a binding norm to end violence against women and girls, and for the ECOSOC-accredited Global Migration Policy Associates (GMPA).
Jane has published extensively on labour and human rights with a special emphasis on gender equality and under her stewardship ILO’s work on the 2019 Convention on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work (No.190) commenced.
Recent consultancies include gender mainstreaming analyses for the World Bank, Inter-Parliamentary Union, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and ILO’s Training Centre, Turin.
Dr. Eleanor Ann Nwadinobi
Dr. Eleanor Ann Nwadinobi is President of the Medical Women’s International Association. She is also Co-founder of the Every Woman Treaty, a coalition advocating for a global treaty to end all forms of violence against women.
An independent gender, health, women’s rights, and women, peace, and security expert, her career has spanned working as an anaesthetist in the UK, with ECOWAS on child trafficking, United Nations on girls’ education , HIV/AIDS and as lead researcher on gender-based violence for the World Bank. She worked with the African Union as team leader for the experts who drafted the stabilisation strategy for the four countries affected by Boko Haram.
As President of the Widows Development Organisation, Eleanor participated in bringing about State and National laws outlawing harmful widowhood practices in Nigeria.
Eleanor has presented numerous papers, has several publications and Honoured with several awards.
Her personal profile is featured in Friedrich Ebert Stiftung publication, “The hands that build Nigeria: Nigerian women role models” and The Encyclopedia of WHO is WHO in the Medical Profession in Nigeria 1950-2021.
Thenmozhi Soundararajan
Thenmozhi Soundararajan, is a Dalit rights artist, technologist, and theorist. Currently, Thenmozhi is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Equality Labs, a Dalit Civil Rights organization that uses community research, cultural and political organizing, popular education and digital security to build power to end caste apartheid, racism, gender based violence, and religious intolerance.
To learn more about her work around caste equity, abolition, and healing, check out her book The Trauma of Caste, published by North Atlantic Books. You can find her on twitter, instagram, and facebook at @dalitdiva and Equality Labs @equalitylabs.
Moderator
Fay Yvette Parris, Esq.
Fay Yvette Parris, is an international law consultant, immigration law practitioner, and writer with extensive experience in humanitarian and international human rights law. Recently, she also provided extensive service to McGuire Woods, LLP. as part of a financial crimes investigations team. In her private practice she prepares National Interest Waiver petitions for physicians, medical researchers and scholars with exemplary portfolios, and has successfully represented individuals in removal proceedings, including those seeking asylum or withholding of removal under the UN Convention Against Torture.
She served as a Visiting Professional with the International Criminal Court (ICC), Office of the Prosecutor, where she advised the Court on modalities for prosecuting gender-based persecution which occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2011); as Advisor to the ICC Trust Fund for Victims for a June 2009 Board Meeting, and as a Supervising Attorney with the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights. From June 2021-June 2022 she served as President of the Queens County Women's Bar Association, and she is currently a member of the American University School of International Service Board of Advisors, an Ex-Officio Director of the Global NGO Executive Committee and serving in her nineteenth year as Co-Chair of the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY) International Women's Rights Committee. Fay was the 2019 recipient of the WBASNY Marilyn R. Menge Award for outstanding work on behalf of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York.
Fay and Michael A. Eastridge, Esq. recently co-founded Global Justice Advocates, PLLC through which they collaborate with other stakeholders to incorporate international human rights principles as practice within public and private spaces.
Fay received a Master of Arts (MA) in Law and International Affairs from The American University School of International Service; a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the American University Washington College of Law and Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in International Affairs with a Minor in Criminal Justice from The American University, School of International Service.