Please join us for The United Nations Association of New York 2011 Spring Luncheon. We will pay tribute to the work of the following honorees for their contributions to end human trafficking.
RUCHIRA GUPTA & APNE AAP WOMEN WORLDWIDE
THE JUNIOR LEAGUE
12 p.m. - 1 p.m. Registration and Reception
1 - 3 p.m. Luncheon and Program
UN Delegates Dining Room
United Nations, First Avenue and 42nd Street entrance
New York City
UNITED NATIONS ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK
2011 SPRING LUNCHEON
Keynote Speaker
Vishakha Desai
President and CEO, Asia Society
2011 Spring Luncheon Honorary Committee
Abigail E. Disney
Documentary filmmaker and philanthropist
Marian Wright Edelman
Founder and President, Children's Defense Fund
Honorable Carolyn B. Maloney
Congresswoman
Mary Robinson
former President of Ireland and
former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Zainab Salbi
Founder and President, Women for Women International
Carol Smolenski
Executive Director, ECPAT
Debora Spar
President, Barnard College
Gloria Steinem
Feminist writer and organizer
Ambassador Melanne S. Verveer
US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues
Desiree Watson
President and CEO, Wellness Interactive, Inc.
2011 SPRING LUNCHEON | KEYNOTE SPEAKER
VISHAKHA DESAI
Vishakha Desai is the sixth President and CEO of Asia Society. She is a frequent speaker at national and international forums on a wide variety of subjects that include US-Asia relationships, cultural roots of Asian economic development, regional connections within the Asia Pacific region, as well as the arts and cultures of Asia and Asian America. Dr. Desai also serves on the boards of The Brookings Institution, Citizens for NYC, and the New York City Advisory Commission for Cultural Affairs.
2011 SPRING LUNCHEON | HONOREE
RUCHIRA GUPTA
Ruchira Gupta is the Founder and President of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, a grassroots organization in India working to end sex trafficking by increasing choices for at-risk girls and women. She has been striving, over her 25-year career, to highlight the link between trafficking and prostitution laws, and to lobby policymakers to shift the blame from victims to perpetrators. She testified in the United States Senate before the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, and she lobbied with other activists at the United Nations during the formulations for the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons — resulting in the first UN instrument to address demand for trafficking in Article 9.
In 2009 Gupta won the Clinton Global Citizen Award and, in 2007, the Abolitionist Award at the UK House of Lords. In 2009 and 2008, she gave an address to the UN General Assembly on human trafficking. She won an Emmy in 1997 for her work on the documentary "The Selling of Innocents," which inspired the creation of Apne Aap Worldwide. Her work has been featured in 11 books including Half the Sky by Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof.
Prior to founding Apne Aap, Gupta worked in the United Nations in various capacities in 12 countries for over ten years. She is on the board of Coalition against Trafficking in Women and the advisory councils of the Polaris Project, Vital Voices, Ricky Martin Foundation, Asia Society, Nomi Network and Cents for Relief.
Apne Aap Women Worldwide is a grassroots Indian organization working to end sex trafficking and empower women to escape sexual slavery. Now in its eighth year, the organization reaches over 10,000 victims and survivors of sex-trafficking, has put 800 at-risk children in school, and provides education, healthcare, legal protection, and economic empowerment to 2,500 women and girls.
Ruchira Gupta is featured in this CNN video by Zainab Salbi of Women for Women International, who takes a journey through New Delhi's red light district.
2011 SPRING LUNCHEON | HONOREE
MARRY HARRIMAN
Founded more than a century ago by native New Yorker and pioneering social activist Mary Harriman, The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. is a collection charitable nonprofit organizations of women who voluntarily commit themselves to rigorous civic leadership training and then venture into their communities to apply their skills and expertise working to improve the quality of life in a lasting and meaningful way.
Today, The Junior Leagues are comprised of more than 155,000 women in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, who work tirelessly and passionately to solve society's toughest and most urgent problems — problems like human trafficking, juvenile justice, teen self-esteem, literacy, environmental sustainability, domestic violence, the foster care system and childhood obesity.
Human trafficking is an increasingly important issue for The Junior Leagues, with key initiatives — ranging from the creation of city-wide campaigns to generate awareness of the issue among the general public to spearheading calls for legislative change with key political figures — taking place at the state level through the New York State Public Affairs Committee of The Junior League (NYSPAC), the Junior Leagues of New Jersey State Public Affairs Committee (NJSPAC) and the Michigan State Council of Junior Leagues (MSC) — as well as more localized efforts by individual Leagues in Los Angeles, CA, Atlanta, GA, New Orleans, LA, Owensboro, KY and Westchester County, NY.
Collectively, the women of The Junior Leagues constitute one of the largest, most effective volunteer organizations in the world. Together they have literally affected millions of lives and established a legacy integral to the social, cultural and political fabric of civil society.
AJLI President Delly Beekman will represent the Leagues for this notable occasion.
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