Professor Scarpa Gives Talk at British Embassy on International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women

Professor Silvia Scarpa

JCU Professor Silvia Scarpa delivered a speech on November 25 at the British Embassy of Rome to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Professor Scarpa remembered how in 1999 the United Nations General Assembly designated this day to commemorate the death of three courageous sisters, Patria Mirabal, Minerva Mirabal and Maria Teresa Mirabal (known as Las Mariposas, the butterflies). Las Mariposas had dared to openly oppose the Dominican dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo and for this reasons on November 25, 1960 they were violently beaten and strangled to death in a sugar cane.

She then examined the main achievements and challenges in the field of violence against women, with a special focus on sexual violence, in international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law and in the area of the maintenance of peace and security.

Prof. Scarpa teaches Human Rights, Contemporary Slavery and Human Trafficking, International Law, and International Migration at John Cabot University. She is the author of the book Trafficking in Human Beings: Modern Slavery (Oxford University Press, 2008).