Shoaibi
MORGANTOWN -– Halla E. Shoaibi, an international humanitarian law expert, will kick off a three-part lecture series called "Global Perspectives" on Monday, Aug. 31 at the West Virginia University College of Law with a discussion on "Palestinian Women and the Law."
The lecture will be held from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Room 154 and will also be available for live webcast viewing at http://law.wvu.edu/global09.
The McDougall Lecture Series, "Global Perspectives," evidences the continuing commitment by the College of Law to its programs in international law which explore diverse points of view on issues that are critical to the global legal community.
"This new lecture series offers our students an invaluable opportunity to engage with distinguished international scholars with diverse views and global perspectives on international legal issues," said Valorie K. Vojdik, associate dean of faculty research and development, who was instrumental in facilitating the series of talks.
Shoaibi is currently completing a postgraduate law degree from the University of Michigan and has a keen interest in human rights, international humanitarian law, and private and public international law. She has pursued this interest not only through her education – having received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Birzeit University in Palestine – but also through her work with organizations like the Open Society Justice Initiative, where she worked on national criminal justice reform; ARKAN (USAID Project), a pilot externship program dealing with rule of law reform in the West Bank and Gaza; as a volunteer with the Dalia Association, the first Palestinian community foundation; and Youth Work in Contested Spaces (YWICS), hosted by the Basque Government and Public Achievement Northern Ireland among other activities.
Through her humanitarian law work, Shoaibi is fighting for Palestinian mothers who are forced to give birth at roadside checkpoints.
According to Shoaibi, 69 cases of births at checkpoints have been documented since 2000, among them 35 infants and five mothers have died, but many similar cases go unnoticed. Shoaibi contends that delaying pregnant Palestinian women in labor en route to hospitals qualifies as a crime against humanity or sexual violence under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Joining Shoaibi in the McDougall Lecture Series are two Archibald McDougall Visiting Lecturers on International Law, who will be in residence at the WVU College of Law this fall semester.
Dr. Myint Zan, who is a principal lecturer at Multimedia University School of Law in Malaysia, will address students and faculty on Tuesday, Sept. 15 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom with a lecture titled, "U.N. Security Council Jurisprudence: Power Politics Still Trumps Inchoate Trend Toward Just Governance."
Dr. Fernando Patron Sanchez, is the director of the Department of Public Management, Division of Law, Politics and Government at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico, and he will present "Problems of Democratic Consolidation in Latin America: Special Mention to the Mexican Case" on Monday, Oct. 12 from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. in room 154 at the College of Law.
Zan and Sanchez will provide unique insights on topics as varied as the role of the U.N. Security Council regarding democratic governance of member states and the challenges of burgeoning democracies in Latin America.
