Thomson Reuters Foundation launches Trustlaw Women, a global hub on women’s rights

By Thomson Reuters Foundation

LONDON, June 15, 2011 – Thomson Reuters Foundation announced the launch of TrustLaw Women (www.trust.org/trustlaw/womens-rights) an international hub of news, information, resources and discussion on women’s legal rights.

This new vertical of information on TrustLaw  promises to widen access to the rule of law and empower women worldwide with information from trusted sources.

“In many countries, basic human rights are systematically denied to women. TrustLaw Women has been created to help women know and defend their rights. We believe that empowering women tackle at the very roots of poverty. In the developing world when a woman works, her children are better fed and better educated because they spend their money for their family,” said Monique Villa, chief executive of Thomson Reuters Foundation

What we offer

TrustLaw Women is a one-stop shop featuring exclusive multimedia reporting by TrustLaw journalists along with breaking reports from the Reuters’ newswire and provocative postings by prominent bloggers. The site provides content from a growing list of specialist partners, including the Women’s United Nations Report Network, Human Rights Watch, Women’s eNews and the Association for Women’s Rights in Development.

We also offer women free legal support from leading international lawyers through TrustLaw. Thomson Reuters Foundation has recently mobilised members of its TrustLaw  pro bono network of 174 law firms, corporate counsels and individual lawyers to help protect women in Haiti from an epidemic of sexual violence. Since the earthquake in January 2010, police say the number of sexual assaults in Haiti has increased considerably, with more than 600,000 people still living in crowded camps with few lights at night and little security.

That is why, in association with global women’s group MADRE, we have launched a comparative study of Haiti’s anti-rape laws in six other jurisdictions: France, Sweden, Canada, the United States, South Africa and Brazil.

The study follows a forum organised by the Foundation in Port-au-Prince that brought together for the first time senior Haitian government officials, police, lawyers, doctors and women’s rights groups.

Finally, the Foundation will provide a database of women’s rights legislation by country in a unique partnership with the American Bar Association. Known as IMPOWR, or the International Models Project on Women’s Rights, the database will feature on TrustLaw Women alongside analysis and other legal resources on gender equality around the world.