Twitter & Feminism in Transitional Justice

My experience as a Leitner Intern this summer was about flight. Flight of ideas, flights from New York to Paris and back again, flights across the web.

I worked at the International Center for Transitional Justice for the Gender Justice program under the guidance of its fantastic director, Kelli Muddell. For the month of June, I was in the New York office every day, conducting research on gender and transitional justice in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). I read, compiled, and provided feedback on a list of sources that were then used for a conference in Beirut to help implement transitional justice measures for women in the region. The documents covered transitional justice generally through a gendered lens, truth seeking commissions, civil society participation in truth seeking commissions, reparations, civil society and participation in the international criminal justice system, criminal justice generally, and security sector reform (including civil society participation). I also provided feedback and extensive editing on a number of other related documents to help activists prepare for implementation of transitional justice measures.

At the end of June, I went to Paris where I studied French language, Human Rights, Comparative Family Law, and World Trade and Development. I took classes at the Sorbonne (Paris I) with Cornell University's Summer Law Institute along with students from all over the world.

In addition to my coursework, I continued to work for ICTJ on a monthly gender situation report. ICTJ sends monthly situation reports from and to its various offices all over the world, allowing staff and interns a window into the global work in transitional justice. This project was and is becoming one of the most valuable experiences in my career. My assignment was to follow the news on gender and transitional justice and write up a summary of the relevant articles I found.

I ended up turning it into something much more fascinating than I ever anticipated. I created a list on Twitter of different organizations and news media that I wanted to follow - a list that included organizations like UN Women, Equality Now (an NGO I interned at in the Spring), Al Jazeera, the International Justice Tribunal, the ICC, Global Fund for Women, and more.

I followed this list regularly for updates. Not only was I reading the news; I was also watching the revolution in Libya un

fold. So I did more than summarize the articles I found - I analyzed and critiqued them.

In particular, I was interested in the way

s states use sexual violence and oppression to silence women's voices and participation in democracy and revolution. The following is an excerpt from my summary and analysis:

"This article demonstrates how different forms and degrees of sexual violence are used to reinforce gendered boundaries and keep women in the private sphere...By exploiting cultural norms about female sexuality, the state is able to use sexual violence, assault, and harassment to keep women out of public life...The article treats information accessibility and the link between democracy and patriarchy as separate issues, and runs the risk of the incorrect assumption that democracy results in major improvements for women. For democracy to benefit women, it must be accessible and inclusive. However, as the article contends, the advent of accessibility through social media is important. Not only is information through social media available across the public/private boundary, anyone with Internet access can participate in it. This means that social media could help women gain access to democratic debate, and also enable them to play a more substantial role in shaping it."

Internet access is still privileged and subject to censorship, but it is still an incredible platform on which a vast number of people who otherwise wouldn't have access to

voice can stand. What's more, it can happen publicly or privately, and often simultaneously. By reading and writing the mon-

thly situation report, I was circulating this knowledge through a powerful NGO, and by retweeting posts and adding a few of my own, I was perpetuating the circulation of knowledge that was forming the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, or more generally, the ideas that are shaping current feminist and human rights work.

This was particularly fascinating for me, because in college I wrote about problems of ascribing nationhood to women's bodies (see above for the Delacroix painting of La Liberté guidant le peuple), and left for a work of art incorporating the Statue of Liberty that I saw near ICTJ's headquarters in downtown Manhattan. (Or just think of the Statue itself). I should note that I think the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) is very different from the French Lady Liberty, or at least has the potential to be: she represents the Roman goddess of freedom and isn't sexualized. She holds a torch, a symbol of light, a crown evoking the seven seas, continents, and sun, and a tablet with writing, which of course enables the transmission of knowledge. Instead of representing American identity, (as Marianne does in France) she welcomes immigrants and travelers to New York City ... and New Yorkers back home.

Instead of finding national identity in a female symbol, it is imperative to a fairly functioning democracy that women's ideas, not bodies, enter the public sphere. This brings me to a project I am finishing for ICTJ, a note for the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) commission with UN Women. In this note, I am being asked to identify links between transitional justice and CEDAW to give a stronger foothold in gender-sensitive transitional justice measures. Rape must be seen as a state perpetrated crime, truth commissions must ask women at all levels about their experiences. Success in transitional justice efforts depends upon the full and fair participation of women, and opening up democratic processes to all women harmed by violence and affected by revolution.

Overall, I find the widespread use of women's bodies in museums and public places as a way to articulate political, cultural, social, and philosophical ideas to be offensive and problematic, although as someone who loves art, I can still appreciate the message and beauty of the art for its own sake. However, I demand entry into the conversation. Graffiti to me is a brilliant way to assault the established order and shock the conscience. It requires no ticket for admission, and does not ask for the viewer's permission. Therefore, I end my post with this image (another welcome home!) in the hope that my post will inspire readers to fight for women's rights, for fighting for women's rights is ultimately fighting for everyone's rights. Change begins in the home, and the writing is on my own street ;)