MADRE Statements

Event: An Evening Honoring Human Rights Activist Elsa Stamatopoulou

Posted on: Monday, April 19, 2010

Join MADRE and the International Indigenous Women's Forum (IIWF/FIMI) for an evening celebrating Elsa Stamatopoulou, a human rights advocate committed to the struggles of Indigenous Peoples and a tireless activist for women's rights.

Elsa - our friend, our sister

When:
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
6:00pm - 9:00pm

Where:
Church Center for the United Nations
777 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017

This event is in honor of Elsa Stamatopoulou, current Chief of the Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues for the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Mrs. Stamatopoulou, who is retiring from her current position, has dedicated 23 years of her United Nations work specifically to the advancement of human rights. Throughout her career she has given support to a number of organizations, and she has influenced in the implementation of human rights treaties, the progress of rights of the child, of Indigenous Peoples, education, development and civil society. We are organizing this tribute to thank her for the support she has given to the advancement of human rights, specifically to those of Indigenous women.

Personal Background:
Elsa Stamatopoulou was born in Athens, Greece, where she obtained her Law Degree from the University of Athens Law School and entered the Athens Bar Association upon her graduation. She received a Master's Degree in Administration of Criminal Justice from Northeastern University in Boston, MA. She completed her Doctoral studies in Political Science with a specialization in International Law at the University Institute of Graduate International Studies of the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Mrs. Stamatopoulou has received the award of the NGO Committee on the Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the Eleanor Roosevelt Award of the Human Rights Center and of Voices 21, and other awards from grassroots organizations.

As the Secretary of the United Nations Working Groups of the Commission on Human Rights, its Sub-Commission and the General Assembly, she has participated in the drafting of the following international human rights instruments: the draft declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples; the Convention against Torture and Other Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families; the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National, Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities, and the Declaration on the Rights of Persons who are not Citizens in the Country in which they Live.