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Hunter Human Rights Director Receives ‘Woman of Vision’ Award
Jessica Neuwirth is honored by the National Organization for Women
She’s Hunter’s Woman of Vision!
The Rita E. Hauser Director of Human Rights at Hunter College’s Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, Jessica Neuwirth, has received the National Organization for Women’s 2024 Woman of Vision Award.
Neuwirth, a lawyer, was presented with the award at NOW’s virtual conference on the theme of “Women Will Save Democracy” last week. NOW cited Neuwirth’s decades of advocacy for women’s equality in the U.S. and abroad, long-standing dedication to furthering the Equal Rights Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and work with the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights on sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war.
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“NOW led the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s,” Neuwirth said. “I am proud to be recognized for the work we are doing with the students at Hunter College who are in the forefront of today’s campaign for the ERA. We have never been closer to getting women – who were intentionally left out – into the Constitution. It is long overdue.”
Neuwirth’s achievement was lauded by Hunter’s leadership.
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“We congratulate Jessica Neuwirth on this prestigious and well-deserved award recognizing her tireless work for women and human rights,” said Hunter College President Kirschner.
Neuwirth is a co-founder of Equality Now, an international women’s rights organization, and a founder and Co-President of the ERA Coalition, a broad-based organization mobilizing support for the ERA. She held important positions with the United Nations, the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and as Special Consultant on sexual violence with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which culminated in the landmark judgment declaring rape a weapon of war, and with Special Court of Sierra Leone in drafting a judgement on war crimes and crimes against humanity against Liberian President Chales Taylor.
She is also a distinguished lecturer at Hunter and the author of Equal Means Equal – Why the Time for an Equal Rights Amendment is Now.
