On October 1, Monica Roa (LL.M. ’03) delivered the 15th Annual Rose Sheinberg Lecture. Roa, an international human rights lawyer, serves as the programs director of Women’s Link Worldwide, an organization that advocates for women’s rights through the strategic use of legal channels. In 2006, she successfully argued before the Constitutional Court of Colombia to overturn the country’s restrictive ban on abortion. In her lecture, "High Impact Litigation in Colombia: The Unconstitutionality of Abortion Restrictions," Roa talked about the activities of Women's Link Worldwide, the state of reproductive rights in courts around the globe, and the challenges of working on behalf of women's rights in the judicial system.
Before her speech, Roa sat down with Helaine Olen, reporting for the Law School magazine, and spoke about the effects of the Constitutional Court's ruling, including threats that Roa herself received; her ongoing work on behalf of women, and the long-range impact of her Law School experience. A podcast of the interview is below.
Audio
Listen to the audio highlights from the interview (11 min):
(or download the MP3 file audio file, 10MB)
Read a profile of Roa from the 2006 Law School magazine (page 119) (PDF)
Watch Women's Link Worldwide's video about the 2006 case that overturned Colombia's abortion ban
