Please join us to discuss the important issue of domestic violence, a crime which has been exacerbated during the pandemic and where taking positive action in the workplace can lead to life saving results, and improved workplace culture.
With an introduction from Baroness Helena Kennedy QC (Director IBAHRI) and closing remarks from IBA President, Horacio Bernardes Neto, the International Bar Association is anxious to draw attention to this deeply worrying phenomenon; Covid-19 has forced full-time, home-based working and physical isolation from the outside world. It has led to a worrying rise in calls to domestic abuse helplines and reports of violence, including dedicated helplines for lawyers.
How are firms addressing these issues – if at all – and why should they take into account what happens to their staff outside the workplace?
Every workplace must consider the safety and wellbeing of its employees. Domestic violence knows no social or economic boundaries and occurs with alarming frequency, with the victim often suffering in silence.
The eye-watering statistics on prevalence indicate that this is a global pandemic of a different kind and the impact on the workplace should not be underestimated. Covid-19 has exacerbated the risk of employees experiencing domestic violence – whether from a partner or family member. This will affect quality of work, lead to higher levels of absenteeism and potentially create public relations issues if individuals are shown to have been perpetrators, adversely impacted or killed, and there was a complete absence of support structure available in their place of work.
With or without the Covid-19 crisis, domestic violence is a scourge that demands attention from all workplaces.
Why should law firms acknowledge this is a problem and seek to address it? What are others doing about this issue? What does a good domestic abuse specific policy include and should employers offer more over guidance and training to educate and protect their workforce? Is Covid-19 a catalyst for employers to do more?
We will try and address these and other questions in this IBA webinar.
Please get in touch with Sara.Carnegie@int-bar.org if you would like to (i) discuss how your legal work place can be more proactive; or (ii) how measures you have taken have been effective in addressing these issues.
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Baroness Helena Kennedy QC Director, IBA Human Rights Institute, London
Elizabeth’s career spans public, private and third sectors. She was CEO, Citizens Advice, Deputy CEO, London Docklands, The Adjudicator, HM Revenue and Customs, Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and conducted the Independent Inquiry into the relations between the Metropolitan Police and the press. She has chaired, Annington Homes Ltd, The Advisory Group for Marston Holdings, and the Appointments Committee for the General Pharmaceutical Council.
Currently she Chairs, The Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse and TecSOS, a NED, Driver Group and a Trustee of the Vodafone Foundation.
Corinna Lim
As AWARE's Executive Director, Corinna leads a team of 25 that works closely with the government, companies and civic organisations to advance the cause of gender equality in Singapore's society and workplaces. She has contributed to the enactment of domestic violence and anti-harassment legislation and policies in Singapore. Prior to AWARE, Corinna was a partner at Allen & Gledhill, Khattar Wong & Partners, and Koh Ong & Partners.
Anthony Wood
Anthony Wood is a partner in Herbert Smith Freehills’ Australian Employment Law team, based in Melbourne. His practice spans strategic advice and advocacy for employers and includes advising in relation to collective and individual disputes, equal employment opportunity, anti-bullying matters, termination of employment, enterprise bargaining, transmission of business/privatisation, workplace investigations and whistle-blower issues. Tony has been recognised by Best Lawyers as one of Australia’s premier employment lawyers since 2008, and is noted as a leading practitioner in prestigious guides such as Doyle’s, Chambers and The Legal 500 Asia Pacific.
Lloyd Nicholas Vergara
Lloyd Nicholas Vergara is currently a Court Attorney VI-CT at the Supreme Court of the Philippines and a Co-Chair of the IBA’s LGBTI Law Committee. He won the 2014 IBA Annual Conference Scholarship - Criminal Law Committee.
After having been admitted to the Philippine Bar on April 26, 2007, Lloyd started his legal career in the Court of Appeals – Visayas Station. In 2010, he moved to the Manila Station where he was a member of the Court of Appeals Gender Focal Point System (January 2018 to March 2019). In March 2019, he transferred to the Supreme Court of the Philippines.
Lloyd has a degree in Information Management from Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of San Carlos School of Law and Governance, and is an LL.M candidate specializing in International Human Rights Law at the Ateneo de Manila University. In 2017, he was conferred an LL.M. in Transnational Commercial Practice by Lazarski University (Warsaw, Poland) through a 50% Tuition Fee Scholarship awarded by the Center for International Legal Studies (Salzburg, Austria). This LL.M. program was administered in coordination with Eotvos Lorand University (Budapest, Hungary) and Boston University(U.S.A.). He also received training on Investment Treaty Arbitration from the International Academy for Arbitration Law in Paris, France. Since 2018, he has sat as Memorial Reviewer and Bench Judge in the International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition organized by Leiden University, The Hague, Netherlands. His articles has been published in IBA newsletters and, he was a contributor in the 2019 edition of State-Sponsored Homophobia, a publication by The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association.
Lloyd won the 2014 IBA Annual Conference Scholarship – Criminal Law Section. In 2015, he became a full member of the IBA and the Website Officer of the LGBTI Law Committee. In 2019, he assumed the post of committee Co-Chair.
Carolina Tavares Rodrigues
Brazil Labour & Employment Senior Counsel of General Electric, born in São Paulo, SP, Brazil; admitted to practice in 2003, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Mrs. Rodrigues has more than sixteen years of experience in the labor and immigration area, with focus on: assistance in consultations related to the Brazilian labor, employment and immigration laws; drafting and reviewing employment, services and executive agreements; drafting and reviewing local and global compensation plans and policies; assistance in hiring and termination of executives; assistance in procedures related to the opening and closing of business in Brazil; management of labor litigation.
Legal education: School of Law of the University of São Paulo, Brazil (LL.B., 2003), International Institute of Social Sciences, São Paulo, Brazil (Postgraduation in Labor Law, 2005).
Membership: Brazilian Bar Association.
International Rewards: Awarded as Employment Counsel in the 2020 Latin American Counsel Awards of Lexology // Recognized in “Women in Law Awards” of Lawyer Monthly Magazine in 2014 and 2016 // Mentioned as “associates to watch” in the Labour and Employment area in the years of 2010 and 2011 of Chambers and Partners Latin America // Mentioned as a recognized lawyer in the Labour and Employee benefits area in the years of 2008, 2009 and 2010 of PLC Which Lawyer.
Sara Carnegie
Sara is an employed barrister with over 20 years’ experience in the criminal justice and public policy sector. The majority of her career has been spent working for government, most recently as Director of Strategic Policy at the Crown Prosecution Service. Sara has also headed the legal teams on two public inquiries (the Baha Mousa Inquiry and the Detainee Inquiry) and spent several years as a legal and policy advisor to the Senior Presiding Judge and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. She has sat in a judicial capacity on the Council of the Inns of Court Disciplinary Tribunal since 2013 and has recently been appointed as a reviewer for the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
Helena is one of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers and an expert in human rights law, civil liberties and constitutional issues. Helena has spent her professional life giving voice to those who have least power within the system, championing civil liberties and promoting human rights. She has used many public platforms – including the House of Lords, to which she was elevated in 1997 – to argue with passion, wit and humanity for social justice. She has also written and broadcast on a wide range of issues, from medical negligence to terrorism to the rights of women and children.
She is a member of the House of Lords and chair of Justice, the British arm of the International Commission of Jurists. She is a bencher of Gray’s Inn and president of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She was the chair of Charter 88 from 1992 to 1997, the Human Genetics Commission from 1998 to 2007 and the British Council from 1998 to 2004. She also chaired the Power Inquiry, which reported on the state of British democracy and produced the Power Report in 2006. She has received honours for her work on human rights from the governments of France and Italy and has been awarded more than 30 honorary doctorates.