'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

Its contributors are women who teach and work in international law, policy and practice. Reading the blog feels like picking the minds of some of the most interesting women you could ever hope to have coffee with. They’re carving out a voice for women in international legal theory and practice, but it’s all written in a really accessible tone. Highly recommended, especially to future U.S. policy makers who will have to reckon with this growing voice in international politics.

-- Kate Alexander (left), a junior at Brandeis University, writing about us IntLawGrrls in a February Exploring Ethics blog post that we just discovered. Titled "Female judges, lawyers and rights – oh my! Chipping away at the glass ceiling in international politics," it too is well worth a read.
Heartfelt thanks for the kind words!

750K

A few hours ago we at IntLawGrrls welcomed our 750,000th page-viewer since our founding in 2007! We've had more than 458,000 unique visits since then, and these days are averaging almost a thousand unique visits a day.
An e-mail widget reports that we've reached 21,500 cities, and yesterday greeted Palau, our newest visitor-country.
Heartfelt thanks to all the 'Grrls for superb contributions, and to all our readers for your superb support!

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

'To men, the bicycle in the beginning was merely a new toy, another machine added to the long list of devices they knew in their work and play. To women, it was a steed upon which they rode into a new world.'

-- This quote from an item in an 1896 edition of Munsey's Magazine comes to us via Andrew Sullivan's Dish, which in turn links to culture blogger/tweeter Maria Popova's Atlantic review of Sue Macy's new book (right) on women and bipedal empowerment.
Seems likely to this 'Grrl that decades from now some historian will say the same thing about women and electronic communications that Munsey's once said about women and bikes.

And now we are 4

Today we IntLawGrrls celebrate our 4th birthday.
It was on this day -- 'Grrls Day -- in 2007 that we launched this blog on "international law, policy, practice." (photo credit)
Much cause to celebrate!
This past year, in addition to cosponsoring an autumn conference for the 2d year in a row, we were chief sponsors of a roundtable at the American Society of International Law on the subject of "Women and International Criminal Law," in honor of our guest/alumna Patricia M. Wald. We look forward this spring to publication of the special issue of the International Criminal Law Review in which will appear the roundtable papers, many of them by IntLawGrrls. (Synopses of some already have been posted; more to come.)
Many of us have contributed to other IntLawGrrls' series this year; to name 2, our Kampala/International Criminal Court series and our North Africa series.
'Grrls continue to receive invites to speak at other conferences, and to contribute scholarship, blog posts, and op-eds on account of their work here.
As listed in full in our righthand column, contributing more than 4,000 posts have been nearly 3 dozen permanent IntLawGrrls voices, plus upwards of 200 women, from dozens of countries, who've joined us as guests. We're honored that one of our distinguished alumnae, U.N. expert Gay McDougall, will be receiving the Goler T. Butcher Medal at this month's ASIL annual meeting. And we' continue to draw inspiration from scores of transnational foremothers -- most recently, Sojourner Truth.
We're delighted that our readership has grown along with us. Last year we were consistently ranked among the most-read law prof blogs. To date we've reached more than 23,200 cities around the world, and today we will pass the milestone of 675,000 page views since our founding!
To all our contributors and all our readers, heartfelt thanks, and best wishes for another wonderful year!

Carte postale de Paris

(Delighted to welcome back alumna Leila Nadya Sadat, who contributes this guest post)

Greetings from Paris, where this semester I am the Alexis de Tocqueville Distinguished Fulbright Chair. The first woman to receive the Chaire Tocqueville, I will be in residence in Paris throughout Spring 2011, teaching at the University of Cergy-Pontoise.
I’ve started a blog to chronicle my experiences here. I’ll be focusing on comparative approaches to international law and, in particular, international criminal law and the International Criminal Court. My blog, titled An American in Paris and now one of the “connections” in the list at IntLawGrrls’ righthand column, already has a few posts. I plan to cover legal and non-legal topics of interest during my tenure as a Fulbright, as well as commentaries on academic life abroad.
Please feel free to drop in!

Still on the move

Proud to announce that IntLawGrrls once again ranks as a most-viewed law profs' blog.
Following on an earlier report on which we then posted, the most recent quarterly compilations, released earlier this month by Paul L. Caron, Associate Dean and Professor at Cincinnati College of Law, place us 'Grrls 32d in page views, at 236K-plus, and 33d in unique visitors, at 141K-plus. That reflects readership increases of 36.3% and 30.9%, respectively -- 4th highest in the lists.
Heartfelt thanks, as always, to all the 'Grrls who've contributed. And our heartiest thanks to all our readers. Keep on visiting us, any time!

MAC/Rodarte Juárez debacle: How fashion & makeup bloggers raised corporate & public human rights awareness

(IntLawGrrls is delighted to welcome back alumna M.C. Sungaila, who contributes this guest post)

Less than a month after they took part in a U.N. summit, two U.S. companies tested the limits of social responsibility and were brought to task by fashion and makeup bloggers -- not the United Nations.
About 7,000 businesses from more than 135 countries took part in a June U.N. Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York City. The Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate citizenship initiative. The Compact’s Women’s Empowerment Principles, launched this past International Women’s Day, offer guidance to companies on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace, and community in accordance with international human rights principles.
Global Compact signatories include major global corporations across a range of industries: Deloitte, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Bank of America, Cisco, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Pepsico, Microsoft, Monsanto, and Royal Dutch Shell, for example.
The Global Compact’s Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption are derived from U.N. human rights documents. The first principle of the Global Compact is respecting and supporting human rights. The first principle notes that corporate responsibility to respect human rights exists independently of a state’s responsibility to do so and advises that a corporation’s “good works” in one area cannot excuse its infringement of human rights in another. The Compact’s Women’s Empowerment Principles name as priorities promoting equality through community initiatives and advocacy and establishing high-level corporate leadership around gender equality.
But it was the fashion and makeup blogosphere that took two companies, MAC Cosmetics and Rodarte, to task.
► MAC Cosmetics has historically shown profound awareness around social issues. The MAC AIDS Fund, established in 1994, has raised $139 million through the sale of its VIVA GLAM lipstick and lipgloss, from which 100% of sales are donated to fight HIV/AIDS.
► Fashion house Rodarte, founded by California-born sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, is a relative newcomer to the fashion scene, prized for its artsy approach.
For Fall 2010, MAC and Rodarte teamed up for a fashion collection and integrated makeup line. According to the Mulleavy sisters, the collection was inspired by their travels across Texas' landscape en route to the art town of Marfa, and the imagined “lines of women workers making their way to factory jobs in the middle of the night” across the border in Juarez, Mexico. (above left; photo credit)
The nail polish, lipstick, and other makeup bore names such as “Juarez,” “Bordertown,” “Factory,” “Ghost Town,” “Sleepwalker,” and “Quinceanera.”
The presentation of the Rodarte clothing collection at the Fall fashion shows – during which the models wore the accompanying MAC makeup line – featured a parade of pale-faced models wearing tattered white lace dresses, looking like ghostly brides. Style.com, commenting on the show, noted that the models could be seen as “the ghosts of the victims of Juarez’s drug wars.” (below right; photo credit)
(I have posted on killings and disappearances of women in Juárez; other IntLawGrrls' posts on the tragedy are here and here.)
MAC and Rodarte sent out press releases for the Fall collection to the fashion and makeup media, including bloggers, in mid-summer. The reaction from beauty bloggers was immediately negative and visceral. MAC and Rodarte appeared to be exploiting, romanticizing – or, perhaps even worse, to be ignorant of – the decades of unsolved killings of hundreds of women and girls in Juarez, many of whom had migrated to the city to work in the factories for minimal wages.
The beauty bloggers decried the collection and called for MAC and Rodarte to take action. As Politics Daily reported:

[B]eauty bloggers who were given advance press kits and samples for the fashion line lashed out at MAC/Rodarte for romanticizing the lives of women fraught with violence and poverty.
Jessica Wakeman of The Frisky called the collection "tasteless" and asked, "What's next, a lipstick called Bergen-Belsen?"

After more than a hundred blogs were found to have objected and called for boycotts, MAC/Rodarte apologizeed and promised to give $100,000 to an appropriate nonprofit. Politics Daily continued:
Newly politicized, beauty and fashion writers began calling for the two companies to donate the entirety of their profits from the collection to women and girls in Juarez.
Within weeks, Rodarte agreed

to turn over its global profits from the sale of the MAC/Rodarte collection to a new initiative that will provide grants to local and international organizations that raise awareness and provide resources for women and girls in Juarez.

But that is not the end of the story. The bloggers’ efforts to raise the companies’ social awareness around the plight of women and girls in Juárez ended in the companies pulling the makeup collection. The companies still pledged to donate all of the projected global profits from the sale of the collection to benefit women and girls in Juárez.
The lessons from this debacle?
► For MAC and Rodarte: that some “due diligence” about the social realities surrounding the inspiration for their collections should be done prior to releasing them, and that social responsibility in one arena does not excuse lack of social awareness in another.
► For individual citizens: that we each have the power to effect change. For those involved in human rights work: that sometimes change and awareness about abuses can come from unexpected, everyday sources.

On Art! Long-toothed Giraffe

(On Art! is an occasional item on artifacts of transnational culture)

Our colleague Edward Gordon has alerted us to Digital Giraffe, at age 16 among the oldest monthly webzines in continuous existence.

Creator of the site is digital painter artist Corinne Whitaker (right), Ed's sister. As evinced by subheads like "Paintings" and "Blobs" (featuring pics of her work, like Insectual (© 2010), below left), not to mention "Long Live the Crankies!," Giraffe features an eclectic mix of art and other news.

A couple of Giraffe's links will interest even the less arty among IntLawGrrls' readers:

► "Y Not," a running digest of news about women(whose XX chromosomes = not Y); and

► "Global Visitors," with links to a global newspaper site and a world clock.

Moving up

Indulge us, if you will.
Proud to announce that, for the 1st time ever, IntLawGrrls ranks as a most-viewed law profs' blog.
According to compilations by Paul L. Caron, Associate Dean and Professor at Cincinnati College of Law, this past quarter we 'Grrls were 35th in page views, at 214K-plus.
What's more, we placed 2d for increase in viewers and visitors these past months -- 35.9% and 28.8%, respectively.
Heartfelt thanks to all the 'Grrls who've contributed, whether it was our Kampala International Criminal Court series, accounts of scholarship, commentary on current events like the Gulf oil spill, intercountry adoptions, or Bloody Sunday truths, or celebrations of intlaw experts. Our heartiest thanks to all our readers. Visit us any time -- as they used to say in Chicago, early and often!

A comment on comments

Loyal readers know that comments are few on this blog. In truth, we get more than we publish. We started moderating comments about a year ago because so many were nothing more than virtually undisguised ads for 'net products -- dating sites, you name it.
Most of the time sorting through these is easy. But occasionally we get posts that seem on the level, yet end with an ad; that is, with a link to a site of which we've never heard. Typically the author leaves nothing but a 1st name. We delete.
Please, if you'd like to comment, don't include a link to your own site. We'd love to hear from you, but we're not a vehicle for unsolicited plugs.
Heartfelt thanks for your help and understanding.

"Popular" 'Grrls

No less an authority than Foreign Policy magazine yesterday described us thusly:

the popular legal blog IntLawGrrls

And we're pink, too.

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

And seriously, are American women really supposed to be satisfied with the most basic rights of representation? Thrilled that our country has deigned to consider us fully human?

-- Jessica Valenti (left), founder of Feministing blog, in a Washington Post op-ed in which she presents a forceful argument that "For women in America, equality is still an illusion."

IntLawGrrl Receives Rasmussen Award

'Grrls. . . It is a great pleasure and honor to announce that our very own, Diane Marie Amann (right), founder of IntLawGrrls blog (which just celebrated its 3d birthday on March 3!), is being awarded the "Mayre Rasmussen Award for the Advancement of Women in International Law."
The award is presented by the American Bar Association Section of International Law to individuals who have achieved professional excellence in international law, encouraged women to engage in international law careers, enabled women lawyers to attain international law job positions from which they were excluded historically, or advanced opportunities for women in international law. Past recipients include Marsha Echols, Rona R. Mears, Dianna Kempe, Lucinda Low, and, posthumously, Mayre Rasmussen.
Rasmussen was a pioneer in the field of international business law. She was one of the first women to break into the international business law practice at a major international law firm, and was also one of the first women to achieve a major leadership position in the Section of International Law and Practice. She was a founder of the Women's Interest Network (WIN), the successful ABA International Law Section program that focuses on women in international law; she was also well-known for mentoring women.
Diane follows easily in those great footsteps.
You can read the details of Diane's extensive and impressive bio here. But, in a nutshell, Diane has more degrees than she knows what to do with, was a Supreme Court law clerk, has practiced law in both the private and public spheres, taught law all over the world, directed institutions, received numerous awards, and mentored students and colleagues. IntLawGrrl Beth Van Schaack sums it up:

Not only is Diane an intellectual powerhouse and inspired and inspiring teacher in the field of international law, she is also an incredibly generous mentor.

And, as you know, Diane is the also the founder of IntLawGrrls blog, which has had more than 3,000 posts since inception with almost 3 dozen permanent IntLawGrrl voices and more than 100 women who've joined the blog as guests. As another IntLawGrrl, Jaya Ramji-Nogales, eloquently describes it:

Through IntLawGrrls, Diane has created a vital and vibrant space for female academics to voice concerns specific to our experience and to express our opinions on the pressing issues of the day.

Indeed, it was the chorus of IntLawGrrls singing Diane's praises to the ABA that nominated her for the Rasmussen Award. A clear reminder that we must continue to actively support and promote one another.
CONGRATULATIONS Diane! You are a true inspiration to us all with your tireless efforts to advance women in international law.
Diane will receive the award at either the ABA International Section's Women's Interest Network (WIN) in April at the 2010 Section Spring Meeting in New York City, or in in August during the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco. We'll keep you posted!

Happy 3d birthday to us! Again.

Today we IntLawGrrls celebrate our 2d 3d birthday.
Huh?
Well, in an unintended display of math anxiety, this founder/'Grrl declared it our golden birthday on this day a year ago -- that is, said then that we'd juist turned 3 on the 3d day of the 3d month. In fact, though we were entering our 3d year, it had only been 2 years since the launch of this blog on "international law, policy, practice." But no one called us on the arithmetic error, and so today we get to celebrate gold all over again.
Since we announced our birth on what folks in Japan marked as Girls Day 2007, we've grown like Topsy.
We're proud cosponsors of 2 autumn conferences -- 2009 and, yet to come, 2010.
We're proud that 'Grrls have been invited to speak at other conferences, to contribute scholarship, blog posts, and op-eds, on account of their work here.
Contributing more than 3,000 posts have been nearly 3 dozen permanent IntLawGrrls voices, plus more than 100 women who've joined us as guests. 'Grrls and guests/alumnae have ties to nearly 2 dozen countries in our world. As listed in full in our righthand column, we include, to name a very few, distinguished presidents Lucy Reed and Hélène Ruiz Fabri, distinguished scholars like Mireille Delmas-Marty and Hilary Charlesworth (and so many others), distinguished diplomat Diane Orentlicher, distinguished judges Patricia M. Wald and Marilyn J. Kaman, and distinguished U.N. expert Gay McDougall. And we've been proud over the years to honor no fewer than 70 transnational foremothers -- women who've inspired us, from "A" (Alice Paul) to "V" (Virginia Leary).
To all our contributors and all our readers -- today we will pass the milestone of 400,000 viewings since our founding! -- heartfelt thanks. We look forward to a Year 4 future of sharing lots more good things.

On February 14

On this day in ...
... 1920 (90 years ago today), in Chicago, the League of Women Voters was founded. This brought to life a proposal made the year before by Carrie Chapman Catt (left), President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, for the creation of a league of women voters to "finish the fight" and aid in the reconstruction of the nation. (photo credit) "The fight," of course, was for the vote, which would be extended to U.S. women on August 26, 1920, the date on which, as we've posted, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect. As for the nonpartisan League, it is still in existence; in the words of its Chicago chapter, "[m]embership is open to all citizens, women and men, ages 18 and older."
... 2007 (3 years ago today), this blog was soft-launched by means of the following wee post, entitled IntLawGrrls' Hearfelt Hello:

Our world is a jumble of peoples, a mix of culture and custom, a marketplace of markets as well as ideas. We come together in amazing ways, yet clash in ways that bring destruction and dismay. Women now have a hand in our world’s affairs: think Albright and Arbour, del Ponte and Higgins, Ginsburg and Rice. Yet our voices remain faint, in backrooms and in the blogosphere. IntLawGrrls – women who teach and work in international law, policy and practice – hope to change all that. We embrace foremothers' names to encourage crisp commentary, delivered at times with a dash of sass. We welcome replies, and we look forward to fresh dialogue on the matters of the day.
It's our world, after all.

In gestation beginning February 14, 2007
Due date March 3, 2007 – Grrls’ Day in Japan

(Prior February 14 posts are here, here, and here.)

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

[B]logging is now the uncoolest thing you can do on the Internet. It's even uncooler than editing Wikipedia articles or having a Second Life avatar. In 2006, 28% of teens were blogging. Now, just three years later, the percentage has tumbled to 14%. Among twentysomethings, the percentage who write blogs has fallen from 24% to 15%. Writing comments on blogs is also down sharply among the young. It's only geezers - those over 30 - who are doing more blogging than they used to.

-- Description of a Pew poll that confirms what this IntLawGeezer's suspected ever since she came to understand the point of the little blue cyberbird at right. Thank goodness you can find IntLawGrrls on Twitter and also on Facebook, the hip wee bird's also-old-news sister.

IntLawGrrls now on Facebook & Twitter!

IntLawGrrls is pleased to announce that we're now on Facebook and Twitter!
If you're a Facebook user, Fan us! You can see all IntLawGrrls' daily posts on our new Facebook page by clicking here or on the Facebook badge in our righthand column.
And if you're on Twitter, you can now receive all of our posts that way too! Check out IntLawGrrls' Twitter page by clicking here or on the Twitter badge in our righthand column, and follow us!
For our readers who need a little Web 2.0 tutorial, we offer a detailed techno-post below.
Happy reading!

Lions and Tigers and Tweets...Oh, my!

You're right. It's a jungle out there. Blogs. Twitter. Facebook. What's an IntLawGrrl (or a loyal reader) to do? (We've joined them all, as announced in our post above.)
Here's a brief explanation and mini-tutorial for those who find themselves lost in the big bad world of Web 2.0.

Blogger
You know what blogger is. You're here! But do you want a blog for yourself? All you need is a Google account and you can start your own blog, linking to other fabulous ones -- like IntLawGrrls, of course. Blogging is a great way to make your voice heard, and to connect with others interested in similar topics! If you're having trouble, take a look at this video tutorial.

Facebook
Facebook is the essence of "social networking." When you become a Facebook user, you get a profile. (You can see ours by clicking here or on the Facebook badge in the righthand column.) This profile is your chance to describe yourself publicly. You can write about your professional affiliations and personal interests, as well as post pictures and videos. You can also post up-to-the-minute "status messages," a way to share what's on your mind with your network. Each profile has a "wall," where your status messages and updates appear. Once you have friends, they can leave public messages for you here. They can also send you private messages via your profile's message center.
To build a Facebook network, you can search for friends, family, and colleagues who are also "on Facebook." You can search by names, organizations, or e-mails. You ask them to be your friends, they accept, and your network has begun!
Facebook also allows you to join "Groups," which are networks of other users with similar interests (e.g. international law or law professors). If you have a business or other organization, you can set up a "Page" -- like a Facebook storefront -- for your organization. This is different than a personal profile; you become the "administrator" of your Page.
Security is a major concern for many new Facebook users. It's simple to change your settings and there is enormous flexibility. You can create groups of friends who can only see certain portions of your page (e.g., students or colleagues can only see the "info" section of your profile, while personal friends can see everything, like pictures and videos). It's quite handy.
And you can make yourself invisible outside the Facebook network, so your profile won't come up in a Google search.
If you need help building your Facebook profile, the Help Center page is quite useful.

Twitter
Last but not least, there's Twitter. Twitter is built on the same social networking principles as Facebook, but in short form. Think of Facebook as being built for computers, while Twitter is built for mobile phones.
So, on Twitter, you also have an abbreviated profile, and you can put up a photo and links to your other websites. (You can see IntLawGrrls' very pink page on Twitter by clicking here or on the Twitterbird badge in the righthand column.)
Instead of posting a status message, you "Tweet" -- that is, you post a 140-character-or-less update to everyone on Twitter. You can protect your tweets so that only users in your network can see them.
You build your network by asking to "follow" other users on Twitter. When you follow someone, you'll receive her Tweets and know immediately what she's up to!
Twitter tends to have many more organizations and news sources Tweet-ing, so it can be a great way to get your news on your phone or computer without having to browse various sites. For more Twitter help, see the FAQ.
That wasn't so overwhelming, was it?
Once you set up your blog, Facebook & Twitter accounts, it's easy to link all three. For example, you can easily send your blog posts directly to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. You can also forward your Twitter to your Facebook, so every time you Tweet your status update changes, too. And, you can link your mobile phone to all three: you can write text-message blog posts, tweets, and status updates.
We may not be in Kansas anymore, but the world of social networking can be just as simple.

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

... 67 percent of bloggers are men—up a little from the year before.
That's a worse gender imbalance than in American newsrooms, which is saying something.

-- Mother Jones' Marian Wang (left), in "Where Are All the Lady Bloggers?"

Answer:

Here.

Guest Blogger: Pamela Yates

It's IntLawGrrls' great pleasure to welcome Pamela Yates (right) as today's guest blogger.
Pamela's a cofounder of Skylight Pictures, Inc., and the director of Skylight's most recent production: The Reckoning, a feature-length film on the International Criminal Court that's subject of IntLawGrrls posts posted here and here by Lucy Reed and yours truly.
Recipient of a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship and a member of the Director’s Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America, Pamela has been involved in many film projects in addition to The Reckoning. Examples: producer, Loss of Innocence, winner of an Emmy; director, When the Mountains Tremble, winner of a Sundance award; Executive Producer, Witness to War, winner of an Academy Award; director, State of Fear (2005) (below left), which relied on findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission to depict the counterterrorism campaign that lasted 2 decades in Peru; director, Presumed Guilty, a PBS special about public defenders in San Francisco; producer, director, and co-author, Cause for Murder, about the lives and deaths of 2 young Mexican lawyers; producer and director, Brotherhood of Hate, about violent white supremacy movements; and producer and director with Skylight colleague Peter Kinoy of Living Broke in Boom Times, a trilogy about poor peoples’ movements in America.
In addition to all these achievements, Pamela directed what is thought to be the first music video made in China. No More Disguises, featuring troubajor Ciu Jian, filmed in Tianamen Square at the dawn of the democracy movement, was named by Rolling Stone as one of the 10 best music videos of 1989 and had its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival’s opening night.
In her guest post below, Pamela reports on IJCentral, the online global social network on through which she and her colleagues continue to rally their audience 'round the cause of international justice.
Heartfelt welcome!