FGV’s Rio de Janeiro Law School (Direito Rio) will host the I International Congress on Law and Gender on November 12 and 13. The event will be held at FGV’s Main Office (Praia de Botafogo, 190. Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro/RJ) and promotes a critical and reflective debate on key themes, in order to break down the relationships of power arising from gender inequality, particularly regarding the role of the State and society within this process. The theme will be discussed by experts who have researched the subject over the years. They include Catharine MacKinnon, a professor from University of Michigan and Harvard, Susanne Baer, a professor from Humboldt University of Berlin and Justice from the German Constitutional Court, and Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justices Cármen Lúcia and Luis Roberto Barroso.

The conference will also analyze multiple dimensions of law development and operation in the establishment of gender relations and the definition of the social role of women and the LGBT population, as well as the role of class and race markers. The Dean of Direito Rio, professor Sérgio Guerra, and the organizer of the event, professor Ligia Fabris, will open the conference, after which international guest Susanne Baer will lecture on “Gender and Law: Constitutional Experience”.

Justice and former Chief Justice of the STF Cármen Lúcia will join the “Gender in the Institutions” panel to address the lack of representation of women and minority groups in power. STF Justice Luís Roberto Barroso will discuss contemporary issues concerning sexual and reproductive rights, such as abortion, forced sterilization of poor and black women.

The event will also make room for discussions on “Women in Politics: Representation and Counter-Hegemonic Perspectives”, “Gender, Migration, ‘Race’ and Class”, “Diversity Policies in Universities”, “Identities and the law: between essentialism and the multiplicity”, among others. Professor MacKinnon will close the event with the lecture: “Towards gender equality: movements and challenges”.

Go to the website for more information on the I International Congress on Law and Gender.