Indira Jaising elected to UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

Indira Jaising, an eminent Supreme Court lawyer and human rights activist, has been elected to the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Jaising, 68, secured the highest number of votes — 149 out of 181 — in a contest.

This was the first time India had fielded a candidate for this 23-member committee and the State parties chose 11 candidates from 18 nominees in the field.

Jaising, who became the first woman to be designated as a Senior Advocate by the High Court of Bombay in 1986 has been elected for a four-year term beginning January 1,2009. She fought several landmark cases focusing on human rights and protection of rights of women and was awarded the Padma Shree in 2005 for her service.

She has represented the victims of the Bhopal tragedy in the Supreme Court in their claim for compensation against the US giant Union Carbide Corporation. Jaising also was the founder secretary of the Lawyers Collective, an organization that provides legal help to the poor and the needy.

Also elected to the Committee were Magalys Arocha Domnguez (Cuba), who got the same number of votes as Jaising, Nicole Ameline (France); Niklas Bruun (Finland); Xioaqiao Zou (China); Silvia Pimentel (Brazil); Victoria Popescu (Romania); Barbara Evelyn Bailey (Jamaica); Violet Awori (Kenya); Soledad Murillo de la Vega (Spain); and Rasekh Zohra (Afghanistan). Indira Jaising (born 1940, Mumbai) went to school in Mumbai and graduated in Bangalore, before getting her degree in law in 1962. Jaising became the first woman to be designated as a Senior Advocate by the High Court of Bombay in 1986. From the beginning of her legal career, she has focused on protection of human rights, rights of women and those of the poor working class. Indira Jaising argued several cases related to discrimination against women, including the Mary Roy's case, which led to the grant of equal inheritance rights for Syrian Christian women in Kerela and that of Rupan Deol Bajaj, the IAS officer who had prosecuted KPS Gill for outraging her modesty.

This was one of the first cases of sexual harassment, successfully prosecuted. Ms. Jaising also argued in the case of Githa Hariharan in which the Supreme Court in a Bench presided over by Chief Justice A.S. Anand held that under Hindu law, the mother was also the "natural guardian" of her minor children, hence children could also bear the name of the mother.

Jaising also successfully challenged the discriminatory provisions of the Indian Divorce Act in the High Court of Kerala thus enabling Christian women to get a divorce on the ground of cruelty or desertion, a right, which was denied to them, which greatly bothered the twice-divorced Indira Jaising.

She argued cases of homeless pavement dwellers of Mumbai who were facing eviction. A keen environmentalist, Jaising has argued major environmental cases in the Supreme Court. She has been associated with several Peoples Commissions on Violence in Punjab to investigate the extra judicial killings, disappearances and mass cremations that took place during the period 1979 to 1990.

Jaising later became the founder secretary of the Lawyers Collective, an organization that provides legal funding for the underprivileged sections of Indian society. She founded a monthly magazine called The Lawyers in 1986, which focuses on social justice and women's issues in the context of Indian law. She has been involved in cases related to the discrimination against women, the Muslim Personal Law, rights of pavement dwellers and the homeless. She has fought against child labor for the economic rights of women, estranged wives and domestic violence cases.

Jaising has attended several national and international conferences on women and represented her country at these conferences. She had a fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies London and has been a visiting Scholar at the Columbia University New York. She was conferred with the Rotary Manav Seva Award in recognition of her services to the nation in fighting corruption and as a champion of the weaker sections of the society.

- BY RITU PANDEY