The University of Connecticut held a day-long conference on Violence Against Women on Tuesday. The gathering came just a day after seven women filed a federal discrimination complaint against the school, claiming they were victims of sexual assaults while students at UConn.
Presentations and speeches at the conference featured national and international scholars and practitioners, as well as plenary sessions. They all focused on the global issue of violence against women. The conference was organized by the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Human Rights at UConn. Speakers included Rashida Manjoo, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women; Zainab Hawa Bangura, United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict; and Jacquelyn Campbell, a national leader in research and advocacy in the field of domestic violence or intimate partner violence, who holds the Anna D. Wolf Chair of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University.
The conference also included a workshop for high school students. According to the United Nations, a third of all U.S. high school students will be involved in an abusive relationship, and ten percent of them experience dating violence.
The conference occurred just a day after seven women, who said they were victims of sexual assaults while students at UConn, filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the school. The complaint to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights alleged that UConn failed to respond appropriately to the women's allegations.
