Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari | |
|---|---|
| רות הלפרין-קדרי | |
 Halperin-Kaddari in 2015 | |
| Member of theUnited Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women | |
| In office 2006–2018 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1966-05-15)15 May 1966 (age 59) |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Alma mater | Yale Law School |
| Occupation | Law professor |
| Awards | International Women of Courage Award |
Ruth Halperin-Kaddari (Hebrew:רות הלפרין-קדרי; born 15 May 1966) is an Israeli legal scholar and internationalwomen's rights advocate who is known for her work onfamily law,feminist legal theory,women's rights ininternational law, andwomen and religion. She was a member of theUnited NationsCommittee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women from 2006 to 2018 and was the committee's vice chair during several terms.[1] She is professor of law at theBar-Ilan University and is the founding academic director of theRuth and Emanuel Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women. She is also involved in international academic collaborations on the theme of women, state, and religion, and participates in international litigations as an expert on Israeli family law.[2]
She was one of the first recipients of theU.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award for her work on international women's rights in 2007. She was ranked as one of the world's hundred most influential people in gender equality policy in 2018.[3]
Halperin-Kaddari is a daughter ofMenachem Zvi Kaddari, a noted linguist and expert on ancientSemitic languages who was rector of theBar-Ilan University.
She studied law at theBar-Ilan University, where she earned her LL.B. in 1989. She subsequently earned an LL.M. in 1990 and aDoctor of Juridical Science in 1993, both atYale Law School in the United States. She is professor of law at theBar-Ilan University; in 2001 she founded theRuth and Emanuel Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women, a social-legal centre that works to advance gender justice, and she has served as the centre's academic director since its establishment.[4][5][6]
She was elected by the state parties to a four-year term on theUnited NationsCommittee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in 2006 and was vice chairperson of the committee from 2009 to 2010. At the time of her election she was the committee's youngest member. She was reelected to her second term on the committee in 2010 and to her third term in 2014. She was again elected vice chairperson of the committee in 2017.[7][8] On the committee she served for over a decade alongside the former French minister of gender equalityNicole Ameline and theUN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict and UN under-secretary-generalPramila Patten.
During her term on CEDAW she led the successful adoption (in 2013) of a new General Recommendation on Economic Consequences of Family Relations and their Dissolution; and has conducted (in 2018) the Inquiry into North-Ireland's restrictive abortion regime, co-authored the UN report which concluded that the lack of provision for abortion in Northern Ireland is a form ofviolence against women.,[9] all of which led in October 2019 to decriminalization of abortions in Northern-Ireland, an unprecedented move in international human rights law.
In 2001 she founded the Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women, a social-legal centre that works to advance gender justice, and she has been the centre's director since then. Established at Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Law with the goal of improving women’s status and ending gender discrimination and inequality in Israeli society, and bettering women’s standing within family law, particularly Jewish family law.[10]
Halperin-Kaddari foundedThe Dinah Project with military prosecutorSharon Zagagi-Pinhas and Israeli lawyer and judge Nava Ben-Or to pursue justice for victims ofsexual violence in the October 7 attacks.[11]
She is a recipient of numerous research grants and prizes, including two major grants from the Israel Science Foundation (2000, 2005); the Zeltner Award for Young Legal Scholars (2000); The Pogach Award for research in Jewish Law (2001-2002), The Belush Israel Feminist Award, US/Israel Women to Women (2002), The Dafna Izraeli Award for Gender Research (together with Dr. Bryna Bogoch) (2004), The Eleanor P. Jacobson Woman of Valor Award for Hadassah–Brandeis Institute Exceptional Research Award Applicants (together with Dr. Eyal Katvan) (2006), The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Award (together with Dr. Eyal Katvan) (2006), The International Award for Woman of Courage, U.S. State Department (2007), The Israeli Bar Association Central District Person of the Year in Law (2010), The "Ot Katan" Award for the Advancement of Gender Justice through Voluntary Work, awarded by the Ruach Nashit NGO in Israel (2014), The Rappaport Prize for Women Generating Change in Israeli Society (2016), in January 2017 she received the Knights of Quality (Academia category), awarded by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel. In 2018 she was named on Apolitical’s 100 most influential people in gender policy around the world.[3][2]
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