Mangalore girl Preethi Nagaveni delivers Joint Oral Statement to UN Committee

Mangalore girl Preethi Nagaveni delivers Joint Oral Statement to UN Committee

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, April 3, 2021: Preethi Lolaksha Nagaveni, an alumna of Vishwamangala School, Konaje and St. Aloysius PU College, Mangalore made international news by delivering a joint oral statement to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [CRPD], on March 22, as part of the Committee’s Day of General Discussion on the rights of persons with disabilities to work and employment, along with Amit Anand, a researcher.

Their statement has been published on the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR].

Both, Preethi Lolaksha Nagaveni and Amit Anand, are doing PhD in law at Lancaster University, UK. The purpose of the general discussion was to prepare the elaboration by the Committee of a General Comment on the rights of persons with disabilities to work and employment. The aim of the general comment will be to provide guidance to States parties to the Convention on the measures they should adopt to ensure full compliance with their obligations to respect, protect and fulfill the human rights of persons with disabilities with regard to Article 27 of the Convention. The general discussion was organized by OHCHR.

‘An achievement’:
‘I wanted to congratulate you on giving evidence before the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. To give an oral statement to such a body at this stage of your academic careers is quite an achievement. It is a testimony to the quality of your work. I hope you enjoyed the experience, and I am sure you will be called upon in the future to provide your academic opinion in this area’ said Professor Alisdair A. Gillespie, Deputy University Dean for Academic Quality, Lancaster University, UK in his congratulatory statement. Sigrun Skogly, Professor of Human Rights Law and Doctoral Director, Lancaster University Law School, Prof R Venkata Rao, former Vice Chancellor, NLSIU, Bengaluru and Chairman, Vivekanada School of Law and Legal Studies, Delhi and Dr. T V Subba Rao, Professor Emiratus of Law also congratulated these two young research scholars.

Suggested amendments to IHR:
Preethi has co-authored a book chapter with Prof. Susan Breau, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, Canada, in Covid-19 in Asia: Law and Policy Contexts (New York: Oxford University Press, December 2020), which is the first collected volume on Covid-19 Law and Policy issues in Asia with 30 chapters by 61 authors from 17 jurisdictions. While writing on International Health Regulations, 2005 and its compliance, she has exposed the discrepancies in the IHR and suggested amendments to it in order to prevent the spread of any epidemic beyond the border of any nation.

Preethi is a former faculty of National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore and an advocate of High Court of Karnataka, Bengaluru. She is a Junior Fellow, Think Tank on Human Rights, Family & Gender, Global Research Network, London, UK and a Senior Editor, Kings Student Law Review (KSLR) Forum, King’s College London, UK. She has presented her research widely to international audience and published research papers in various domestic and international peer reviewed journals apart from being invited to chair Panels and speak as a guest speaker in international panel discussions on various legal issues.

She has also conceptualized and co-organized two International Law Conferences at Lancaster University, U.K., on themes ‘Law and Social Transformation’ and ‘Law and Justice’. Both the conferences saw participants from over 15 countries. The third International Law Conference is being held on 30 th April 2021 on the theme ‘Law in the Transforming World’.

Recently she has delivered the Plenary Lecture at the Virtual International Conference on ‘Experiments in Gender Mainstreaming – India and Canada’ organized by the Centre for Women’s Studies, Mangalore University on March 16 th -17 th , 2021.