Events

Kazuko Ito, the Secretary General of "Human Rights Now," a Japanese human rights NGO, will be speaking about the legal and advocacy work that her NGO has been doing surrounding the #MeToo movement in Japan. The program will be moderated by Professor Aya Fujimura-Fanselow, Supervising Attorney for the International Human Rights Clinic. This event is part of the Human Rights in Practice series, organized by Duke Law's International Human Rights Clinic and the Center for International and Comparative Law. Co-sponsored by Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke Human Rights Center at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Human Rights Law Society, and International Law Society. The event is free and open to all, no registration required. Lunch will be provided. For more information, please contact Balfour Smith at bsmith@law.duke.edu.

Kazuko Ito

Kazuko Ito has been practicing law since 1994. As a human rights lawyer, she works on various issues, such as women's rights, children's rights, criminal justice and the death penalty, and public interest litigation in Japan, as well as critical human rights issues around the world.

As a Hauser research fellow at the New York University School of Law, Ms. Ito researched international human rights law and conducted a comparative study of criminal justice systems. In 2005, she worked for several human rights organizations, including the New York City-based Center for Constitutional Rights.

In 2006, Ms. Ito joined Human Rights Now (HRN), a Japan-based international human rights NGO and now serves as its Secretary General. HRN is the first Japan-based international human rights NGO to work for the promotion and protection of human rights for people around the world, with a special focus in Asia. The organization works on human rights issues using a variety of techniques including investigation, grass-roots empowerment for human rights defenders, solidarity action, and advocacy.