YOLANDA BECERRA VEGA
Colombia
Yolanda Becerra Vega is a well known-human rights defender and leader of the grassroots women’s movement in Colombia. She is the national director of the Popular Women’s organization (OFP), based in Barrancabermeja and founding member of the social movement of women against the war and for peace in Colombia. Regionally, she is a member of the network of human rights workers in Magdelena Medio which includes active participation of the Diocese, social movements and the unions. She is also a member of the regional social forum. Internationally, Yolanda has travelled extensively in Latin America, Europe and North America, bringing concrete testimonies of the impacts of human rights violations and the war on women in Colombia and calling for international solidarity and support. She has participated in meetings of the World March of Women and Women in Black. Yolanda has been recognized nationally and internationally for her courageous work in human rights and as a leader of the women’s movement. Among other awards, she received the prestigious Per Anger human rights prize from Sweden in 2007 and was nominated as one of the 1,000 women to receive the Nobel Peace prize in the campaign One thousand women and one Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
CHANTAL MAYANGA BILULU
Democratic Republic of Congo
Born in Bujumbura, Burundi, Ms. Chantal Bilulu is 42 years old and married. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Lubumbashi.
Chantal has worked with Héritiers de la Justice for eight years in the defense, protection and promotion of human rights. She is Program Coordinator for Women and Children.
She has taken part in and organized several training courses on the women’s rights, and raised popular awareness of laws and other legal instruments protecting the human rights, especially women’s and children’s rights. Ms. Bilulu has been trained in monitoring and documentation of human rights violations and developed a monitoring approach around issues of sexual violence.
Chantal has participated in training around advocacy and participated in several advocacy efforts by civil society vis-à-vis governmental authorities for policy change with respect to human rights. She has also participated in training on conflict resolution. Ms. Bilulu has accompanied victims of sexual violence. Chantal has organized training of sexually violated women as paralegals and developed them into a synergistic network to defend their rights. Chantal coordinates peacebuilding and human rights promotion among marginalized women and children within several Héritiers to Justice networks.
(Due to VISA blocks, Chantal was unable to travel to Colombia)
VERNIE YOCOGAN-DIANO
Philippines
Vernie Yocogan-Diano is an Indigenous (Kankanaey-Bontoc) woman, a mother and a human rights and community activist from the Cordillera, Philippines. She has a long history as a community development worker for indigenous women and peoples in the Cordillera region. In this capacity, she has worked with an NGO on indigenous peoples rights, the Cordillera Resource Center (CRC), as staff for the children’s research and human rights, volunteered with the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) and the Ifugao Resource and Development Center (IRDC) , and served as secretary- general of Innabuyog, alliance of indigenous women’s organizations in the Cordillera, Philippines . She is currently chair person of Innabuyog and a member of the Regional Council of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA). In June 2009 she became Executive Director of the women’s organization Cordillera Women’s Education Action Research Center (CWEARC), where she started in 1989 as a networking staff.
Vernie’s involvement at a national level also includes being former member, National Council of the GABRIELA (2000-2009) and national coordinator of BAI, national network of indigenous women’s organizations in the Philippines (2004 to the present)
In the Asia-Pacific region, Vernie has also been a member of the Women and Environment task Force of Asia Pacific Women Law and Development (APWLD), the Asian Indigenous Women’s Network (AIWN), coordinator for Asia, International Network on Women and Mining (RIMM), a member of the Gender Committee of the Asia Indigenous People’s Pact (AIPP) and coordinator of the Asia group of the International Network on Women and Mining (RIMM)
Vernie is passionate about Indigenous women’s rights. Her interests also include globalization (land, food and resources issues) and militarization issues particularly related to Indigenous women. She has written extensively on Indigenous women in the Cordillera region.
MARIE-DOMENIK LANGLOIS
Canada
Marie-Dominik is a dynamic young woman and Montrealer who has always been interested in international solidarity and social justice. In 2001, she got involved with a coalition of Quebec groups to organise the counter-Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. Her later work included charitable projects and community kitchens.
After different work experiences with the governments of Québec and Canada, and after her international development studies at McGill University, she volunteered with a South East Asia development group and became very active in the Québec Committee for the Recognition of Haitian Workers’ Rights in the Dominican Republic. (Comité québécois pour la reconnaissance des droits des travailleurs haïtiens en République dominicaine)
In 2005 she joined the staff of the Committee for Human Rights in Latin America’s (Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique latine, CDHAL) Solidarity Caravan. In 2006 she became their coordinator and has been heavily involved in questions of resource extraction and its impacts on affected communities throughout Latin America. She has had the chance to visit communities in Piura, Peru and Mexico who are resisting mining projects. Marie-Dominik has participated in different conferences on the question of environmental conflicts and human rights, notably « Plan North, Plan South : The same Threats. Mines and hydroelectric dams in the Americas.
Since October 2009, she has also been the staff person at KAIROS’ partner, le Réseau œcuménique pour la justice et la paix (ROJeP), which brings together more than 40 Quebec Christian groups who combine their energy in reflection and action on justice, peace, and the integrity of creation. Recently the ROJeP has become particularly involved in ecological and human rights questions.
After five devoted years of work with CDHAL, Marie—Dominik accepted a position with the Canadian Network for Corporate Accountability in July.
JILL HARRIS
Jill Harris (Snumithiya) is an elder of the Penelakut First Nation, British Columbia. A member of the Anglican Church and of the Women’s Interchurch Council of Canada’s national governing board, Jill has offered strong leadership in reconciliation and justice work between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities along the west coast.
YOLANDA BIRD
Yolanda Bird is from the Cree nation, Saskatchewan, and is a strong voice for Indigenous leadership within the Anglican Church of Canada nationally.
CORA DELA PENA
Cora came to Canada in 1986 as a domestic worker under the Foreign Domestic Program, a Federal program under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program that allowed women from other countries, particularly the South to come to Canada under a temporary work permit and work either as a domestic worker or live-in Caregiver. Cora was 22 years old then, fresh from University and filled with idealism and expectations about Canada. Working as a domestic worker in Canada was for her a step towards achieving her dream – to escape from the poverty and political upheavals in the Philippines to a place with lots of opportunities and offers a much better life.
This idealism and expectations were shattered to pieces when together with other women in the Program, they were faced with long hours of work without pay, sexual harassment, physical and emotional abuse, isolation and racial discrimination. Majority of the women domestic workers were deprived of their rights and practically did not have access to services and protection – they did not exist!
Faced with this experience and the struggle to promote migrant’s rights and welfare, Cora has participated in various forms of activism to educate Canadians of the inhuman treatment of domestic workers/caregivers, helped organize migrant women workers into self help groups and participated in various advocacy initiatives to improve the condition of domestic workers/live-in Caregivers in Canada. As an individual and a paralegal candidate, she has helped hundreds of live-in caregivers deal with immigration and labour cases. Her home is open to Caregivers who needed emergency shelter and support.
Cora is a founding member of the Independent Workers Association-Homeworkers Section, an organizing effort that the Steelworkers Union and Migrante Ontario started in 2008. She provides an inspiration to Live-in caregivers as someone who had the courage and struggled hard to overcome oppression and exploitation to one that has found a place in the Canadian society and committed to promote migrant justice. She is currently working in a Law firm based in Toronto.
