Brigid Inder, New Zealand

Photo by Madeline Djerejian

"Young women need a lot of support and encouragement to build their confidence and self-esteem. At the same time, they often have a lot of energy around their ideals. If we're really serious about the participation of young women in the women's movement, then we need to commit ourselves to quite intensive work over a long period of time. We need to support them to develop their capacities, provide them with opportunities to exercise their skills, encourage them to participate in decision making, and be prepared to accept them into positions of leadership."

About Brigid

Brigid Inder is the Executive Director of the Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice, an international women's human rights organization that monitors the International Criminal Court. She has more than 17 years of experience as an advocate for women's human rights and gender equality, and has worked extensively on sexual and reproductive rights, including LGBTI issues and HIV/AIDS. Since the early 1990s, Brigid has been involved in international advocacy and Asia-Pacific regional activism for a number of United Nations conferences and negotiations, including the Earth Summit, the groundbreaking Cairo and Beijing agreements, and the World Conference Against Racism. At the local level, she managed HIV services and introduced community health and human rights strategies at the AIDS Council of New South Wales in Australia, and advocated for specific programs, research, and treatment for women living with HIV/AIDS. She was Director of Community Legal Centres in New South Wales, providing generalist and specialist legal services and working with specific communities, including indigenous women, youth, LGBTI, and refugee communities. In recent years Brigid was the founding co-convenor of the National Human Rights Network and the Lesbian Health Inter-agency Network. Brigid is currently on the Board of the Association of Women's Rights in Development (AWID).

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