Last month, the ICAAD team travelled to Jamaica to expand our efforts to tackle gender-based violence (GBV) in the country and region.

Our TrackGBV project has been a key focus for the past nine years in the Pacific. By identifying bias and discrimination in judicial decision-making, the dashboard has facilitated advocacy for more consistent and equitable decision-making. With data from over 2500 cases from nine Pacific Island Countries, it has already helped to support judicial and legislative change.

Following requests from non-profit partners, we are now scaling this work to the Caribbean – beginning with a focus on building strong local partnerships with civil society and government while analyzing key metrics for service delivery in the justice sector. Across the region, rates of GBV are high and heavily underreported, and systems are in dire need of resources and reform.

In Jamaica, ICAAD Co-Founders Hansdeep Singh and Jaspreet Singh met with dozens of stakeholders to support transparency, consistency, and accountability within the justice system by leveraging the law, data, design justice, and advocacy.

Hansdeep commented on the visit: “We had a host of productive meetings in Jamaica with our partners as we discussed the many challenges that GBV survivors face while trying to access justice in the country – whether through resource constraints, institutional barriers, outdated legislation, or discriminatory practices. We look forward to continuing our work with all our partners to co-create projects that can address these gaps and build more equitable systems.”

Jaspreet and Hansdeep of ICAAD with Tracy Robinson, Professor of Law at UWI-Mona and previously Commissioner on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and Rapporteur on the Rights of Women for the OAS.

Through DVN, you have supported ICAAD’s work to resist injustice and build equity through our global interventions in India, Pacific Islands, Europe, Africa, United States, and more recently, in Latin America/ Caribbean. 

We’re pleased to invite you to a Virtual Concert this Friday (4/16 @ 8:30pmEST) in celebration of Vaisakhi and the commitment of ICAAD to support the vision of Sarbat da Bhala (serving humanity). There will be magic, music, poetry, and art, and we’ll be showcasing the work you’ve helped support. 

One of the initiatives that we are excited to share with you through the Virtual Concert is our new artivism program which works with selected artists to build their capacity as social justice advocates. This deepens artists’ reservoir of knowledge and positions them to be more responsive to human rights issues in their work. The Virtual Concert will feature our inaugural artivist, Harbani Kaur and her project called: Dicta. 

Please register using the link below and watch these amazing artists. 

Virtual Concert Registration: 

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KQZ7zbfQRmaPTl6bilW7eg

Join ICAAD in building a better and more equitable future. We're continuing to grow and scale our efforts. Any donations you make this month will be matched 100%.

Matching Donation Page: https://dvnetwork.org/icaad
(THE MATCH FUND IS $30,000)