The American Graduate School in Paris's Research Center Publishes Collective Work on Violence and Oppression Against Women Worldwide

PARIS, Dec. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- December 10, the research center of the American Graduate School in Paris saw the release of its first book : Crimes Against Women (Nova Publishers, USA), a collective work edited by David Wingeate Pike, with a foreword by Bangladeshi author and human rights advocate Taslima Nasrin.

Crimes Against Women presents a survey of acts of violence, past and present, that women throughout the world have endured, and calls upon governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations   to address this issue. The book is organized around a three-fold focus : examining gender-related crimes rooted in concept and law, those deriving from religion, customs and traditions, and those perpetrated in times of conflict. The twenty-eight articles take a broad variety of approaches, ranging from the philosophical and legalistic to the narrative reporting of contributors working in the field.

Crimes Against Women is the first published project of the research center of the American Graduate School in Paris, which focuses on International Conflict/Crime and subsequent governmental action. The center is co-directed by David Pike who edited the book and wrote its preface and introduction as well as the chapter on " Imperial Japan and its 'Comfort Women' ", and Eileen Servidio, who initiated this project and wrote the chapter entitled " Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in Armed Conflict : Legal Aspects ".

David Pike received doctorates from the universities of Toulouse, France, and Stanford, USA, where he taught Latin American political culture. He has written a dozen books on contemporary history, covering Latin America in the 1970s and Europe in the Stalin-Hitler-Franco periods. He is Professor at the American Graduate School in Paris, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at AUP, Societaire des Gens de Lettres de France, and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Eileen Servidio is the Chair of International Law and President of the School of International Relations at the American Graduate School in Paris. She is a specialist of International Criminal Law and International Public Law. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Paris II – Assas in France, and published extensively on issues related to international crime, extradition laws and human and civil rights.

The author of the foreword, Taslima Nasrin, has fought for the past two decades against the oppression of women in the traditions, religions, customs and cultures of Bangladesh and other countries.  A medical doctor by training, she has written a dozen books of poetry, novels, essays and memoirs. She had to flee Bangladesh in 1994 and since then has lived in exile, defending human rights and women's rights through her writings and public speeches. She has received numerous awards and prizes including the Ananda Literary Award in India, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament, the Human Rights Award from the Government of France, and Unesco's Madanjeet Singh Prize for the promotion of tolerance and non-violence.

The other contributors to the book are very diverse in their origins and experiences: they range in profession from academics, diplomats and lawyers to journalists, artists, and leaders of non-governmental organizations. They include four faculty members of the American Graduate School in Paris : in addition to the contributions of Eileen Servidio and David Pike, Sir Christopher MacRae wrote " Forced Marriage as a Foreign Policy Issue in the United Kingdom ", and Professor Ruchi Anand wrote the chapters : " The Human Rights Design: A Critique of 'Universality' in a Patriarchal World " and " Dowries in India ".  The painting on the cover of the book was done by the British figurative painter Charlotte Lyon.

The American Graduate School in Paris is a not-for-profit institution founded in 1994 and offering U.S. higher education in France to students from around the world. It specializes in International Relations and Diplomacy and in Business and Economics. Academic programs at the School of International Relations include a Master's degree, a Ph.D., part-time certificates and various study abroad options. www.ags.edu

For more information: www.ags.edu

SOURCE The American Graduate School in Paris