Madeleine Selina Rees, OBE is a British lawyer and current Secretary General of the

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

. She has spoken out against

human rights abuse Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...

s in Bosnia by peacekeepers and others working for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

Career

Rees became a lawyer in 1990. She worked for a major British law firm, becoming a partner in 1994. There, she specialized in discrimination law, being particularly involved in the area of employment, and also specialized in public and administrative law. Rees worked on behalf of the

Commission for Racial Equality The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom which aimed to address racial discrimination and promote racial equality. The commission was established in 1976, and disbanded in 2007 when its ...

and the Equal Opportunities Commission where she helped to establish rights for individuals under domestic law. Discrimination cases brought by Rees have been heard at both the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

and European Court of Justice in

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. In 1998, Rees started working as Head of Office in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

and as gender expert for the

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...

. She helped to expose human rights abuses related to the sex trade in Bosnia by testifying in support of

Kathryn Bolkovac Kathryn Bolkovac (born 1961) is a human rights advocate, consultant, former police investigator with the Lincoln Police Department, and former monitor with United Nations International Police Task Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She came to p ...

, a United Nations International Police Force monitor who was hired to help end sexual abuse and forced prostitution in Bosnia. Bolkovac revealed use of prostitutes and participation in sex trafficking by members of the

United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) was an international organization formed under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1035 on 21 December 1995. It completed its mandate on 31 December 2002, when it was succeed ...

Wrongful dismissal case

In 2009, Rees was demoted from her position, and then in March 2010 she was fired. A United Nations' administrative disputes tribunal ruled it as a

wrongful dismissal In law, wrongful dismissal, also called wrongful termination or wrongful discharge, is a situation in which an employee's contract of employment has been terminated by the employer, where the termination breaches one or more terms of the contra ...

. The office of the High Commissioner denied the charges, stating that Rees had at first been reassigned to a new position due to complaints by senior managers about her job performance, and that she then did not accept the new position she had been offered. However, dispute tribunal justice Judge Coral Shaw ruled that reassigning Rees to a new post was unlawful. She was portrayed by

Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, tw ...

in the 2010 feature film ''

The Whistleblower ''The Whistleblower'' is a 2010 biographical drama film directed by Larysa Kondracki and starring Rachel Weisz. Kondracki and Eilis Kirwan wrote the screenplay, which was inspired by the story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska police officer w ...

''.

Awards

Rees was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the

2014 Birthday Honours The 2014 Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of ...

for services to human rights, particularly women's rights, and international peace and security.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, Madeleine Anti-prostitution activists British human rights activists Women human rights activists Living people Human trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina Officers of the Order of the British Empire Women's International League for Peace and Freedom people Year of birth missing (living people)

Career

Wrongful dismissal case

Awards

See also

References