The leading international lawyer, human rights advocate and voice for gender equality, Karuna Nundy, is announced today as the guest speaker for this year’s IDS Annual Lecture, on Tuesday 14 November.
Listed by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world (2022-2023), Ms. Nundy is an Advocate at the Supreme Court of India and has worked with the UN and governments around the world to contribute to constitutional and legal drafting and policy.
Ms. Nundy’s legal work includes contributing to the 2013 ‘Anti Rape Laws’, and the Right to Food Act and fighting for the rights of the Bhopal gas victims. She has appeared in some of the most significant cases in India and was one of the lawyers who led arguments in the definitive online free speech case. Her latest work includes leading arguments to criminalise marital rape and separately, to legalise queer marriage in part on grounds of freedom to express sexual preference.
Gender, justice and joy
Karuna Nundy’s IDS Annual Lecture entitled ‘Gender, Justice and Joy: Legal travels through the patriarchy, suppressed speech and corporate crime’ will reflect on how patriarchal laws have travelled across the globe alongside colonialism. It will cover how women’s activism comes into conflict with the law and the broader challenges facing gender rights defenders today amid co-ordinated backlash.
Recent political and social shifts have seen push back against women’s rights and gender justice, from the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US, the introduction of the Anti-homosexuality Act 2023 in Uganda and the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, and the new stricter headscarf law that has followed. There have also been atrocious cases of sexual violence against women in Manipur in India this year. Across the world, gender justice advocates also experience fear, intimidation and gender-based violence offline and online on a daily basis.
In her lecture Karuna will share some of her own experiences as a lawyer and rights advocate and her views on how patriarchy has been repackaged and has re-emerged in different forms globally. Justice for women and LGBTQI+ people still has a long way to go but Karuna will also discuss where the positive progress can be found and the importance of joy and achieving the freedom to flourish.
Professor Melissa Leach, Director, Institute of Development Studies, said:
“We are honoured to have such a renowned gender rights campaigner and admired legal talent deliver this year’s IDS Annual Lecture.
“At IDS we believe that gender justice is one of the most urgent challenges we face in order to achieve inclusive societies and to reduce extreme inequalities. Karuna Nundy shares our ambition to tackle injustice and counter the backlash against the hard-fought gains for gender rights that we see mobilising around the world. We are delighted to hear from her experience in this field and explore together how we can further equality and well-being for all.”
On being announced as the IDS Annual Lecture speaker, Karuna Nundy, said:
“I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak to and co-create knowledge and strategy with some of the most cutting-edge development thinkers and practitioners at IDS. Flourishing on a large scale begins, sometimes, with a single great idea borne of synergies in thought.”
The IDS Annual Lecture convenes the most exciting thinkers on international development, contributing to the most pressing global challenges of our time, from artists to politicians. Past speakers have included Pakistan’s first female architect Yasmeen Lari, the President of Costa Rica, Malawi-born artist Samson Kambalu and renowned authority on AIDS and Ebola Sir Peter Piot.
Register to attend the lecture in person or online at 4pm (UK time) on Tuesday 14 November.
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