A Unique Program Draws Two International Domestic Violence Fellows to UB Law

Andrijana Covic, Professor Isabel Marcus and Gulnaz Naamatova. Both Covic and
Naamatova have been awarded International Domestic Violence Fellowships.

Two outstanding young women's rights lawyers working on issues of domestic violence, Andrijana Covic from Serbia, and Gulnaz Naamatova from Kyrgyzstan, are studying at UB Law for the fall 2009 semester in the International Domestic Violence Fellowship program. A signature undertaking at UB Law School, the program is unique in the law school milieu nationally and internationally.

The scholarships were funded by Professor Isabel Marcus and the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy based on a competition for which 30 applications from NGO activists in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union were received. According to Professor Marcus, "the increase in the number of applications from this region reflects the growing interest and activism on the subject in civil society in the region."

Andrijana Covic, a graduate of the Law Faculty in Novi Sad, Serbia, began her human rights work in 2002 when she became involved in monitoring elections and serving as an intern in a regional government agency concerned with gender equality. She now works as a lawyer in the Provincial Ombudsman Office sector for Gender Equality. In that capacity, she is involved with victims of domestic violence. Covic notes that "Women's human rights are not considered important in Serbia and domestic violence still is a subject that women do not want to talk about. I am here to learn about and find solutions to the violence that have been developed in the U.S."

Gulnaz Naamatova, a recent summa cum laude graduate of the American University in Central Asia, is the project co-ordinator of the Justice Movement Public Association in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. In her position as a lawyer for an NGO, she works on women's rights trainings and co-operates with her University's clinic in handling women's rights cases. According to Naamatova, "for cultural and religious reasons, cases of domestic violence are unreported and women live with this pain all their lives."

Fall 2009 marks the third year of the program. In fall 2007, Maia Jaliashvili from the Republic of Georgia was awarded a scholarship; in fall 2008, Khalisa Shahverdiyeva from Azerbaijan and Dorota Trypens from Poland studied at UB Law.

During their semester in residence at UB Law, Domestic Violence Scholars have a full program. They attend classes in Domestic Violence, Family Law, International Human Rights, and Mediation; participate in the work of the Domestic Violence Clinic; and attend professional conferences and community meetings concerning family violence issues; observe legal system and social service activities concerned with violence. They are supervised and assisted in their studies and observations by Clinical Professor Suzanne Tomkins and Professor Isabel Marcus who are assisted by Remla Parthasarathy and Kate Rebhan instructors in the UB Children, Women and Social Justice Clinic and by Joseph Schneider, Director of Post-Professional and International Education at UB.