The Department of Modern Languages is pleased be hosting an event on Forced Sterilisations in Peru and the Search for Justice, sponsored by the Canterbury branch of the University and College Union (UCU) and the Kent Centre for Law Gender and Sexuality, following a successful presentation on the subject at Amnesty International in London. The event will be held on Wednesday 28 June at 17.00, in Grimond seminar room 3.

The event will feature human rights defender Esperanza Huayama, president of the Association of Forcibly Sterilised Women from the region of Huancabamba in Piura, who will be speaking about her experience in seeking justice and reparation.

Between 1996 and 1998, some 200,000 women and around 30,000 men were forcefully sterilised, many without their consent or understanding what the procedure meant for their fertility. The victims have been campaigning for justice and reparation for two decades. This meeting is an opportunity to learn more about what this policy consisted of as well as its longer-term consequences.

During the event, a documentary about Esperanza Huayama’s search for justice by Inés Ruiz will be presented alongside the Quipu Project, an online and telephone platform that has provided a channel for many victims of sterilisation to place their stories. Documentary-maker Inés Ruiz was an Associate Lecturer at Kent, where she completed her PhD in Hispanic Studies.

The event will be followed by an open discussion.

For full details of the event, please see: www.kent.ac.uk/secl/modern-languages/events/index.html?eid=25847