Missing and Murdered: Seeking Justice and Healing for Women and Relatives – UN Commission on the Status of Women – African Cultural Studies

The seventieth session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women will take place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from March 9-19, 2026. Dr. Araceli Alonso and Dr. Christine Garlough, University of Wisconsin-Madison’s UNESCO Co-Chairs on Gender, Wellbeing and a Culture of Peace, have organized a parallel virtual event that focuses on the disappearance or murder of marginalized women and girls through a lens of justice and healing.

At this event, we will explore the shared and distinct contexts of gendered and political violence, including femicide, domestic and sexual violence. We also will examine how communities, institutions, and advocates are challenging impunity, reforming legal systems, and nurturing collective healing. By convening a transnational, intergenerational dialogue, the event will provide an opportunity to understand how local and global partners are translating pain into policy, advocacy, and educational reform that can sustain justice and peace.

Moderators:

1. Dr. Araceli Alonso, Co-Director of the UNESCO Chair, Founder of Health by All Means,Emeriti faculty member in Gender and Women’s Studies and the School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin–Madison

2. Dr. Christine Garlough, Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, Director of the Center for Research on Gender and Women, Ethics of Care Initiative Leadership Circle and UW–Madison Co-Chair of the UNESCO Chair.

Expert Keynote Panel:

1. Kristin Welch, (Menominee Nation) Founder and Director of Waking Women Healing Institute (https://www.wakingwomenhealingint.org ). Gender violence and indigenous healing programs.

2. Esperanza Jorge-Barbazano, (University Pablo de Olavide) paired with Inmaculada Antolinez-Dominquez, (University Research Institute for Sustainable Social Development of the University of Cádiz). Human trafficking in the context of migration, including extensive fieldwork in Spain, Morocco and Nigeria.

3. Dr Euzobia Mugisha Baine, Director, Gender Mainstreaming Directorate, Makerere University. Sexual violence and gender equity in Uganda.

This panel, representing both activism and research, will discuss the disappearance or murder of Indigenous and marginalized women and girls, situating justice and healing as interconnected imperatives.

Intergenerational NGO Panel Discussants/Community Voices:

1. Claudia Rodriguez (Museum Curator and artist, discussion of her exhibition at the Museum of Art of the University of Guadalajara on the findings of clandestine graves of disappeared people at the Rancho Izaguirre in Jalisco).

2. Beatriz Botero (Professor researching gender violence in Columbia and everyday acts of resistance).

3. Agnes Phoebe Muyanga (Ugandan NGO Director focusing on gender violence).

4. Shelby Baker (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, independent researcher and advocate Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women).

This panel will explore justice-seeking and healing pathways — including legal reform, documentation of violence, community-based healing, storytelling, and policy advocacy — while highlighting intergenerational and cross-cultural approaches to ending impunity.

Discussion Break Out Rooms for audience members and panelists

A focus on learning from each other’s lived experiences, creating organizational connections, and compiling shared resources.