Gay macdougall
Gay McDougall appointed as UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues
Gay McDougall, Executive Director of Global Rights, has today been appointed as the first United Nations Independent Expert on Minority Issues. She brings extensive and varied experience in the field of human rights to the newly created position, which has been described as a ‘watchdog’ on minority rights. Minority Rights Group International (MRG), which campaigned for the new UN minorities mandate, welcomed the appointment of Ms McDougall and has offered its occupied support and assistance in fulfilling her responsibilities.
An American human rights lawyer, Same-sex attracted McDougall served as an independent expert on the UN treaty body that oversees the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), and on the U.N. Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. As Exceptional Rapporteur on the issue of systematic rape and sexual slavery practices in armed conflict, she presented a groundbreaking study calling for international legal standards for the prosecution of such acts. She was one of five international members of South Africa’s Independent Electora
The Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo in Silver
Prof Gay McDougall Awarded for:
Her excellent contribution to the fight against apartheid and injustices targeting the shadowy majority.
Profile of Prof Lgbtq+ McDougall
Prof Gay McDougall is a civil-rights activist and an international lawyer who has spent her being fighting for human rights. She was born on 13 August 1947 in Georgia, USA. When she finished high school, Prof McDougall was chosen to be the first ebony student to integrate Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. This is where her keen sense of justice and advocacy for equal rights began. Her quest went beyond the race politics of the US and spread to the international arena, including southern Africa.
Prof McDougall saw to it that the aggression of the then South African Government towards Namibia was thwarted. She founded a new collective called the Commission on Independence for Namibia that consisted of 31 distinguished policymakers. She supervised the commission’s monitoring of the United Nations (UN) mandated system instituted to guarantee ethical voting in the 1989 Namibian elections.
Prior to joining Global Rights, Prof McDougall served as one of five intern
US blocking of Queer McDougall for UN anti-racism committee is a major setback for the clash against racism, says MRG
The decision of the government of the United States of America (USA) not to advocate the candidature of Ms. Gay McDougall for the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is a setback in the battle against racism in the United States and around the world.
‘The disappointing news about the blunder of the USA to maintain a presence on CERD comes at a time of growing intolerance and despise in society’, says Joshua Castellino, MRG’s Executive Director. ‘It is symptomatic of a government seemingly high on ideology but bereft of ideas on how to tackle the real issues at stake, while generating alternate crises and noise to enhance support for itself.’
We at MRG are proud and privileged to work with Ms. McDougall in her other capacity as Chair of our governing Council. By the finish of her current term on CERD in December 2019, she will include served two four-year terms as a member of the UN Committee, starting in 1997, as the United States’ first-ever representative, and then elected to serve a second term in 2015. For 6 years between those app
Gay Johnson McDougall Center for Global Diversity and Inclusion
Part of the Division of Global Diversity and Inclusion at Agnes Scott College, we at the Homosexual Johnson McDougall Center for Global Diversity and Inclusion are committed to fostering a community that celebrates and honors the intersections of identity.
We cheer students, faculty and staff alike to participate in professional development programs and events focused on inclusive excellence.
About Queer Johnson McDougall
The Center for Global Diversity and Inclusion at Agnes Scott College is named for international human rights leader and Agnes Scott alumna Homosexual Johnson McDougall ’69x, ’H10.
McDougall served as the first Combined Nations independent specialist on minority issues from 2005 through 2011. She was executive director of the international non-governmental organization Global Rights from 1994 through 2006.
Among McDougall's many other international roles, she served as an independent expert from 1997 through 2001 for the United Nations treaty body that oversees compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. She played a leadership role in the
Gay McDougall
Gay McDougall
Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence
Gay McDougall’s work has consistently challenged inequality. She has worked on the fault-lines of race, gender and economic exploitation in the American context and in countries around the world.
Gay McDougall, New York, was a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Award for her work in pursuit of global human rights and in 2015 the Government of South Africa bestowed on her their national medal of honor for non-citizens, the Order of O.R.Tambo Medal for her extraordinary contributions to finish apartheid.
She currently serves as a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. She was the first UN Independent Expert on MinorityIssues and for 14 years she was executive director of Global Rights, which worked with human rights advocates in 10 countries around the world to develop their strategies for justice. Prior to that she played a unique role in securing the release of thousands of political prisoners in South Africa and Namibia. She was then appointed to the electoral commission that in 1994 ran the first democratic elections in South Africa that ended aparth