Carolina Austria

Name: Carolina S. Ruiz-Austria

Organization / Company: RH Reality Check, Asia

I am a feminist and social activist, a lawyer as well as an academic. I have worked with NGOs for the last thirteen years, first as an Environment Lawyer handling litigation for Legal and Natural Resources Center (Friends of the Earth-Philippines) and later as a feminist lawyer for both litigation and research programs at the Women's Legal Bureau,Inc. I was founding Executive Director of Women's Legal Education, Advocacy & Defense Foundation Inc. (WOMENLEAD) from 2000-2005 where I am now a Volunteer/Board Chairperson. I have been an independent consultant for the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF-UK); the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines, Women and Gender Institute (WAGI), Women's Feature Service (WFS) as well as other women's organizations and NGOs working on Reproductive health. I was an 2007 LLM Fellow of the International Sexual and Reproductive Health Program of the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. I also teach at the College of Law, University of the Philippines. I am an incoming SJD Fellow of the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. (2009) I am a Research Associate for the SRHR Project of the Development Alternatives with Women for a New Network (DAWN).