Ms. Madhu Mehra
Ms. Madhu Mehra is a feminist lawyer, founder and former director of Partners for Law in Development (PLD), a women's rights organisation where she currently heads research and training initiatives. Her work on child early marriage, sexual and gender-based violence, targeting of women as witches among others critiques the predominant reliance on criminalisation at the cost of transformatory victim centric approaches. She has active in legal advocacy for decriminalising same sex relations and adultery in India, and her current efforts aim for decriminalising adolescent sexuality. Through PLD she leads the National Coalition Advocating for Adolescent Concerns.
Her work on CEDAW nationally and regionally in Asia, as a trainer, researcher, writer and in civil society processes assisting the country reviews undertaken by CEDAW spans nearly 30 years. She undertook the review of 15 years of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (1994-2009) for the OHCHR. Her contribution to gender policy in relation to SGBV was recognised in Apolitical 100 most influential in 2021.