Dr Purna Sen
Doctor of Laws
Friday 11 November 2022 - Orator: Professor Aisha K. Gill
Listen to full oration and honorary speech on Soundcloud
Vice-Chancellor,
Distinguished guests, graduates, it is with great pleasure and honour that I introduce to you Dr Purna Sen. This Honorary Graduand is a leading global activist and scholar. She is a feminist and social scientist working to combat violence against women. She is committed to playing her part in making the world a better place, especially for women and girls. Like many others in this line of work, she makes good trouble. As she puts it in her own words:
All my living memory I have been at odds with systems that exclude, marginalize or de-humanize. At school, I was expelled for protesting sexism and since then have been in work that countered injustice and promoted workers, refugee, racial and other minority groups, LGBTQI+ and mostly women’s equality and rights.
All her life, going back to her days as a young student, she has dug deep to disrupt the status quo. She speaks up and acts out against what is not okay. And in her accomplished career, she’s fought for what she believes in. has She’s taught in community and adult education and at universities; she’s been the Domestic Violence Co-ordinator for the London Borough of Camden; she’s established the Programme for African Leadership and the research/visiting programme on women’s access to leadership, ‘Above the Parapet’, at the London School of Economics; she’s headed up the human rights work of the Commonwealth Secretariat and has been Director of the Asia-Pacific Programme at Amnesty International; and she’s undertaken intergovernmental work for the Commonwealth and the UN.
In the decades since being awarded her doctoral thesis, which was titled ‘A Basket of Resources: Women's Resistance to Domestic Violence in Calcutta’, Dr Sen has published numerous papers in her field of expertise. In 2015, she was a Labour candidate for Parliament in the UK and spoke out about vicious online trolling. After losing to out to the Greens, she accepted the post of policy director at UN Women and was the organisation’s Executive Coordinator and Spokesperson on Addressing Sexual Harassment and Other Forms of Discrimination, a role that involved stepping up UN Women’s engagement on sexual harassment globally and within the UN itself. Here, she was instrumental in bringing together different players within the UN system to work on policies and processes to specifically address sexual harassment. She also engaged a range of individuals and groups—academics, activists, MeToo and other movements—beyond the organisation to effect real change in this area. As she’s said:
To change the culture of tolerance of sexual harassment, we need unequivocal leadership. Managers and leaders must prioritize addressing sexual harassment, change human resources practices and policies at workplaces so that they support reporters of prohibited behavior.
The UN has been rocked by dozens of cases since early 2017 as the #MeToo campaign has emboldened women to speak out against their abusers. Dr Sen has been clear about the conditions that must be in place to enable this truth-telling:
Zero tolerance has to be more than an expression, it has to be a practice, and that practice has to be led by the senior leadership of an organisation.
In June 2022, the BBC documentary ‘The Whistleblowers: Inside the UN’ explored these allegations. Many former employees (including Dr Sen) came forward to share their experiences of harassment, sexual abuse and corruption. In part because of Dr Sen’s work and efforts many more are coming forward. Her work has influenced the organisational culture of the UN.
We must ensure that the younger generation of activists following in Dr Sen’s footsteps are able to navigate these challenging times. To achieve this, we must listen, support and share our experiences and enable equitable spaces to call out racism, sexism, and all forms of violence in both the public and private realms of our communities. As Dr Sen herself says; “You don’t have to accept what previous generations have done. Keep fighting for structural change.”
Today, Dr Sen is Visiting Professor at the Child and Woman Abuse Unit at London Metropolitan University, where she runs a webinar series on ending violence against women. She is also Special Advisor on working climate to the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court.
Vice-Chancellor, working towards a goal of ending racism and violence against women is an integral part of the struggle for equality and the full realisation of human rights for all. Dr Purna Sen is a tireless legal advocate for ensuring criminal justice system interventions meet due diligence obligations for all. It is an honour and a privilege to have her with us today. She combines a lifetime of incredible human rights activist experience and professional achievement with true humanity and generosity of spirit. She represents the ideal of a good immigrant life, and countless Asian women, myself included, have been and continue to be inspired by her. She has overcome multiple challenges in her lifetime, but she has always worked tirelessly, fearlessly and passionately for what she believes in—an approach that should encourage and galvanise us all.
And so, Vice-Chancellor, it is particularly appropriate that the University is honouring Dr Purna Sen today. Here at Bristol we are committed to studying and researching diverse communities. The University is home to well-established, world-leading research on gender-based violence, race, multiculturalism and migration. As an institution, we have established an impressive reputation for enhancing student learning by actively engaging with the world, dealing with issues of rights, inequalities and social justice.
Vice Chancellor, it gives me great pleasure to present Dr Purna Sen as eminently worthy of the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.