Gigi Scoles and Anupama Selvam 3 The Vital Voices Justice Institute: � Helping States Combat � Gender-Based Violence � GiGi ScoleS anD anupama Selvam* Abstract This article proposes the Institute Model, implemented internationally by Vital Voices, as a tool for States to meet due diligence obligations. The Institute is a multidisciplinary training model designed to reach all types of adult learners and to coordinate effective responses to domestic vio­ * Gigi Scoles was educated at: McGill University, where she completed her undergraduate studies earning a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, with a minor in Italian; Rutgers School of Law, Camden, where she earned her Doctor of Jurisprudence; and, Universiteit Leiden, where she received an LL.M. Adv. in Public International Law. She clerked in the New Jersey Superior Court, Family Part —Juvenile Division, for the Honorable F. Lee Forrester, JSC, before joining the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office in Newark, New Jersey. She served as an Assistant Essex County Prosecutor from 2005-2013, spending the majority of her tenure assigned to the Special Victims Unit, where she handled cases of Child Abuse and Neglect; Human Trafficking; and Sexual Assault. She has been active on policy issues surrounding violence against women and children on the State, National and International level. In 2009, Ms. Scoles was selected by the U.S. Department of Justice to serve as the Intermittent Legal Advisor to the government of Djibouti on Human Trafficking. She continued to serve intermittently in that capacity in 2010 and 2011. From fall 2013-2016, Ms. Scoles worked with Vital Voices Global Partnership as the Director of Human Rights Legal Initiatives, developing and implementing programs for and with international leaders on issues involving gender-based violence. Specific course she has designed and/or implemented have covered topics including commercial sexual exploitation of children; internet facilitated sex trafficking; domestic violence; sexual assault; child protection; and human trafficking. She has worked on these topics all over the world, including but not limited to Cameroon, China, Colombia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. In addition to her human rights work, Ms. Scoles is active in local politics in Pennsylvania, where she served as the Strategic Advisor for Digital Communications for the ‘Vikki For Judge’ campaign to help successfully elect Viktoria Kristiansson to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Anupama Selvam holds a Juris Doctor from American University Washington College of Law where she graduated cum laude and a Masters from the American University School of International Service. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University where she majored in International Politics and received a certificate in International Development. Her coursework included a focus on women’s and gender studies as they apply to international law and policy, including in depth research on the use of rape as a weapon of war. Following her time at Georgetown, Ms. Selvam conducted research for Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, a rape crisis center located in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she contributed to a nationwide Rape Attrition Study helping to understand the low reporting and high withdrawal rates of rape cases in South Africa. Later, Ms. Selvam worked as a co-chair of the gender-equality committee at CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation. Following her return to the United States, Ms. Selvam worked for Professor Antony D’amato of the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, working as a legal case manager and researcher on civil cases seeking restitution for victims of the Holocaust. Ms. Selvam has years of experience as both a medical and legal advocate for Chicago’s largest stand-alone rape crisis center, Rape Victim Advocates, where she supported and guided sexual assault survivors through their interactions with the medical and legal systems, including the processes of reporting, attending criminal trials, as well as pursuing civil remedies and injunctions. Ms. Selvam most recently has worked on issues of gender-based violence as they effect immigrant communities in the United States through her work with the National Immigration Women’s Advocacy Project (NIWAP) as well as a case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Ms. Selvam worked as a member of the Human Rights team of Vital Voices Global Partnership in 2016.