Welcome back, everybody, from the holiday break.
It's good to see we have Mr. Hehr here as a substitute today.
Seeing that we have quorum, we'll get started.
Today is going to be the first day of our study on women human rights defenders. We're very pleased today to have with us two people who have been working in this field for a very long time.
We have Rachel Vincent, the director of advocacy and media for the Nobel Women's Initiative, which was created in 2006 by six female winners of the Nobel Peace Prize to support women's groups around the world on justice, peace and equality.
We also have with us Beth Woroniuk, the policy lead for MATCH International Women's Fund, an NGO that funds women's rights movements and grassroots organizations around the world, especially in the global south.
We're very pleased to have the two witnesses today for this first meeting of the study on women human rights defenders that our committee will be undertaking in the coming weeks.
We'll start with Ms. Vincent. If you would like to start, you have 10 minutes for your opening remarks.