Francoise Girard

Françoise Girard is director of the Public Health Program at the Open Society Institute, where she was also regional director for Southern Central and Eastern Europe and Haiti in the 1990s.

A lawyer by training, Girard has worked many years as an advocate for women’s health, gender equality, and sexual rights, with a focus on advocacy and policy development with UN agencies and at UN conferences (ICPD+5, Beijing+5, Special Session on HIV/AIDS and on Children, ICPD+10, 2005 World Summit). From 1999 to 2003, she was senior program officer for international policy at the International Women’s Health Coalition.

She has contributed articles to International Family Planning Perspectives, Reproductive Health Matters, the Journal of Women’s Health and Law, Populi, and QCQ, among others. Her other publications include Global Implications of U.S. Domestic and International Policies on Sexuality, 2004, and “Negotiating Sexual Rights and Sexual Orientation at the United Nations,” in SexPolitics: Reports from the Front Lines, 2007.