Mélanie Lemay
Coordinator
L’R des centres de femmes du Québec
Disraéli, Québec
Mélanie, an art therapist and ardent promoter of human rights, is a co-founder, together with two friends, of Québec contre les violences sexuelles, a movement that attacks sexual violence. In less than a year, these women have achieved the impossible: their efforts have made the term “rape culture” more widely understood in Quebec, and they have pressed the government to move toward a basic law dealing with this issue at postsecondary institutions.
Since then, Mélanie has helped establish numerous awareness-raising campaigns and is actively involved with research chairs and government expert panels. In 2019, she took part in the 63rd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and in the first #Metoo – Moving Forward international conference held in Reykjavik.