The Global Justice Center (GJC) is an

international human rights International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law are primarily made up of treaties, ag ...

and

humanitarian law International humanitarian law (IHL), also referred to as the laws of armed conflict, is the law that regulates the conduct of war (''jus in bello''). It is a branch of international law that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict by prot ...

organization aiming to advance

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

by helping to implement and enforce human rights laws. Headquartered in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and led by

Akila Radhakrishnan Akila Radhakrishnan (born December 15, 1982) is a human rights lawyer and the President of the Global Justice Center (GJC). Prior to her work with the Global Justice Center, Radhakrishnan worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former ...

, the GJC is a member of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security. The GJC works with national and international

Non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s, the United Nations, the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals ...

, and others to promote the progressive,

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

interpretation and application of international law.

History

The Global Justice Center was founded in 2005 by American human rights lawyer

Janet Benshoof Janet Benshoof (May 10, 1947 – December 18, 2017) was an American human rights lawyer and President and Founder of the Global Justice Center. She founded the Center for Reproductive Rights, the world's first international human rights organ ...

. Benshoof, former director of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

's Reproductive Freedom Project and co-founder of the

Center for Reproductive Rights The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) is a global legal advocacy organization that seeks to advance reproductive rights, such as abortion. The organization's stated mission is to "use the law to advance reproductive freedom as a fundamental huma ...

, established the Global Justice Center to "fulfil her vision of a new kind of human rights organization where women's equality in power was a foundational principle for human rights."

Issues

The Global Justice Center has outlined three of its main goals: * Abortion access is respected, protected, and fulfilled as a fundamental human right * Gender shapes the prevention of and response to violence, including conflict and

mass atrocities An atrocity crime is a violation of international criminal law that falls under the historically three legally defined international crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Ethnic cleansing is widely regarded as a fourth mass ...

* Multilateral systems integrate principles of feminism, inclusivity, and nondiscrimination

Abortion Access

The Global Justice Center believes that safe

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

is a fundamental part of the

sexual and reproductive health and rights Sexual and reproductive health and rights or ''SRHR'' is the concept of human rights applied to sexuality and reproduction. It is a combination of four fields that in some contexts are more or less distinct from each other, but less so or not at ...

framework and must be accessible to all pregnant people.

Abortion Access in Conflict

GJC has worked to ensure the provision of

services for war rape victims. They argue that states have “positive obligations to provide

non-discriminatory Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

medical care under the

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conven ...

,” which, according to their interpretation, “entitles all victims of

armed conflict War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular ...

— including those brutalized by

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

— to complete and non-discriminatory medical treatment.”

Illegal US Abortion Policy

The Global Justice Center continues to challenge US abortion funding restrictions, including the Helms Amendment and Global Gag Rule as violations of international law. GJC has worked to repeal the United States’ Helms Amendment of 1973 which states that “no foreign assistance funds may be used to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.” GJC also argues against an overly restrictive interpretation of the Helms Amendment that includes all abortions, and along with the

Government of Norway The politics of Norway take place in the framework of a parliamentary, representative democratic constitutional monarchy. Executive power is exercised by the Council of State, the cabinet, led by the prime minister of Norway. Legislative power i ...

has called on the United States to allow for abortions for war rape victims.

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

The Global Justice Center believes that sexual and

gender-based violence Gender-related violence or gender-based violence includes any kind of violence directed against people due to their gender or gender identification. Types of gender-related violence include: * Violence against women (sometimes referred to simply a ...

is, at its core, an expression of "discrimination, patriarchy, and inequality." Therefore, its work to prevent sexual and gender-based violence seeks to address and transform these root causes and the

patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of Dominance hierarchy, dominance and Social privilege, privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical Anthropology, anthropological term for families or clans controll ...

legal systems that enable it.

Mass Atrocity Crimes

GJC works to pressure international groups and institutions to use a

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

lens when enforcing the

Genocide Convention The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition. It was ...

, arguing that current enforcement fails to adequately account for the differential experiences of women in conflict and the gender-based genocidal tactics often used in contemporary

warfare War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular ...

, such as

sexual slavery Sexual slavery and sexual exploitation is an attachment of any ownership rights, right over one or more people with the intent of Coercion, coercing or otherwise forcing them to engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activities. This include ...

. It's 2018 legal analysis of gender and genocide, "Beyond Killing: Gender, Genocide and Obligations under International Law" examines non-killing acts of genocide and argues that the international community has "failed to grapple with the intrinsic role that gender plays the crime of genocide" Since its founding, GJC's work on mass atrocity crimes has focused on

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. Before and after the 2017 genocide of the Rohingya, GJC worked with Burmese women's organizations to use international law and international standards to challenge discriminatory domestic policies and practices on sexual and gender-based violence. Following the Rohingya genocide and 2021 military coup, GJC has worked to hold Myanmar's military accountable at the International Criminal Court,

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...

, and other international venues for its crimes, which include the systemic use of sexual and gender-based violenc

References

{{Reflist International human rights organizations Organizations established in 2005 Organizations based in New York City