The Global Justice Center was founded in 2005 to help pressure governments and institutions to enforce and implement treaties and international human rights laws that advance gender equality.
Priority Areas
The Global Justice Center's work falls within two main priority areas: Fighting for Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Demanding Justice for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence:
Fighting for Sexual and Reproductive Rights
The Global Justice Center believes that sexual and reproductive health and rights are essential to gender equality. For the past decade the Global Justice Center has been at the forefront of efforts to ensure access to these rights, and we will continue fighting to make sure that all individuals have full access to the rights guaranteed under international law.
Abortion Access in Conflict
GJC's work in the realm of abortion provision for war rape victims stems from their conviction of states’ “positive obligations to provide non-discriminatory medical care under the Geneva Conventions,” which, according to their interpretation, “entitles all victims of armed conflict — including those brutalized by rape — 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, Global Gag Rule, and Domestic 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 argues against an overly restrictive interpretation of the Helms Amendment that includes all abortions, and along with the Government of Norway has called on the United States to allow for abortions for war rape victims. On 12 August 2016, the Global Justice Center launched a White House petition asking US President Barack Obama to issue an executive order to lift the ban on abortions in cases of "rape, life endangerment and incest."
The Global Justice Center believes that the prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence, often with no accountability, is a central barrier to gender equality. GJC is dedicated to dismantling the patriarchy embedded in many legal systems and ensuring a gender inclusive and rights-based approach to justice and accountability.
GJC works to pressure international groups and institutions to use a gender lens when enforcing the Genocide Convention, 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, such as sexual slavery. In December 2015, for example, the GJC pressured the International Criminal Court to investigate gender-based genocidal actions perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Discriminatory Legal Systems
GJC uses international law and international standards to challenge discriminatory legal policies and practices on sexual and gender-based violence. GJC works with Burmese organizations to increase women's involvement in the Burmese Government and submitted evidence to the CEDAW review of Burma.
