Global Justice Center

Global Justice Center (GJC) was founded in 2005 by Janet Benshoof to fill a critical need in the international human rights field. The success of the human rights revolution over the last 30 years has resulted in treaties and international human rights laws that need to move from paper to practice. Aggressive lawyers are needed who combine international law expertise with strategic and creative lawyering skills. That is where the Global Justice Center comes in.

Global Justice Center envisions a gender-equal world where every person lives free from violence, has full bodily autonomy, and has the power to access justice to protect and promote their human rights. GJC fights to ensure that multilateral systems integrate principles of feminism, inclusivity, and nondiscrimination, that abortion access is respected, protected, and fulfilled as a fundamental rights, and that gender shapes the prevention of and response to violence, including conflict and mass atrocities. GJC advocates with the understanding that women are not a monolith and face multiple intersecting forms of discrimination and oppression, based on (among others) their race, ethnicity, nationality, migratory status, religion, disability, age, class, sexual orientation, and gender expression and/or identity.

GJC focuses on three main issues that are central to making gender equality a reality: access to abortion, justice for gender-based violence, and a multilateral system based on inclusivity and nondiscrimination. GJC’s efforts are amplified through partnerships with policymakers, experts, fellow NGOs, and local actors. GJC’s work on sexual and reproductive rights focuses legal advocacy efforts on ensuring abortion access in conflict zones and ending illegal US restrictions on abortion both domestically and in foreign aid. The program on justice for sexual and gender-based violence uses legal advocacy to enshrine gender perspectives in atrocity prevention and response efforts. GJC’s engagement with multilateral institutions like the United Nations aims to influence lasting, positive change for gender equality. GJC engages with these institutions in order to uplift and promote the interests of our grassroots partners to ensure their inclusion in international policymaking, influence the agendas and outputs of these institutions to promote and protect gender equality as a human right, and advocate for progressive interpretations of international laws that create real change on the ground, not just on paper. The organization’s flagship program is in Myanmar, where since GJC’s founding, the NGO has developed and sustained a special relationship with women’s and ethnic minority groups in Myanmar. GJC has provided support and expertise to a wide variety of grassroots actors in Myanmar for over a decade, including training local women’s groups on how to use UN human rights mechanisms and international law to support accountability efforts and advocate for a comprehensive law to prevent and demand justice for violence against women. GJC identifies how and when to engage in new areas of work based on alignment with the organization’s areas of expertise, determining whether GJC’s unique approach can make an impact and the availability of organizational resources.