About
Transnational Legal Strategy
The legal enforceability of fundamental human rights identified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 has developed significantly over the past sixty years. The Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals in the 1940s set in motion a new era of international justice. Sixty years later the establishment of International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda built on the Nuremberg advances and catalyzed the creation of the first permanent International Criminal Court in 2002. Our work builds on these global legal trends. For instance, the GJC helped the Iraq High Tribunal (IHT) use legal precedents established by previous war crimes tribunals to ensure that Kurdish women victims could access new international rights. Global precedents bring new opportunities to further argue for the development of transnational approaches for enforcing human rights and investing in the development of an international legal order. The time is now to take hold of these opportunities for global justice using our cutting edge legal tools and strategies.
Our Projects
Iraq
The Global Justice Center is committed to seeing women play a leadership role in the transitional justice and democracy-building processes in Iraq as required by international law. Through the training of women's leaders and judges, and an ongoing partnership with the Iraq High Tribunal, the GJC works to ensure equal access to Iraq's transitional justice process.
Burma
The GJC is working with the Burma Lawyers' Council to push for accountability and stronger action by the United Nations Security Council for the ongoing heinous crimes in Burma. The Project on Criminal Accountability for Heinous Crimes in Burma aims to uphold international commitments to the rule of law and to enforce the rights to redress and criminal accountability. The GJC also partners with the Women's League of Burma to develop new strategic methods for using international law to encourage women's equal access to political representation and justice.
Colombia
The GJC is committed to ensuring women's equal access to justice as part of the demilitarization process in Colombia. Through our work in Colombia, we are forging new frontiers in the fields of international rule of law, peace and security by providing materials and strategies on international law, with a particular focus on the Justice and Peace Law (JPL). We strive to promote domestic compliance with the high standards set by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to encourage Colombia, a signatory of the Rome Statute, to apply and interpret the JPL in a manner consistent with the ICC.
Sierra Leone
The GJC is currently assessing opportunities for implementation of international law on gender equality in Sierra Leone as part of our work with women, peace and security. The project focuses on researching the impact of international justice mechanisms in the domestic context with a goal of creating a model for other post-conflict situations as well as precedents for domestic law reform throughout the West Africa Region.
Kyrgyzstan
The GJC is partnering with the Forum of Women's NGOs in Kyrgyzstan, established in 1995 to coordinate the work of women's rights organizations in Kyrgyzstan and to explore how international mechanisms can advance their work in promoting gender equality in governance and law reform.
U.S. Foreign Policy
The Global Justice Center is committed to preventing the US from using its influence to reverse the global trend to recognize the right to make decisions about one's own body. The Global Justice Center is actively working to bring a new voice to the US debate over ratification of Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a UN treaty and binding international law that is widely considered the bill of rights for women, by working to prevent the US from changing this treaty from one that empowers women to one that blocks women's rights to make decision about her own body.