Strategic Framework
Introduction
The Global Justice Center began 2021 in a global advocacy environment more dynamic and tumultuous than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic only intensified existing threats to human rights, including shrinking spaces for civil society, rising nationalism, and attempted dismantling of the international human rights system.
Despite these obstacles, advocates have made significant advances for the rights of women in recent decades. Yet the hard work of turning these gains into lived and sustainable gender equality remains unfinished. GJC occupies a critical space by identifying gaps in implementation and using a feminist interpretation of international law to transform human rights from paper to practice.
This framework will guide GJC’s work on the execution of our programs and projects for the coming five years. It encompasses both our overall programmatic goals as well our guiding principles, including our vision, mission, and theory of change. At its core, it is a constitution for GJC.
Letter from the staff committee
We are proud to present this new strategic framework not only as a blueprint for GJC’s future, but also as a watershed moment in our evolution as an organization. The last few years presented historic challenges for GJC, both internally with the loss of our founder and externally with global attacks on human rights. But these struggles have only strengthened our resolve. Over the next five years, GJC will continue our groundbreaking legal and advocacy work with a focus on three major issues critical to the achievement of gender equality: (1) a feminist multilateral system; (2) the protection of abortion access; and (3) gender-competent responses to violence.
Creating this framework challenged us to think critically about our place in the world, and how we can best leverage our skills, privileges, and expertise to achieve our vision. It also puts our progressive feminist values front and center, and gives us the flexibilty to ensure that GJC remains a dynamic organization, including in our ability to respond to new and unforeseen challenges. With this new framework in hand, GJC marches forward in the struggle for human rights more prepared and energized than ever before.