Welcome to the Global Justice Center's first quarterly newsletter! In this moment of turmoil and change, we took the opportunity to reflect on how we're engaging with our community of allies and supporters. With this quarterly newsletter, we'll be delivering a streamlined update on our most exciting and important work.

The GJC team looks forward to this new opportunity to share our work with you. And as always, thank you for standing with us and making our bold, feminist advocacy possible.

Dear Friend,

From a global pandemic to vicious attacks on democracy and human rights, 2020 presented some of the most formidable challenges the Global Justice Center has ever faced. How we rebuild and repair in the years ahead will define generations to come.

Reflecting on this momentous year, we are thrilled to share our 2020 Annual Report with you. The full report will release next week, but please enjoy this preview video featuring our own Grant Shubin. In it, Grant discusses our work last year to defend the Women, Peace, and Security agenda from patriarchal attacks.

Thank you for standing with us for another year of advocacy for radical, feminist change. We look forward to continuing the fight with you in 2021 and beyond.

Dear Friend,

The Biden administration has repeatedly defined itself as a champion of sexual and reproductive rights. In his four months in power, President Biden has taken some action to back up this label.

But it takes a committed reproductive rights movement to hold this administration to the sweeping promises it made. That's why we joined 140+ organizations to demand the president implement international recommendations on abortion rights.

Thank you for standing with us as we continue to hold the US — and every government — accountable for protecting the human right to abortion access.

Dear Friend,

In its decades-long campaign of persecution against ethnic groups, Myanmar's military has often reserved its most brutal acts of violence for women. Now that the military is in sole control once again, women in Myanmar are doing what they've always done: fight back.

Social and news media are flooded with images of women leading and filling the massive protests against military rule. Yet, the international community is failing to center the human rights of women and other historically oppressed groups in its response to the crisis.

Thank you for standing with us as we demand justice and human rights lead the global response to the coup.

Dear Friend,

Dear Friend,

In the early morning hours of February 1, Myanmar's military, the Tatmadaw, seized power. State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested along with many other political figures and government critics.

The Global Justice Center has long warned of the consequences of an international failure to hold the military accountable for its crimes. The world is now forced to recognize what democracy activists and ethnic women in Burma have long known: the military is the chief obstacle to democracy and human rights in the country.

Thank you for joining us as we push the international community to learn from its mistakes by taking concrete action against this military coup.

Dear Friend,

Throughout his presidential campaign, Joe Biden repeatedly committed to reforge the US commitment to human rights and repair America's relationship with the world. But what should this look like?

Organizations like GJC are outlining concrete steps the Biden administration can take. But more than anything, we must reject "business as usual" that has led to failures on human rights by past Democratic administrations. As we said recently in our joint op-ed for Foreign Policy, it's critical the Biden administration root its actions in the language of universal human rights.

Thank you for standing with us as we work to seize this unique moment to advance our rights.

Dear Friend,

Four years of President Trump has devastated sexual and reproductive rights around the world. The Biden-Harris administration promises to "build back better" on human rights and global institutions, but what does that look like exactly?

As Serra Sippel of CHANGE said during our recent webinar, policies like a repeal of the Global Gag Rule "must be the floor, not the ceiling." The Biden administration must take a systematic approach to dismantling Trump-era policies, using feminism as a guiding principle.

Join us as we gear up to fight for our feminist vision for human rights.

Dear Friend,

After months of negotiations between nations and advocacy from organizations like GJC, Russia's resolution on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) failed in the UN Security Council last month. It was a victory for women's rights.

As a member of the NGO Working Group on WPS, we made it clear that any attempt to chip away at this crucial agenda mandating gender equality in peace processes must be resisted. Russia's resolution could have turned back the clock on 20 years of progress and we thank every nation who refused to go along with it.

This is no time to surrender our hard-won progress on the rights of women and marginalized communities. Thank you for standing with us as we fight back.