Global Justice Center | 1 Letter from the President Dear Friends, I am thrilled to write to you as the new President of the Global Justice Center. It is an incredible opportunity to lead this organization into its second decade. For the past ten years, the Global Justice Center has played a critical role in the international human rights arena, using the power of the law to create a more just and equal world. Everything we have learned over the past decade—both in our successes and in our setbacks—forms the arsenal of legal tools, advocacy know-how, and outside-the- box thinking that sets the Global Justice Center apart. Over years of battling United States abortion restrictions abroad, challenging the criminal acts of the military regime in Burma, and advocating for the inclusion of crimes against women in international criminal prosecutions, we learned how to be strategic, nimble, and bold in our efforts to move women’s rights guarantees from paper to practice. We know what it takes to fight back, and we will continue to challenge fascist and misogynist regimes wherever they come to power, including in the United States. The past year has been an incredibly difficult one for the Global Justice Center with the sudden and unexpected loss of our founder, Janet Benshoof. We are honored to carry on the struggle for justice with this extraordinary organization that she founded. Since the beginning, the Global Justice Center has fought for gender equality—if the last decade shows us anything, it is that the future is feminist. We are marching forward into that future, using the power of the law to forge the way. Thank you for making 2017 another remarkable year for the Global Justice Center! Sincerely, Akila Radhakrishnan President Current and former Global Justice Center staff pose in front of Janet’s portraits at her memorial. 2 | Marching On: 2017 Annual Report Global Justice Center | 3 Ten Years of Innovative Legal Advocacy The Global Justice Center Ensuring Gender Justice for Saddam-Era Crimes in Iraq GJC led a series of trainings for the judges of the Iraqi High Tribunal focused on The Global Justice Center is Founded international law and crimes of sexual violence. The Global Justice Center was As a result, rape and sexual violence were 2005 created to be a new kind of human prosecuted as crimes against humanity, rights organization in which women’s using the international definitions of these equality in power is a foundational crimes as established by the Rome Statute. principle of human rights. 2006 Advocating for Criminal Accountability for War Crimes Committed by ISIS GJC’s Gender and Genocide project pushed for the enforcement of the Genocide Convention for the gendered non-killing crimes of genocide, including crimes that 2008 ISIS is committing against the Yazidi. Two Fighting for an End to Military Impunity in Burma years after the project launch, the UN GJC was one of the first groups advocating Security Council passed a resolution opening for reform of Burma’s 2008 Constitution, a path to justice for war crimes, crimes which gives the military full impunity against humanity, and genocide in Iraq. for war crimes and puts Burma in direct violation of international law. In 2018, due to GJC’s sustained advocacy, the UN Secretary-General’s Report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence named 2017 the Burmese military as perpetrators of systemic sexual violence for the first time. 2015 2010 Ensuring Abortion is Recognized as a Pioneering the Argument that Abortion is Fundamental Right under International Law Protected Care Under International Law The European Union changes its policy to GJC’s August 12th Campaign, named after reflect GJC’s groundbreaking legal argument the anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, that abortion is protected medical care under is the first to make the international legal international law for women and girls raped in war. argument that abortion access is necessary Under GJC’s leadership, the right has also been medical care for women raped in war. recognized by France, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the UN. 4 | Marching On: 2017 Annual Report Global Justice Center | 5 Combating Harmful US Abortion Restrictions GJC has been challenging the imposition of US abortion restrictions on foreign assistance as a violation of US obligations under international law since 2010, specifically addressing the harms of the Helms amendment and the Global Gag Rule. As a result of this advocacy, several national governments and international decision-making bodies have adopted policies to counter the Helms amendment and Global Gag Rule—including some policies which specifically support the provision of abortion services with their own aid. For instance, the European Parliament has adopted an “anti- Helms amendment” in all EU budgets since 2016, requiring that EU aid is not affected by restrictions imposed by other donors, including the United States. GJC has rallied support from an international consortium of partners representing over 3,500 groups globally, calling on the US government to repeal the Helms amendment. These groups include the New York Bar Association, Amnesty International, the World Organization against Torture, FIDH, the Paris Bar Association, the Norwegian Bar Association and others, who called on the US government to change this cruel and inhuman policy. Ten Years Fighting for Reproductive Health & Rights Immediately following the election of President Trump in November 2016, GJC travelled to Europe to galvanize our partners and prepare them for the immediate challenges a Trump-Pence administration Reproductive rights are central to gender equality. This fact has been enshrined in international law, yet would pose for sexual and reproductive rights, including the impending re-imposition of the Global it is often ignored in practice and policy. For the past decade, GJC has been at the forefront of efforts Gag Rule. GJC leveraged this early action to obtain strong donor commitments to fund abortion access despite US restrictions. to ensure that the law protects and promotes access to comprehensive reproductive health and rights. Liberalizing Colombia’s Abortion Laws In 2006, GJC worked with women’s rights groups in Colombia to use international law to challenge the country’s total abortion ban. These efforts resulted in a historic decision by the Constitutional Court of Colombia overturning the abortion ban, citing the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Ensuring Abortion Access GJC pioneered the argument that the Geneva Conventions protect the right to abortion for girls and women raped in war under its requirements to provide comprehensive and non-discriminatory medical care. Since 2013, GJC’s campaign to enshrine abortion access as protected care for women and girls raped United Nations bodies where GJC in war has fundamentally shifted the narrative in the policy arena. When GJC started this project, has provided expertise: National governments and international bodies that have called for the US to remove abortion was rarely, if ever, discussed in relation to victims of sexual violence in conflict. Today, the • Security Council abortion restrictions on foreign aid: issue of abortion is now regularly included in domestic, regional and international discussions and • Human Rights Council for the policy frameworks about humanitarian aid in war zones. Universal Periodic Review • Belgium • United Kingdom The GJC’s argument that abortion is protected care under international humanitarian law has been • Committee against Torture • Norway • European Parliament adopted in many high-profile venues and reports including: • Human Rights Committee • Switzerland • UN Working Group • International Criminal Court • France on the Discrimination • The United Nations Security Council: Resolutions 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013) and 2242 (2015) against Women in • Committee on the Elimination of • Netherlands Law and in Practice • The governments of the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, and the European Discrimination against Women Union • Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar • The Secretary-General’s Reports on Women, Peace and Security and Sexual Violence in Conflict • Special Rapporteurs 6 | Marching On: 2017 Annual Report Global Justice Center | 7 Accountability for Gender-Based Mass Atrocity Crimes GJC has been at the forefront of demanding justice for women and girls targeted by terrorist groups, calling attention to the gender-based crimes that are integral to their strategies. Boko Haram In 2015, GJC filed an Article 15 submission on the abduction of girls by Boko Haram with the International Criminal Court (ICC). The brief called on the ICC Prosecutor to expand her investigation of Boko Haram’s crimes to include the gender-based crimes that could constitute genocide, such as the forcible transfer of children. This submission was motivated by the fact that in its 2014 report on the preliminary examination in Nigeria, the ICC indicated that it was not investigating potential gender-based crimes. In its report the following year, several months after Ten Years Fighting for Justice for Gender-Based Violence receiving GJC’s letter, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor explicitly stated that “the Office is devoting particular efforts to determine The prevalence and persistence of gender-based violence remains one of the most significant, if not the most the gender component of crimes committed in Nigeria.” significant, barriers