Center for Women's Global Leadership

The Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL) is a Rutgers University-based academic center and international advocacy organization focused on women's human rights and global leadership. Founded in 1989 by feminist activist and scholar Charlotte Bunch, the center developed at the intersection of university-based research, transnational women's organizing, and policy advocacy. Its work treats women's rights as an integral part of universal human rights and seeks to connect local and national activism with regional and United Nations policymaking. CWGL is located at Rutgers in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is a unit of International Programs within the university's School of Arts and Sciences and participates in the Institute for Women's Leadership, a Rutgers consortium dedicated to understanding and supporting women's leadership. The center also operates as a nongovernmental organization with special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council, allowing it to participate in international policy discussions and advocacy processes. The center's substantive priorities have included ending violence against women, advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights, protecting women human rights defenders, promoting socioeconomic justice, and incorporating gender analysis into the work of public institutions. Rather than functioning as a conventional consumer-facing brand, CWGL provides research, training, convening, monitoring, campaign coordination, educational resources, and advocacy support for activists and organizations. Much of CWGL's international policy work grew out of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. These conferences helped establish a global policy language linking women's rights to human rights. CWGL subsequently worked with women's organizations and other civil-society groups to monitor implementation of international commitments, influence United Nations deliberations, and hold governments and institutions accountable. One of the center's best-known initiatives is the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign, launched in 1991. The annual campaign links November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, with December 10, Human Rights Day, and has become a widely used framework for international mobilization against gender-based violence. CWGL has also supported global campaigns for women's human rights, the protection of women human rights defenders, and reform of the United Nations gender-equality architecture. In 2008, CWGL and the Women's Environment & Development Organization helped launch the Gender Equality Architecture Reform campaign, commonly known as GEAR, with a broad coalition of advocates. The campaign sought a stronger and better-resourced United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and women's empowerment. The United Nations General Assembly agreed in 2010 to establish UN Women, which began operating as the UN's dedicated gender-equality entity. CWGL's work combines direct advocacy with capacity building. At United Nations meetings, including the Commission on the Status of Women and Human Rights Council-related processes, it has facilitated planning sessions, convened caucuses and forums, trained advocates, and circulated alerts and reports. The center has also participated in networks supporting women human rights defenders, including the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition. Its Rutgers-based educational and archival role is another important part of its identity. In collaboration with Rutgers University Libraries and the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, CWGL contributed to a digitized poster collection documenting decades of transnational women's activism. The collection provides public access to visual records produced by women's rights organizations around the world and has been recognized for its contribution to women's studies librarianship. CWGL therefore operates simultaneously as a university center, a knowledge repository, a convening platform, and an international advocacy organization.

The Center for Women's Global Leadership was established at Rutgers University in 1989 by Charlotte Bunch, an internationally recognized feminist activist and scholar. From its beginning, the center was designed to bridge university-based education and research with the practical work of women's rights organizations. Its institutional home at Rutgers gave it an academic base, while its nongovernmental and United Nations engagement enabled it to participate in international advocacy. During the early 1990s, CWGL developed an approach centered on women's human rights. This framework challenged the separation of women's concerns from broader human-rights policy and emphasized that violence, discrimination, reproductive restrictions, economic inequality, and attacks on activists should be addressed as rights violations. In 1991, the center launched the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign. The campaign connected the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25 with Human Rights Day on December 10, creating a recurring period for public education, organizing, and pressure on governments and institutions. CWGL's influence expanded through the major international conferences of the 1990s. Its work drew on the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, where women's organizations helped secure wider recognition that women's rights belong within the human-rights system. The center subsequently focused on implementation: monitoring international commitments, helping advocates engage with United Nations processes, and developing tools that could connect local campaigns to global policymaking. As an organization with ECOSOC special consultative status, CWGL became active around the Commission on the Status of Women, the Human Rights Council, reviews of world-conference commitments, and related United Nations meetings. It supported preparatory consultations, convened women's human-rights caucuses, organized advocacy and monitoring training, and issued information before and after significant meetings. This work positioned the center as an intermediary between grassroots and transnational women's organizations and formal international institutions. The center also became involved in protecting women human rights defenders. It worked with international partners to promote gender-sensitive protection mechanisms for activists who faced threats because of their gender, their advocacy, or the issues they addressed. CWGL participated in the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, a network involving women's rights, human-rights, reproductive-rights, LGBT-rights, and defender-protection organizations. In March 2007, CWGL and the Women's Environment & Development Organization convened an international meeting of activists to discuss reform of the United Nations' gender-equality architecture. That process led to the launch of the Gender Equality Architecture Reform campaign in February 2008. The campaign sought a single, adequately funded, and authoritative UN entity for gender equality and women's empowerment. In 2010, the General Assembly approved the establishment of UN Women, a development widely associated with the broader advocacy effort of which CWGL was a participant. At Rutgers, CWGL has remained connected to the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, the School of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute for Women's Leadership. Its academic role includes teaching, public education, research, and the preservation of movement history. A collaboration with Rutgers Libraries and the women's studies department produced a digital portal for a poster collection of roughly 300 items created by women's rights organizations around the world. The collection documents approximately two decades of transnational activism and makes primary visual materials available through the university's institutional repository. In more recent program descriptions, the center has continued to emphasize ending violence against women, defending women human rights defenders, advancing sexual and reproductive health, improving socioeconomic well-being, and examining macroeconomic policy through a human-rights and gender lens. Leadership has included founder Charlotte Bunch, former executive director Radhika Balakrishnan, and executive director Krishanti Dharmaraj. CWGL's continuing identity rests on the combination of feminist scholarship, activist networks, international policy engagement, and leadership development.

• 2012

  Poster collection recognized

  [1]Center for Women's Global Leadershipen.wikipedia.org

  CWGL's digitized women's-rights poster collection received the ACRL Women and Gender Studies Section Award for Significant Achievement in Women's Studies Librarianship.

• 2010

  UN Women approved

  [3]UN Womenen.wikipedia.org

  The United Nations General Assembly agreed to establish UN Women after sustained advocacy for a stronger gender-equality architecture.

• 2008

  GEAR campaign launched

  [3]UN Womenen.wikipedia.org

  CWGL and WEDO launched the Gender Equality Architecture Reform campaign with international civil-society partners.

• 1995

  Beijing conference reinforces global women's-rights commitments

  [6]Beijing conference reinforces global women's-rights commitmentsen.wikipedia.org

  The Fourth World Conference on Women provided another foundation for CWGL's work on implementation and accountability.

• 1993

  Vienna conference helps shape the women's human-rights framework

  [5]Vienna conference helps shape the women's human-rights frameworken.wikipedia.org

  The Vienna World Conference on Human Rights became one of the international policy footholds informing CWGL's subsequent advocacy.

• 1991

  16 Days campaign launched

  [2]16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violenceen.wikipedia.org

  CWGL initiated the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign.

• 1989

  Center founded at Rutgers University

  [1]Center for Women's Global Leadershipen.wikipedia.org

  Charlotte Bunch founded the Center for Women's Global Leadership as a Rutgers-based institution connecting feminist scholarship with international women's-rights advocacy.

A university-based feminist human-rights center that links scholarship, transnational activism, United Nations advocacy, and leadership development.

• International advocacy campaign · 1991

  16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence

  An annual campaign created by CWGL in 1991 that runs from November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, through December 10, Human Rights Day. It provides a shared framework for organizations to conduct public education, advocacy, demonstrations, research dissemination, and policy pressure concerning gender-based violence. The campaign also links violence against women to wider human-rights and gender-justice issues.

• Policy advocacy and training

  United Nations Monitoring and Advocacy

  CWGL's work around UN meetings supports women's human-rights advocates in following negotiations, preparing interventions, coordinating caucuses, and assessing whether governments are implementing international commitments. Activities have included planning sessions, monitoring and advocacy training, briefings, alerts, reports, and convenings connected with the Commission on the Status of Women and other UN processes.

• Human-rights protection network

  Women Human Rights Defenders advocacy

  CWGL supports advocacy for women human rights defenders and participates in coalition-based efforts to ensure that protection mechanisms account for gender, sexual rights, and the specific risks faced by activists. The work includes networking, public advocacy, and efforts to strengthen international responses to attacks on defenders.

• Digital archive

  CWGL Poster Collection

  A Rutgers library collaboration providing digital access to approximately 300 posters produced by women's rights organizations worldwide. The collection documents around two decades of transnational activism and records changing themes within the global women's movement. Materials are made accessible through Rutgers' institutional repository.

• 2008Gender Equality Architecture Reform campaign

  Global · United Nations

  CWGL, WEDO, and allied organizations organized international advocacy for a single, stronger, and adequately resourced UN entity dedicated to gender equality and women's empowerment.

  Outcome. The UN General Assembly approved the creation of UN Women in 2010.

  Source
• 2003International Strategic Directions Consultation

  Global

  CWGL convened a consultation associated with Vienna +10 activities to assess strategic directions for the international women's human-rights movement.

  Source
• 199116 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence

  Global

  CWGL created an annual international campaign linking key dates in the human-rights calendar to collective action against violence against women.

  Outcome. The campaign became a widely adopted global mobilization involving thousands of organizations and participants across many countries.

  Source

• 2008

  Join the Gender Equality Architecture Reform campaignStrategy

  Background

  Existing UN structures for gender equality were viewed by participating civil-society organizations as fragmented and insufficiently resourced.

  Action taken

  CWGL worked with WEDO and international advocates to launch and coordinate a campaign seeking a stronger single UN gender-equality entity.

  Aftermath

  The campaign contributed to the advocacy environment preceding the General Assembly's 2010 establishment of UN Women.

  Source

• 1991

  Establish the 16 Days campaignOther

  Background

  CWGL sought a practical mechanism for linking local activism against gender-based violence with international human-rights advocacy.

  Action taken

  The center established a recurring campaign period from November 25 to December 10.

  Aftermath

  The campaign developed into a global platform used by organizations in numerous countries.

  Source

1. 1Center for Women's Global Leadershipen.wikipedia.org
2. 216 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violenceen.wikipedia.org
3. 3UN Womenen.wikipedia.org
4. 4Official Center for Women's Global Leadership websitecwgl.rutgers.edu
5. 5Vienna conference helps shape the women's human-rights frameworken.wikipedia.org
6. 6Beijing conference reinforces global women's-rights commitmentsen.wikipedia.org