Movement Activism

Ultimately, it was the activism of women themselves and mobilization on the grassroots level that was true catalyst for change.
December 10, 2000

Tokyo Tribunal: Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery

In the early 1990s, Asian women from several countries began to denounce their kidnapping and use as so-called “comfort women” in order to provide sexual services to the Japanese Imperial Army (JIA) during World War II. A number of civil society public hearings were held, especially in Korea where the largest number of victims came from, and in Japan and the Philippines. The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and other UN bodies also reported on this issue. However, justice for the comfort women - who never received a full apology and reparations from the Japanese government – had still not been achieved.

September 01, 1995

The Global Tribunal on Accountability for Women’s Human Rights

After decades of raising awareness on women's rights violations, organizers of the Global Tribunal sought to shift the focus from visibility of violence against women to accountability for those crimes. The tribunal marked the culmination of a series of hearings organized by CWGL and partner organizations entitled "From Vienna to Beijing: Building Human Rights Accountability to Women."

September 13, 1994

The Cairo Hearing on Reproductive Health and Human Rights

Organized by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) in collaboration with other organizations as the second tribunal after Vienna, the Cairo Hearing emphasized that a woman’s fundamental right to her health is a human right to bodily integrity that cannot be compromised by any actor claiming to have control over her body.

Preparing for the Vienna Conference

Regional movements and networks for women’s human rights challenged limited interpretations and applications of human rights, including at the official preparatory meetings for the Vienna Conference held by participating governments, where women sought to build momentum for the acceptance of women’s rights as human rights.

August 01, 1992

Mobilizations around Rape in Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

In August of 1992, international media began exposing the brutality of rape and forced pregnancy as weapons of war and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia – in the heart of Europe. In response to this pressure, the UN Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 1993 and the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR) in 1994. These became key venues for pursuing justice for crimes such as torture, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

December 09, 1992

First Global Public Hearing on ‘Comfort Women’

“The International Public Hearing Concerning Post-War Compensation of Japan,” held at Tokyo Panse Hall on Dec. 9, 1992 brought together “comfort women” and their supporters from several Asian countries, especially South Korea and the Philippines, where they had begun to speak out.

November 25, 1991

Global Campaign for Women’s Human Rights

A loose coalition of hundreds of women's organizations from around the world, the Global Campaign for Women’s Human Rights kicked off in 1991 with a petition calling for the recognition that violence against women violates human rights.

November 25, 1991

16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence Campaign was conceived as a strategy to build awareness about gender-based violence at the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute hosted by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) in 1991. The Campaign is an annual global movement calling attention to all forms of violence against women as human rights issues.