‘Making the global local’: Insights from the cities for CEDAW (C4C) campaign in the United States

Abstract

In this article, I analyze the C4C campaign for insights about the multiscalar and multidirectional human rights activism and their consequences for gender justice. I find that the C4C campaigns have contributed to gender justice in two important ways. First, the campaigns have succeeded in passing CEDAW resolutions and ordinances at the city, county, and even the state level in the case of California and Oregon, showing the power of legalism from below to promote gender equity; second, it has developed, in collaboration with other local social justice movements, what I call a trans-local, intersectional human rights infrastructure that includes education and socialization of grassroots movements and local elected officials, using CEDAW principles and mechanisms for local and global activism, and coalition building. The campaigns, however, have also faced issues of sustainability, following the passage of the ordinance or resolution, and the lack of funding and follow through by cities that are confronted with budget cuts and other challenges such as the pandemic. Nonetheless, the trans-local, intersectional human rights infrastructure provides hope for the continued glocalization of human rights—that is, local implementation of global human rights standards.

Notes

1 I use the C4C campaign singular to refer to the national level movement and the plural to refer to C4C campaigns in different cities.

2 See http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm.

3 Every Woman Treaty is currently in the process of advocating for the addition of another optional protocol to CEDAW to specifically address violence against women. See https://everywoman.org/home/.

4 See https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R40750.html.

5 See http://citiesforcedaw.org/.

6 See https://sfgov.org/dosw/sites/default/files/Cities%20for%20CEDAW%20Top%20Achievements_031815.pdf.

7 The difference between an ordinance and resolution is defined by local statues and charters. Usually, an ordinance relates to legislative matters and a resolution to administrative tasks (Och, 2022).

8 See https://sfgov.org/dosw/sites/default/files/Cities%20for%20CEDAW%20Fact%20Sheet_0.pdf.

9 See https://unausa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/UNAWomenCEDAWToolkit.pdf?emci=05d81494-9cbc-eb11-a7ad-501ac57b8fa7&emdi=4a713dd8-70c5-eb11-a7ad-501ac57b8fa7&ceid=2749364).

10 See https://pandemic-journaling-project.chip.uconn.edu/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Manisha Desai

Manisha Desai is the Executive Director of Center for Changing Systems of Power and the Empowerment Trust Endowed Professor of Global Citizenship at Stony Brook University. Her areas of research and teaching include gender and globalization, transnational feminisms, global justice, particularly climate justice movements and human rights. Manisha’s current research includes women’s rights, land rights, and climate justice in India and NE United States. As a senior research associate of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Manisha is part of the Global Research & Action Network for a New Eco-Social Contract. She is on the Steering Committee of the Federation of Feminist Journal Editors that is seeking to establish a feminist knowledge commons outside commercial publishing to ensure the free circulation of feminist knowledge across borders and language barriers. Manisha was awarded the Sociologists for Women in Society’s 2015 Distinguished Feminist Award and received the 2016 Faculty Mentor Award from the Compact for Faculty Diversity in the U.S. She has served in many leadership capacities including as President of Sociologists for Women in Society.