CSW - Strategies and Struggles Across Movement-Based Organizing

Stories from the Frontlines: Strategies and Struggles Across Movement-Based Organizing

Three decades since the historic Beijing World Conference on Women, what are the pressing lessons for this political moment from front-line and community organizers? The Institute on Gender, Law, and Transformative Peace at the City University of New York (CUNY) will host a Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) side event on key strategies, tensions, and achievements of intersecting front-line justice movements from those most impacted. Co-sponsored with the Nobel Women’s Initiative, MADRE, and the Haitian Bridge Alliance, Stories from the Frontlines: Strategies and Struggles Across Movement-Based Organizing will feature a public panel elevating first-hand experiences and human-centric stories that too often are discounted on the world stage — yet are critical for these times. This dynamic discussion will feature movement leaders, policymakers, and advocates exploring strategies at the intersections of pro democracy movements, climate, and racial and gender justice. 

The event will be held on March 13, 2025 at 10:30 am ET at the Church Center of the United Nations, 10^th Floor (777 United Nations Plaza, NY, NY 10017).

Register HERE to attend this in-person event

SPEAKER LIST 

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee 

Executive Director, Institute on Gender, Law, and Transformative Peace

Leymah Gbowee, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Prize laureate, is a peace activist, trained social worker, and women’s rights advocate. Ms. Gbowee’s leadership of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace—which brought together Christian and Muslim women in a non-violent movement that played a pivotal role in ending Liberia’s civil war in 2003—is chronicled in her memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers, and in the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell. Ms. Gbowee is the Executive Director of the Institute on Gender, Law, and Transformative Peace at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law; Ms. Gbowee is also the founder of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, a member of Nobel Women's Initiative, the founding head of the Liberia Reconciliation Initiative, and the co-founder and former Executive Director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-A). She is also a founding member and former Liberian Coordinator of Women in Peacebuilding Network/West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WIPNET/WANEP). A global thought leader and international facilitator for peace, Ms. Gbowee has been widely recognized for her leadership, including as one of the 100 Most Influential African Women by Avance Media, one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy, by Apolitical, and one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders, by Fortune Magazine.

Guerline M. Jozef 

Founder and Executive Director, Haitian Bridge Alliance 

Guerline M. Jozef is a leading human rights advocate, thought leader, and strategist who dedicates her life to bringing awareness to issues that affect us all locally and globally, such as immigration, domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and other human rights issues. Ms. Jozef is the Founder & Executive Director of the Haitian Bride Alliance, the only Black-led, woman-led, Haitian-American-led organization serving migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border with offices in Tapachula, Tijuana and San Diego focusing people of African Descent in migration and beyond. She is the creator of “Tales from the Borderlands and beyond” as well as the co-founder of the Black Immigrants Bail Fund (BIBF) and the Co-Founder of the Cameroon Advocacy Network. She has been featured in Forbes Magazine and has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico, Time Magazine, The Miami Herald, Democracy Now, and many other publications. Ms. Jozef has been recognized widely for her work, including most recently as one of the BBC’s 2024 100 Most Influential Women List, as well as the recipient of the Haitian Impact Awards’ 2024 Humanitarian Impact Award.  

Cathy Albisa 

Vice-President of Institutional and Sectoral Change, Race Forward 

Cathy Albisa is a constitutional and human rights lawyer currently working as the Vice President of Institutional and Sectoral Change at Race Forward, leading the nonprofit racial justice organization’s work with government and government institutions at the federal, regional, and local levels across sectors. She also serves on the Human Rights Commission in New York City and has published widely on economic and social rights, racial and gender justice, and human rights. Ms. Albisa is the co-founder and former Executive Director of Partners for Dignity & Rights (formerly NESRI), a social movement organization that supports community groups across the country in their campaigns for structural change. She has also been a Director at the Center for Economic and Social Rights, an Associate Director at the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School, a Co-director at the Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic at CUNY Law School, and a Constitutional Rights Litigator at the ACLU and the Center for Reproductive Rights. In addition, Ms. Albisa has served in the leadership of boards of directors such as the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, and the Center for Social Inclusion.

Cindy Kobei

Chair and Founder of Tirap Youth Trust

Cindy Kobei is a young Indigenous leader from the Ogiek community of the Mau Forest in Kenya. She is a Trainee Advocate at the Kenya School of Law and serves as the Chair and Founder of Tirap Youth Trust (formerly Ogiek Youth Council), an Indigenous youth-led organization focused on environmental conservation and climate justice.

She works closely with Indigenous girls and youth to restore their ancestral home, the Mau Forest, while raising awareness about climate change. Cindy was also recognized as a 2022 Max Thabiso Edkins Climate Ambassador for her contributions to environmental advocacy.

Aya Chebbi (moderator) 

Founder and President, Nala Feminist Collective! 

Aya Chebbi is a Tunisian Pan-African feminist, diplomat, and activist committed to the liberation and empowerment of African women and girls. In 2018, she made history as the African Union's first Special Envoy on Youth, serving until 2021 as the youngest diplomat in the African Union Commission Chairperson's Cabinet. During her tenure, she engaged with more than 30 heads of state and over 190 global leaders, driving significant policy changes and amplifying youth representation across the continent.

Chebbi has been a powerful force in mobilizing young women, leading to the creation of the groundbreaking political document, the Africa Young Women Beijing+25 Manifesto (AYMB+25 Manifesto). She also founded the Nala Feminist Collective, the first of its kind, bringing together African feminists from politics and activism to champion transformative leadership.