About the Institute

About the Women's Global Leadership Institute

At the heart of CWGL’s work lies the Women’s Global Leadership Institute (WGLI), the first project designed and implemented shortly after CWGL opened its doors in 1989. An intensive, two-week residential program at CWGL’s facilities at Rutgers University, each Institute enables up to 25 women from all regions of the world to become more effective women’s human rights leaders in policy and practice. There are about ten applicants for each available space. During the Institutes, participants: engage in discussions of human rights issues; develop local and global strategies; attend workshops on women’s leadership, United Nations structure and operation, and human rights education. They also exchange ideas with resource people and CWGL staff on fundraising, strategic planning, and understanding and dealing with diversity.

Please continue to visit our website for announcements of future leadership development activities and updates on CWGL's projects and events. Click here to view other leadership development opportunities for women's human rights activists.

Regional and Thematic Institutes

Recognizing the particular needs of a geographic region or a common-cultural group, CWGL works in partnership with other organizations to organize leadership Institutes. In 1998 (Istanbul, Turkey) and 1999 (Lagos, Nigeria), Institutes were held in collaboration with the International Solidarity Network of Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), providing training on women’s human rights concepts and practices, as well as leadership and organizational skills to women from twenty countries. CWGL is planning with partner organizations for regional institutes that would take place in the next few years.

• Feminism in the Muslim World Leadership Institutes, Istanbul, Turkey: September 14-26, 1998; and Lagos, Nigeria: October 25-November 5, 1999
  Co-organized by CWGL and Women Living Under Muslim Laws International Solidarity Network (WLUML), the first two "Feminism in the Muslim WOrld Leadership Institutes" took place in 1998 in Istabul, Turkey and in 1999 in Lagos, Nigeria. These two week intensive residential institutes drew on CWGL's expertise in the area of leadership enhancement and human rights while emphasizing WLUMLS's chosen themes: global solidarity and networking; the issue of diversity and commonalities within the Muslim world; and feminist organizing for human rights education in Muslim countries and communities. To view the PDF version of the report that was published, click here.
• Central and Eastern European Regional Women's Leadership Institute, Warsaw, Poland: October 21-November 1, 2002
  The Center for Women's Global Leadership joined the national Women's Information Center of Poland (OSKa) and the Center for Russian, Central and Eastern European Studies of Rutgers University in organizing a leadership institute that brought together 21 women leaders from 16 countries in the region. The participants coming from Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Georgia, Kosovo, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Tajikistan and Ukraine were women who have been working on a variety of human rights issues such as violence against women, sexual and reproductive health and rights, trafficking in women, minority women's rights, etc. The first week of the institute focused on broad issues such as: feminism and the human rights movement, the UN human rights framework, economic and social rights, health and reproductive rights and violence against women. The second week focused on issues of regional political and economic integration and advocacy skills building. A highlight of the two-week institute was an evening of discussion with more than 20 women leaders of Polish NGOs looking at current challenges facing feminism, inter-generational issues in the movement and U.S. policies on globalization and war. For more information, visit http://www.oska.org.pl/english/instytut/index.html.