The Women's Institute for Leadership Development for Human Rights used the United Nations Convention to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to advocate for human rights at the local level.  Although CEDAW has not been ratified by the United States and thus cannot be invoked, WILD for Human Rights decided to apply it at the local level, in San Francisco, as a tool to combat issues such as discrimination and domestic violence.  They implemented CEDAW as a legislated municipal law with the exact wording of CEDAW; thus making it binding legally.  An open meeting was held where community members could publicly record personal testimony, statements, and pledges to uphold these rights.  The public meeting served to help connect the language to the community in a way that people would hold themselves to the standards expressed in CEDAW.  This local legislation presents a unique example of taking international human rights treaty terms and applying them at the local level to community issues.

The NGO PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) and Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, Kenya's largest women's organization, have developed alternative rites of passage for girls.  These new rituals preserve many traditional aspects of the coming of age ritual but prohibit physical harm to girls.  The program employs Kenyan women to frankly inform school girls of FGC's physical effects.  Since mose of the Kenyan women have experienced FGC, their message has a powerful influence on the school girls.  At the same time, the local trainers approach parents of young girls and discuss the affect of FGC on their daughters' economic future.  With the option of an alternative ritual, many parents and their daughters' are choosing the non-FGC coming of age ceremony, honoring cultural traditions without sacrificing the girl's rights to health and economic opportunity.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is a powerful legal instrument for articulating, advocating, and monitoring women's human rights.  Until the mid-nineties, the UN was not open to the voices of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).  Now, however, NGOs play a vital role in making the Convention an instrument of women's empowerment, through advo

During the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, communications links across former republics and with the outside world were severed.  In 1994, Zenska Infoteka, a women’s information and documentation center in Zagreb, created an electronic news group for women, many of whom had already been working together on peace, humanitarian and other related issues.  Each month electronic conferences were held in local languages.  At its peak in 1997, more than a thousand messages were posted.  While discussion of difficult topics was limited, this communication system provided a central communication point for women’s rights activists.

The Coalition on Violence against Women (COVAW) engages chiefs and other local leaders to become women’s rights advocates and resources for victims. The program was formed because of the lack of women’s rights advocates for women who have been subjected to violence. Women who have been abused usually turn either to local hospitals/clinics or to their chiefs. However, none of these groups were able to adequately meet the women’s needs and the Coalition on Violence Against Women wanted to change this.  In order to increase the resources available to women, COVAW worked with local chiefs to educate them on women's rights and their own responsibilities within the community to support women.  After a series of workshops, local chiefs became monitors and reporters. They now write down specific information relating to the cases of abuse and what steps they have taken to resolve the situation. Once each month they report to the Coalition, during COVAW site visits.

Established in 1989, Africa Network for Integrated Development (RADI) employs female paralegals and well-known actors to demystify laws around violence against women by using educational theater routines.  RADI first recognized the need for legal education following national civil law reform in 1999 that gave recourse to vulnerable people (i.e., women and children).  The tactic involves role-play activities that focus on real-life situations and highlight the dynamics of family violence. After the theater sketches, the paralegal presents participants with new changes in civil rights law and alternative behaviors to address violence against women.  The actors, on the other hand, creatively develop dialogue, plot and presentation. Women who have attended these performances go back into their communities and homes and share new information about their legal rights with others.  In particular, many women promote the sketches by word of mouth, noting the fun and creativity experienced by working with well-known actors.

The Mongolian government, with the financial help of UNESCO and the Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA), utilized non-formal distance education tools such as the radio, printed materials, and visiting teachers in its Gobi Women’s project, which took place from 1992 to 1997, to reach out to marginalized and vulnerable Gobi women and enable them to acquire skills and practices needed for their survival during economic and political transition.  This tactic provided needed opportunities that without them, would have led to the desperation and downfall of the Gobi women, given the major political and social transition occurring in the country.