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

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.