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Global Justice is a US-based non-governmental organization, founded in 2001 at Harvard University by undergraduate and graduate students. With several different issue campaigns, the organization has chapters on over 15 high school and college campuses across the country.
Global Justice's mission is to mobilize students and youth to be activists for a particular form of economic and social justice. According to its mission statement, "We produce an immediate impact by promoting policies that strengthen global communities, and long-term change by empowering young people to become global justice activists for life. We achieve these goals through student owned and led campaigns, leadership development, advocacy, and education."
Global Justice is based on student-driven, grassroots campaigns aimed to change the policies of governments and corporations. The Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC) was founded in 2001 with the goal of mobilizing a more effective and coordinated global response to the crisis of HIV/AIDS. The second campaign of Global Justice, the Student Campaign for Child Survival (SCCS), was founded in 2002 to focus international attention on the over 10 million children under five who die annually from preventable infectious diseases. A final campaign, the Student Trade Justice Campaign, is focused on changing international trade rules to promote workers' rights, preserve farmers' livelihoods, and widen access to lifesaving medicines.
The organization uses education, media work, and protest and has won several major victories since its foundation. Highlights include:
Public Citizen is a non-profit, progressive consumer rights advocacy group and think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas.
Youth activism is the participation in community organizing for social change by persons between the ages of 15–24. Youth activism has led to a shift in political participation and activism. A notable shift within youth activism is the rise of “Alter-Activism” resulting in an emphasis on lived experiences and connectivity amongst young activists. The young activists have taken lead roles in public protest and advocacy around many issues like climate change, abortion rights and gun violence. Different from past protest or advocacy, technology has become the backbone to many of these modern youth movements. It has been shown in multiple studies that internet use along with seeking information online is shown to have positive impacts on political engagement. Popular applications like Twitter, Instagram and YouTube have become the newest tools for young activists in the 21st century. Technology and the use of digital media has changed the way youth participate in activism globally, and youth are more active in media than older generations.
The Polaris Institute is a Canadian think tank based in Ottawa, Ontario. Its stated goal is "to help empower citizen movements towards democratic social change". It was formed in 1997 in response to its view that citizens were becoming politically disenfranchised in an age of corporate driven globalization.
ONE Campaign is an international, non-partisan, non-profitable advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa, by raising public awareness and pressuring political leaders to support policies and programs that save lives and improve futures.
Social movement unionism (SMU) is a trend of theory and practice in contemporary trade unionism. Strongly associated with the labour movements of developing countries, social movement unionism is distinct from many other models of trade unionism because it concerns itself with more than organizing workers around workplace issues, pay and terms and conditions. It engages in wider political struggles for human rights, social justice and democracy. Social movement unionism grew out of political struggles in developing countries and was theorized as a distinct industrial relations model in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is a Los Angeles-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization providing medicine and health care to individuals living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. As of 2020, it operates about 400 clinics, 64 outpatient healthcare centers, 48 pharmacies, and 20 Out of the Closet thrift stores across 15 US states and 38 countries, with more than 5,000 employees.
James Packard Love is the director of Knowledge Ecology International, formerly known as the Consumer Project on Technology, a non-governmental organization with offices in Washington, D.C. and Geneva, that works mainly on matters concerning knowledge management and governance, including intellectual property policy and practice and innovation policy, particularly as they relate to health care and access to knowledge.
The Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC) is an advocacy group with more than 85 chapters at high schools, colleges, and universities across the United States. The group is committed to bringing an end to HIV and AIDS in the U.S. and around the world, and uses a wide variety of tactics to achieve its goals, including education on campuses, letter-writing and calling campaigns to decision-makers, public demonstrations, media work, and other activist tactics.
Global Action for Children (GAC) was a highly effective nonpartisan coalition dedicated to improving the lives of orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world active from 2004 - 2010.
Paula Donovan is an American AIDS and women's rights activist. She is the co-executive director with Stephen Lewis of AIDS-Free World, an international advocacy organization that works to promote more urgent and effective global responses to HIV/AIDS. In recognition of her work in HIV/AIDS advocacy, Donovan received the Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice in 2005 and an alumni humanitarian award from Fairfield University in 2007.
Youthforce was an international youth network founded in 1999 to raise visibility around the impact of HIV/AIDS on youth.
Africa Action is a nonprofit organization that is based in Washington, D.C., working to change U.S.–Africa relations to promote political, economic and social justice in nations of Africa. They provide accessible information and analysis, and mobilize popular support for campaigns to achieve this mission.
“Think Positive” is a Lebanese association established in 2009 by young activists who have been working hard to serve their society by raising awareness among youths and marginalized groups. It started its activities with fighting HIV/AIDS, Drug Use, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Stigma and Discrimination. It has launched the regional campaign against HIV+ Phobia in collaboration with 10 partners at International, Regional and National levels and conducted many activities and projects under the main theme of the campaign.
Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the development of political and social systems.
The cost of HIV treatment is a complicated issue with an extremely wide range of costs due to varying factors such as the type of antiretroviral therapy and the country in which the treatment is administered. The first line therapy of HIV, or the initial antiretroviral drug regimen for an HIV-infected patient, is generally cheaper than subsequent second-line or third-line therapies. There is also a great variability of drug prices among low, middle, and high income countries. In general, low-income countries have the lowest cost of antiretroviral therapy, while middle- and high-income tend to have considerably higher costs. Certain prices of HIV drugs may be high and difficult to afford due to patent barriers on antiretroviral drugs and slow regulatory approval for drugs, which may lead to indirect consequences such as greater HIV drug resistance and an increased number of opportunistic infections. Government and activist movements have taken efforts to limit the price of HIV drugs.
The global justice movement is a network of globalized social movements demanding global justice by opposing what is often known as the “corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of economic resources.
Volodymyr Zhovtyak is a Ukrainian social activist and a human rights defender. He is one of the leaders of the movement of people living with HIV/AIDS in Ukraine, and in the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He is one of the founders of the national and international non-governmental organizations of PLWH, which collaborates with institutions of the United Nations, the European Union and the USA, as well as with the Cabinet of Ministers and the Presidential Administration of Ukraine.
Dr. Robert Carr was a Trinidadian scholar and human rights activist who dedicated his life to bringing public attention to issues related to stigma and discrimination against persons living with or affected by HIV/AIDS.
Kenyon Farrow is an American writer, activist, director, and educator focused on progressive racial and economic justice issues related to the LGBTQ community. He served as the executive director of Queers for Economic Justice, policy institute fellow with National LGBTQ Task Force, U.S. & Global Health Policy Director of Treatment Action Group, public education and communications coordinator for the New York State Black Gay Network, senior editor with TheBody.com and TheBodyPro.com, and co-executive director of Partners for Dignity and Rights. In 2021, Farrow joined PrEP4All as managing director of advocacy & organizing.
Social and political activism to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, as well as to raise funds for effective treatment and care of people with AIDS (PWAs), has taken place in multiple nations across the world since the 1980s. As a disease that began in marginalized populations, efforts to mobilize funding, treatment, and fight discrimination have largely been dependent on the work of grassroots organizers directly confronting public health organizations as well as politicians, drug companies, and other institutions.