Securing Justice for LGBTQ Rights: Meet Gay McDougall, Executive Director of Global Rights

Summary

Gay McDougall is the Executive Director of Global Rights Partners for Justice, a leading human rights organization. She has led initiatives for human rights, gender equity, and justice for over three decades. Her work has made a lasting contribution to the advancement of human rights, with a special focus on the rights of women and vulnerable minorities.


McDougall has held many important positions in international organizations, including the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and its Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights; the United Nations Human Rights Council; the International Labour Organization; and the International Council for Human Rights Policy.

McDougall began her career as a civil rights lawyer and activist in the United States. She was a founding board member of the Southern Poverty Law Center and was a key figure in the legal campaign that led to the landmark Fair Housing Act of 1968. She has held numerous positions in the non-profit sector and is currently the Executive Director of Global Rights Partners for Justice.

In 2009, McDougall was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work on behalf of human rights. She has served as a commissioner at the UN Commission on Human Rights and its Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights for many years, and in 2013 she was appointed UN Independent Expert on minority issues.

McDougall has been a tireless advocate for human rights, working to ensure access to justice, protect the rights of vulnerable minorities, and promote gender equity. Her work has had a lasting impact on the advancement of human rights around the world. Gay McDougall is a recognized leader in human rights and an inspiration to many.

Gay McDougall is the Executive Director of Global Rights Partners for Justice, a leading human rights organization. For over 30 years, McDougall has championed human rights, gender equity and justice. Her many accomplishments include helping pass the landmark Fair Housing Act of 1968 and being awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. She has also held important positions at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and its Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights; the United Nations Human Rights Council; the International Labour Organization; and the International Council for Human Rights Policy. McDougall is a respected leader in human rights, championing access to justice, protecting vulnerable minorities and promoting gender equity. Her work has had a lasting effect on the advancement of human rights globally.
 

Gay McDougall Executive Director of Global Rights: Partners for Justice

Gay McDougall is an internationally recognized civil rights attorney and advocate for human and women's rights. She is currently serving as executive director of the Global Rights: Partners for Justice program. Gay has worked tirelessly to defend the rights of individuals around the world, and has also fought for the protection of minorities here in the United States. Gay earned her B.A. from Wellesley College, and her J.D. from UCLA School of Law.
 

Gay McDougall's Career: Human Rights Activism

McDougall has been an advocate for human rights for decades, serving as an international human rights lawyer and advocate for marginalized groups in the United States. From 1993-1995, she was a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and was the first African American to serve on the UN's highest human rights body. She was also the first African American to be appointed to the legal advisory board of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights.
 

Gay McDougall and Global Rights: Partners for Justice

McDougall has been instrumental in the founding and establishment of the Global Rights: Partners for Justice program. This program works to advance the rights of individuals and their communities around the world, focusing on issues related to minority rights and discrimination. McDougall serves as its executive director, and has used her experience in international human rights to ensure that the program is successful in its mission.
 

McDougall's Contributions to International Human Rights

McDougall has made significant contributions to the cause of international human rights throughout her career. She has represented victims of human rights abuses in numerous countries, and has been involved in many successful efforts to bring attention to human rights issues. She has also been a strong advocate for the rights of minorities in the United States, and has used her influence to push for change in the areas of civil rights, voting rights, and immigration.

As a child, Gay McDougall was banned from many public places in Atlanta. When she finished high school, McDougall was chosen to be the first black student to integrate Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. The small liberal arts college for women had a prim, genteel reputation for educating proper "ladies."
 

"It was very, very difficult and very lonely," McDougall, 57, said of her time at Agnes Scott.

McDougall said she endured racism every day at Agnes Scott in subtle ways. "It was not a situation where there were crosses being burned on the lawn or people getting violent." McDougall stated. "They weren't ready for me, and I wasn't ready for them."

After two years, McDougall said she felt she had "served her time," so she transferred to another small college in Vermont. She was looking for a way to build a career around working for social justice and change. She chose the law.

As executive director of Global Rights, a human rights advocacy group with offices around the world, McDougall tackles injustice on a global level. Global Rights fights for gender equity, helps Afghan women analyze and lobby for changes in the Constitution, and battles extremist laws and religious fundamentalism around the world.

But initially, McDougall was more interested in the U.S. civil rights movement. Her international perspective evolved, and she realized the core problems of social marginalization and poverty are universal.

After graduating from Yale Law School, she joined the New York corporate law firm Debevoise, Plimpton, Lyons & Gates. Corporate work was never a dream for McDougall, but she says it's important for human rights lawyers to understand "the other side."

She spent two years studying the ways of the other side. She was the only African American in the firm and one of the only women. Throughout her career and college years, McDougall was paying close attention to the liberation movements in Africa, particularly in apartheid South Africa.

She said she often felt marginalized in corporate America because of her race and gender, something that has helped her to understand the people Global Rights tries to empower.

McDougall joined the National Conference of Black Lawyers after leaving Debevoise. It was at the NCBL that she realized she could have a future in international human rights law. The NCBL had non-governmental organization status at the United Nations, and McDougall became the group's representative to the United Nations.

"Our focus there was on decolonization issues, liberation issues in Africa primarily. Now that's something that I'd been involved in and interested in for a long time," she said, adding that she had raised money for liberation movements since her college years.

At the United Nations, "I began to see that there was actually a profession that was sort of connected with this. I started to work with people at the UN on these issues. That's what eventually made me decide to go back to school and further my skills in international law, particularly human rights law."

She earned her LL.M. at the London School of Economics, and she has been executive director of Global Rights since 1994.

About 50 percent of Global Rights staff is comprised of attorneys. Global Rights is known for helping to create gender equity laws and assisting people to become lawmakers and lobbyists for issues of equality.

"We believe that change - sustainable change - really depends on people inside countries creating the demand for change," she said. Ultimately, we've got to focus on the capacity of helping people inside countries become effective advocates for change."

Once Global Rights sets up a field office, the organization is in for the long haul. In Cambodia, for instance, the Khmer Rouge killed many of the country's attorneys (and many other educated people). Others were chased into exile, leaving the country in chaos. Global Rights has been working for more than a decade training legal services staff until a new generation of attorneys can fill the void.

In the case of South Africa, McDougall worked from afar; she was banned from traveling to the country during apartheid. But when apartheid finally crumbled and South Africans voted in their first fully democratic election in 1994, McDougall was there. She was one of 16 commissioners appointed to the Independent Electoral Commission. Only five IEC members were foreign, and McDougall was the only American.

Interestingly, McDougall says the field of international human rights law is overwhelmingly female. She guesses that maybe women are better at seeing victory long term, as in the case of South Africa's liberation. Victory for human rights lawyers and activists often does not come after a six-week trial.

"We did win in South Africa, and that's what gives me the confidence that in these other places we will," she said.

McDougall spends much of her time traveling the globe. At home, she is most concerned about the U.S. government's decision to start locking people up without charge or trial, thus creating a culture of fear.

McDougall says she is "underpaid and overworked" but blessed that she chose to leave Wall Street.

"I can't imagine that I could have had a more exciting and satisfying career. This has taken me right to the frontlines of a lot of human dramas," she said. "I've learned that there is a lot of suffering in the world, but right there is where you find all of the people who have an amazing wherewithal to overcome suffering, so you walk away with a net gain, in terms of inspiration and hope."