Janet Benshoof

Janet Benshoof (May 10, 1947 – December 18, 2017) was an American human rights lawyer and President and Founder of the Global Justice Center. She founded the Center for Reproductive Rights, the world's first international human rights organization focused on reproductive choice and equality.

Education and academia Benshoof received her B.A. in political science, summa cum laude, from the University of Minnesota in 1969,

She taught human rights law at Bard College and Harvard Law School and was a visiting lecturer at Yale, Columbia, Rutgers, Case Western Reserve, and Harvard Universities. which litigated cases dealing with gender equality, free speech, and reproductive choice. and advised women from Burma, Kurdistan, and Iraq on constitutional drafting.

Under her leadership, the Center obtained consultative status to the United Nations, developed legal projects in more than 40 countries, and won major cases in the US Supreme Court.

Publications Benshoof published numerous articles in the Harvard Law Review, The Journal of the American Medical Association, The New York University Journal of International Law and Policy, Issues in Science and Technology, Women's Health Issues, and Law Ka Pala, a Journal of The Burma Lawyers' Council.

In a 2016 piece in The New York Times, Benshoof argued that the United States should assume the lead in prosecuting ISIS fighters for genocide, writing, "Prosecution of ISIS crimes as genocide is both a legal and a moral obligation. American leadership to ensure that these prosecutions take place will reinforce the global values of diversity that ISIS is seeking to destroy."

Death Benshoof died at her Manhattan home in New York City on December 18, 2017, aged 70, from uterine serous carcinoma, an endometrial cancer, which had been diagnosed a month earlier, according to her son, David Benshoof Klein. Other survivors include her second husband, Alfred Meyer; another son from her first marriage, Eli Klein; and a sister. Her first marriage to Richard Klein, a law professor, ended in divorce. 1993 "Civil Liberties Heroine" Award, Freedom From Religion Foundation Edith I. Spivack Award for Outstanding New York Women Lawyers Planned Parenthood Federation of America Margaret Sanger Award Gloria Steinem Women of Vision Award "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America" in the National Law Journal