This special issue explores the strategies, tensions and challenges associated with ‘rights advocacy’ in a variety of settings. Articles on the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, East and South Asia explore the dilemmas that arise for feminist praxis in these diverse locations, and address the question of what rights can contribute to struggles for gender justice. They examine the intersection of formal rights with the everyday realities of women in settings characterised by entrenched gender inequalities and poverty, plural legal systems and diverse cultural norms that can constitute formidable obstacles to realising rights. They suggest that these sites of struggle can create new possibilities and meanings through a politics animated by demands for social and gender justice.