Adolfo Lujan | Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Mass demonstration in Madrid on International Women's Day
Multitudinaria manifestación en Madrid en el día internacional de la mujer

Priority Areas

Supporting feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements to thrive, to be a driving force in challenging systems of oppression, and to co-create feminist realities.

Advancing Universal Rights and Justice

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Uprooting Fascisms and Fundamentalisms

Across the globe, feminist, women’s rights and gender justice defenders are challenging the agendas of fascist and fundamentalist actors. These oppressive forces target women, persons who are non-conforming in their gender identity, expression and/or sexual orientation, and other oppressed communities.

Discriminatory ideologies are undermining and co-opting our human rights systems and standards,  with the aim of making rights the preserve of only certain groups. In the face of this, the Advancing Universal Rights and Justice (AURJ) initiative promotes the universality of rights - the foundational principle that human rights belong to everyone, no matter who they are, without exception.

We create space for feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements and allies to recognize, strategize and take collective action to counter the influence and impact of anti-rights actors. We also seek to advance women’s rights and feminist frameworks, norms and proposals, and to protect and promote the universality of rights.

Our actions

Through this initiative, we:

  • Build knowledge: We support feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements by disseminating and popularizing knowledge and key messages about anti-rights actors, their strategies, and impact in the international human rights systems through AWID’s leadership role in the collaborative platform, the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs)*.
  • Advance feminist agendas: We ally ourselves with partners in international human rights spaces including, the Human Rights Council, the Commission on Population and Development, the Commission on the Status of Women and the UN General Assembly.
  • Create and amplify alternatives: We engage with our members to ensure that international commitments, resolutions and norms reflect and are fed back into organizing in other spaces locally, nationally and regionally.
  • Mobilize solidarity action: We take action alongside women human rights defenders (WHRDs) including trans and intersex defenders and young feminists, working to challenge fundamentalisms and fascisms and call attention to situations of risk.  

 

Related Content

Type

I have written a paper about an issue related to Women’s Rights and Development. How can I share it with AWID’s members?

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Juli Dugdale

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Category
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Region
Pacific
Date of death / disappearance
Cause of death / disappearance

Natural

Juli Dugdale was an Australian feminist who practiced intergenerational leadership rooted in principles of feminism, inclusion and equality. She was a leader, peer and mentor for many women and especially young women around the world. 

Juli was a dedicated staff member, volunteer and fervent advocate for young women’s leadership with the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) movement for over 30 years.

She offered a strong link between the Australian movement and the World YWCA Office. Her trust in the leadership capacity of young women led to a multi-year partnership with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the creation of the Rise Up manual, a global guide for young women’s transformative leadership, launched in 2018.

Juli passed away in Geneva on 12 August 2019.

Tributes:

“For those who got to work with Juli, it was a privilege. For those who didn’t, be assured that her legacy continues in the work we do every day and in the mission of the YWCA movement.” - YWCA Australia

“Juli Dugdale will forever hold a deep place in many people's hearts in the YWCA movement, especially here in Aotearoa and across the Pacific. Juli had a special relationship with the Pacific and was an incredible supporter of the young women there. She was humble, gracious, loving, caring, dedicated, passionate and had a generous heart. She embodied the YWCA's vision of 'transformative leadership' with extraordinary vision and foresight, and helped empower generations of young women leaders around the world.” - YWCA New Zealand

لم أسافر من قبل. ماذا يجب أن أعرف؟

نحن نعلم أن السفر لأول مرة يمكن أن يكون مثيرًا ولكنه مرهق أيضًا. وإدراكًا للتحديات العديدة التي ينطوي عليها الأمر، سنقدم المزيد من المعلومات والتفاصيل حول كيفية الوصول إلى بانكوك عندما يتم فتح التسجيل في أوائل العام المقبل.

April 2015: Interactive hearings with the business sector and civil society take place

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Informal interactive hearings with the business sector and civil society took place on 8 and 9 April 2015 respectively at UN headquarters in New York.

  • Women’s rights organizations and other CSOs raised concern about the limited participation of Member States during the CSO hearings and thus the Addis Ababa CSO Coordinating Group (ACG) issued a letter to the Co-facilitators
  • The second drafting session of the Addis Ababa outcome document was held from 13 – 17 April 2015 at the UN Headquarters. The basis of discussion was the Zero Draft.
  • The WWG on FfD presented recommendations on the FfD themes to Member States in different official sessions and side events. Among the key areas of concern for women was the fact that the zero draft did not give sufficient emphasis to the enormous, negative impacts of financial crises caused by instability in international financial systems on development, equality and human rights, particularly women’s human rights.

Lorena Borjas

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Category
LGBTQI Rights
Region
North America
Date of birth
Date of death / disappearance
Cause of death / disappearance

Disease

Lorena Borjas, a trans Latina woman and activist, lived and worked in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, New York City. In those streets, she looked after her community for years, advocating for trans and immigrant rights, supporting survivors of human trafficking and abuse, campaigning for sex workers’ rights and those of people living with HIV and AIDS.

Lorena was strong and tireless in her fight to support, defend, and have the back of those most marginalized and discriminated by transphobia, misogyny and racism. 

“She pushed us to shine authentically, to become a scream of subversion that says, ‘I am here, and I deserve happiness, too.’” - Cecilia Gentili, a trans activist and Lorena’s friend

Having faced numerous traumas and hardships herself, as a trans immigrant woman and victim of human trafficking, Lorena pulled knowledge and emotional memory from the well of her experiences in order to help build and strengthen the community she was part of and which was part of her. Some of the ways she did this was to organize and mobilize support ranging from providing condoms and connecting trans women to different services, to setting up an HIV testing clinic in her own home. 

"She was such a beautiful soul who helped others when her journey was difficult and painful as an immigrant, as a trans immigrant. She believed the trans community needed love, acceptance, and compassion, and she gave it all.” - Luchia Dragosh, QPTV Supervising producer of a documentary about Lorena 

In more than 25 years of activism, she also founded the Lorena Borjas Community Fund together with Chase Strangio (lawyer and trans rights activist). The Fund helps the many different members of her community (and especially trans persons) dealing with immigration challenges to avoid the cycle of arrest-jail-deportation. 

Lorena passed away in March 2020 of complications from COVID-19. 

Her enormous and beautiful legacy will be taken forward through the streets of Queens by the network and community she co-created. 

“We will pick up her work where she left it, work that is essential to the well-being of “mis pajaras” as she called the trans girls of Queens under her wing.” - Cecilia Gentili 

Tributes: 

"Lorena brought light to us when we were living through a very dark time here in New York. She brought us light when we were dealing with the crack epidemic, when we were dealing with the AIDS crisis, dealing with changes in immigration policies." - Cristina Herrera, founder and CEO of Translatina Network and Lorena’s friend

"Lorena has done more than anyone else I know to shine a light on the epidemic of trafficking in transgender communities and to help other trans women escape exploitation."  - Lynly Egyes (represented Borjas on behalf of the Transgender Law Center)

Watch a documentary about Lorena Borjas 

Read a postscript in The New Yorker about Lorena Borjas 

Read an opinion piece in the New York Times by Cecilia Gentilin

คำถามของฉันยังไม่ได้ถูกตอบจากข้อมูลนี้

หากคำถามเพิ่มเติมอื่นๆ กรุณาติดต่อเรา เราจะอัปเดทเนื้อหานี้อยู่เสมอจากคำถามต่างๆที่เราได้รับจากคุณ

How can I fund my participation in the AWID Forum? Many activists will not be able to afford the cost of the Forum – is AWID doing anything to provide assistance?

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Please visit the "Funding ideas" page to get some ideas and inspiration for how you can fund your participation at the next Forum, including the limited support AWID will be able to provide.

Snippet - CSW68 - Challenging Corporate Power - EN

Challenging Corporate Power

to Reduce Poverty & Strengthen Human Rights

📅Wednesday, March 13 🕒10.30am-12pm EST
Organisers: AWID, ESCR-Net, Franciscan International, Womankind Worldwide as part of Feminists For a Binding Treaty
🏢 Church Center of the United Nations, 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, 11th Floor

Events

Series of conversations: The Feminist Realities journey continues

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Why should I take it now?

A monochromatic orange illustration of a woman with curly hair with her hand on her chin. She seems to inquisitive or posing a question.

Feminist, women’s rights, gender justice, LBTQI+ and allied movements around the world are at a critical juncture, facing a powerful backlash on previously-won rights and freedoms. Recent years have brought the rapid rise of authoritarianism, violent repression of civil society, criminalization of women and gender-diverse human rights defenders, escalating war and conflict in many parts of our world, continued perpetuation of economic injustices, and the intersecting health, ecology and climate crises.

Jobs Board

Closed: Request for Proposal: AWID Website Redesign & Restructure

Our group, organization and/or movement is not registered, should we take the survey anyway?

Absolutely, we want to hear about your experience with resourcing.

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How much time does the survey take to complete?

The estimated time to complete the survey is 30 minutes.

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News

Beyond Belém: Stories of the Global Resistance Hubs for Climate Justice

Source: Global Voices, Global resistance beyond COP30

Snippet - Intro WITM - PT

Com base na nossa história de 20 anos de mobilização de mais fundos de melhor qualidade para a mudança social liderada por feministas, a AWID convida a participar da nova edição da nossa pesquisa principal:

"Onde está o dinheiro para a organização feminista?"

(WITM)

PARTICIPE NO INQUÉRITO!Veja o tutorial

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Test Page

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Some English aside content

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لجعل الواقع المركّب لتمويل الأشكال المختلفة من التنظيم النسوي، مرئي