Chandrika Sharma
Advancing Universal Rights and Justice
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
May 2015: Consultations on the Draft Outcome document are held
Additional consultation sessions on the Draft Outcome Document
- On 7 May, the revised outcome document for the 3rd FfD conference in Addis was released by the co-facilitators
- In support of continued progress on the Outcome Document, ad hoc additional sessions for consultations on the Draft Outcome Document took place from 12-15 May 2015 and 26-29 May 2015 at UN headquarters in New York
لا أشعر بالراحة لمشاركة اسمي او اسم مجموعتي، منظمتي و\ أو حركتي مع AWID, هل أستطيع مع ذلك تعبئة الاستطلاع؟
طبعاً! هذه الأسئلة اختيارية. نقدّر جداً حقكم بالسرية. الرجاء تعبئة الاستطلاع دون علاقة بقراركم/ن بمشاركة اسم المجموعة، المنظمة أو الحركة أو تفاصيل التواصل معكم/ن.
Do I have to be an AWID member to participate in the Forum?
No, you don't have to be an AWID member to participate but AWID members receive a discounted registration fee as well as a number of other benefits.
Могу ли я поделиться информацией об опросе с другими?
Да, пожалуйста! Мы просим распространить ссылку на опрос среди своих коллег по сети. Чем больше различных точек зрения мы соберем, тем более полным будет наше понимание финансового положения феминистских организаций.
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Register for the Forum!
When people come together on a global scale, as individuals and movements, we generate a sweeping force. Join us in Bangkok, Thailand and online in December 2024.
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Feminist Solidarity Space
✉️ By registration for larger groups. Drop-ins for smaller groups. Register here
📅 Wednesday, March 12, 2025
🕒 2.00-4.00pm EST
🏢 Chef's Kitchen Loft with Terrace, 216 East 45th St 13th Floor New York
Organizer: AWID
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AWID’s Who Can Fund Me? Database
Regularly updated and searchable directory of 200+ funders across different sectors and regions that support vital gender justice work.
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Movement in focus:
Filter your search by funders’ priority support areas that speak to your organizing efforts
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AWID Forum Social Media Kit
Help spread word about the 2016 AWID Forum!
This kit includes sample messages fit for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, plus images that can be used to accompany these messages.
Using this kit is simple. Just follow these steps:
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Match up your favourite messages and images any way you like.
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Share them on your personal and/or professional social media accounts.
And that’s it – now you can get started!
Match up your favourite tweets below with these images for Twitter
Tweets for your personal handle
I'm going to the #AWIDForum. It's THE place to connect with women's rights & social justice movements. Join me!: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Can't wait to re-imagine #FeministFutures connect with other women's rights & social justice activists @ the #AWIDForum Join me!: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
I’m so excited to attend the #AWIDForum next September, and now we can register! Join me! http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Tweets for your institutional handle
Registration is now open for the #AWIDForum! Costa do Sauípe, Brazil, 8-11 Sept. 2016: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Join #AWIDForum, a historic global gathering of women's rights & social justice activists: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Join #AWIDForum to celebrate the gains of our movements & analyze lessons to move forward: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
#AWIDForum – not just an event, a chance to disrupt oppression & advance justice: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Join the #AWIDForum to celebrate, strategize and renew ourselves and our movements: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Feminist Futures
Let's build #FeministFutures together. Register for 2016 #AWIDForum. Costa do Sauípe, Brazil http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Join us to re-imagine & co-create #FeministFutures at the 2016 #AWIDForum. Register: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
#FeministFutures: seize the moment @ #AWIDForum to advance shared visions for a just world: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
We’ll be 2,000 social movement activists @ the #AWIDForum, strategizing our #FeministFutures http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Cross-movement building
We’re more than a one-issue struggle. Join us at the #AWIDForum: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Join #AWIDForum, a space to strategize across movements & leverage our collective power: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Mobilize solidarity & collective power across social movements at the #AWIDForum: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Break the silos b/w our movements. Re-imagine & co-create our futures. All at the #AWIDForum: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Solidarity is a verb. Let’s put it into action at the #AWIDForum: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Special messages
Donors engaging with women’s rights and social movements at the #AWIDForum: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Media and movements: amplifying #FeministFutures at the #AWIDForum: http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Match up your favourite messages below with these images for Facebook.
These messages may also be used on Twitter via private Direct Messages, which don’t have character limits.
Facebook messages for your personal profile
The wait is over! We can all register for the 2016 AWID Forum. So excited to reconnect with fellow activists and re-imagine our feminist futures. See you there, in Brazil! http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
I’m so excited to attend the AWID Forum next September, and now we can register! Join me! http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Loving the thought of re-imagining feminist futures with 2,000 people from lots of amazing women's rights and social justice movements at the AWID Forum. Register and meet me in Brazil! http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
I’m so excited to attend the AWID Forum next September, and now we can register! Join me! http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Loving the thought of re-imagining feminist futures with 2,000 people from lots of amazing women's rights and social justice movements at the AWID Forum. Register and meet me in Brazil! http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Facebook messages for your organization’s page
Registration is now open for the 2016 AWID Forum in Costa do Sauípe, Brazil! This is not just any event - it’s a key space for women’s rights and social justice activists to come together and re-imagine our feminist futures. You won’t want to miss it! http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Join us at the 2016 AWID Forum in Brazil! Activists and movements from all over the world will come together to celebrate, strategize, inspire and renew ourselves and our collective struggles. Register now! http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
The 2016 AWID Forum will be a historic global gathering of women’s rights and social justice activists and movements. Join us there to break the silos, strengthen solidarity and leverage our collective power. Register now! http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Join us at the 2016 AWID Forum in Brazil! Activists and movements from all over the world will come together to celebrate, strategize, inspire and renew ourselves and our collective struggles. Register now! http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
The 2016 AWID Forum will be a historic global gathering of women’s rights and social justice activists and movements. Join us there to break the silos, strengthen solidarity and leverage our collective power. Register now! http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
The 2016 AWID Forum will be a historic global gathering of women’s rights and social justice activists and movements. Join us to celebrate, strategize, inspire and renew ourselves and leverage our collective power. Registration is now open! http://forum.awid.org/forum16/
Leyla Seylemez
Our Vision: Economic Justice in a Feminist World
As feminists struggling for gender, peace, economic, social and environmental justice, we know there is no single recipe for success but an array of possibilities that can and are making change happen. The menu of options is as diverse as our movements and the communities in which we live and struggle.
Before we dare to present some of the feminist imaginations for another world, here are the principles around which we base our propositions:
1. Self-determined development from the local to the global
We believe there is no one model for all and that everyone has a right to claim and contribute to building another world that is possible, as the World Social Forum motto puts it.
This includes the right to participate in democratic governance and to influence one’s future – politically, economically, socially and culturally.
Economic self-determination gives peoples the ability to take control over their natural resources and use those resources for their own ends or collective use. Furthermore, women’s economic agency is fundamental to mitigating the often cyclical nature of poverty, denial of education, safety, and security.
2. Rights, substantive equality and justice are at the core of the economy
The principle of substantive equality is laid out in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and other international human rights instruments. This principle is fundamental for development and achieving a just economy as it affirms that all human beings are born free and equal.
Non-discrimination is an integral part of the principle of equality that ensures that no one is denied their rights because of factors such as race, gender, language, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property or birth.
The inherent dignity of all persons without distinction must be upheld and respected. While States are responsible for ensuring the use of maximum available resources for the fulfilment of human rights, reclaiming rights and dignity is fundamentally a key space for civil society struggle and popular mobilization.
3. Just distribution for all, without monopolization (the anti-greed principle)
This principle, exercised through organized efforts to transform unjust institutions, guides the restoration of balance between "participation" (input) and "distribution" (output) when either principle is violated.
It puts limits on monopolistic accumulations of capital and other abuses of property. This concept is founded on an economy model that is based on fairness, and justice.
4. Feminist and cross-movement solidarity is key
In order to make change happen, we need strong and diverse feminist networks. We need movements building solidarity from the personal to the political, from the local to the global and back.
Building collective power through movements helps convert the struggle for human rights, equality and justice into a political force for change that cannot be ignored.
“Only movements can create sustained change at the levels that policy and legislation alone cannot achieve.”
See more on this at Batliwala, S: 2012 “Changing Their World. Concepts and Practices of Women’s Movements” 2nd Edition. AWID
See also
Adaluz Monterrey Eden
