Benjaline Hernandez
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.
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كلمة العدد
فقدان الكلام
عندما يصبح عملنا المتجسّد مادةً ربحية في أيدي الأنظمة التي نسعى إلى إزالتها فلا عجب أنّ جنسانيّاتنا وملذّاتنا توضَع جانباً من جديد، لا سيّما أنّها ليست مُربِحة بما فيه الكفاية. لقد تساءلنا، في مواقف عدّة خلال إنتاج هذا العدد، ما الذي سيحدث إذا رفضنا مراعاة خدمات الرأسمالية الأساسية؟ لكن هل نجرؤ على هذا التساؤل وقد أنهكنا العالم؟ ربما يتمّ تجاهل جنسانيّاتنا بهذه السهولة لأنها لا تُعتَبَر أشكالاً من أشكال الرعاية. ربما ما نحتاجه هو أن نعيد تصوّر الملذّة كشكلٍ من أشكال الرعاية الجذرية، تكون أيضاً مناهضة للرأسمالية وللمؤسساتية.
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Explore the Database now!
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الصياغات النسوية للرسائل النصّية ذات المحتوى الجنسي:الدُّعابة الجنسانيّة في فضاء الثورة النسوية الرقمية
تشينيلو أونوالو
في الثاني من أيلول/ سبتمير 2021، التمّ شمل مجموعة رائعة من الناشطات النسويات والمناديات بالعدالة الاجتماعية ضمن فعاليات مهرجان (AWID Crear | Résister | Transform). لم يقتصر هدف اجتماعهنّ على مشاركة استراتيجيات المقاومة وعمليات الابتكار الخلّاقة المشتركة التي ترمي إلى تغيير العالم. لقد اجتمعت الناشطات ليتبادلن الغزَل الإباحي على «تويتر».
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Ika Vantiani
Ika Vantiani is an Indonesian artist, curator and crafter based in Jakarta. Her works explores the idea of being a woman in today’s society with the intertwined between media and consumption. Ika uses the discipline of collage and expands it into workshop, installation, and street art. Ika is the member of artist collectives including Micro Galleries, The Collage Club and It’s In Your Hands Collective.
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Where is the Money for Feminist Organizing? Survey Results
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Stay tuned for the upcoming report for more analysis!
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As world leaders gather in Brazil, it’s vital that feminist movements especially from the Global Majority have autonomous spaces to gather, strategize, and disrupt.
These Hubs challenge the elitism of climate talks, center lived experiences, and aim to build collective power across borders. They offer a critical counterbalance to top-down, often exclusionary international negotiations. The Hubs aim to foster community-driven solutions, amplify feminist demands, and ensure that feminist principles of care and solidarity shape the climate agenda. It’s not just about being present at COP30, it’s about reshaping the conversation on climate justice on feminist terms.
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Où est l’argent ? Un plaidoyer documenté pour soutenir les organisations féministe
Ce rapport révèle la réalité du financement des organisations féministes et de défense des droits des femmes dans un contexte de bouleversements politiques et financiers. S’appuyant sur plus de dix ans d’analyse depuis la dernière étude Où est l’argent ? de l’AWID (Arroser les feuilles, affamer les racines), il dresse un bilan des progrès réalisés, des lacunes persistantes et des menaces croissantes dans le domaine du financement féministe.
Le rapport salue le pouvoir des initiatives menées par les mouvements pour façonner le financement selon leurs propres conditions, tout en alertant sur les coupes massives dans l’aide au développement, le recul de la philanthropie et l’escalade des offensives anti-droits.
Il appelle les bailleurs de fonds à investir massivement dans l’organisation féministe, infrastructure essentielle pour la justice et la libération, et invite les mouvements à réimaginer des modèles de financement audacieux et autodéterminés, fondés sur le soin, la solidarité et le pouvoir collectif.
Le rapport sera bientôt disponible
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AWID Membership Booth: Resist, Rest, Reimagine
📅 Throughout | April 27 - 30
🏢 Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Booth B17
Human Rights Council (HRC)
The Human Rights Council (HRC) is the key intergovernmental body within the United Nations system responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe. It holds three regular sessions a year: in March, June and September. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is the secretariat for the HRC.
The HRC works by:
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Debating and passing resolutions on global human rights issues and human rights situations in particular countries
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Examining complaints from victims of human rights violations or activist organizations on behalf of victims of human rights violations
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Appointing independent experts (known as “Special Procedures”) to review human rights violations in specific countries and examine and further global human rights issues
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Engaging in discussions with experts and governments on human rights issues
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Assessing the human rights records of all UN Member States every four and a half years through the Universal Periodic Review
AWID works with feminist, progressive and human rights partners to share key knowledge, convene civil society dialogues and events, and influence negotiations and outcomes of the session.
With our partners, our work will:
◾️ Monitor, track and analyze anti-rights actors, discourses and strategies and their impact on resolutions
◾️ Raise awareness of the findings of the 2017 and 2021 OURs Trends Reports.
◾️Support the work of feminist UN experts in the face of backlash and pressure
◾️Advocate for state accountability
◾️ Work with feminist movements and civil society organizations to advance rights related to gender and sexuality.
◾️ Raise awareness of the findings of the 2017 and 2021 OURs Trends Reports.
◾️Support the work of feminist UN experts in the face of backlash and pressure
◾️Advocate for state accountability
◾️ Work with feminist movements and civil society organizations to advance rights related to gender and sexuality.
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2020: Annual Report
For many of us, 2020 was an especially challenging year due to the global health pandemic. Feminists and activists rose to the new challenges meeting community needs in innovative ways. Here are 5 highlights of how AWID contributed to feminist co-creation and resistance.
Watch our Annual Report Video below
Fariha Al Berkawi
Faye Macheke
Biography
Faye is a passionate Pan-African feminist, active in movements for women's rights, racial justice, migrant and labor rights, and environmental justice. Her activism builds on the legacy of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the aftermath of the apartheid era in Zimbabwe.
In 2019, Faye joined AWID as the Director of Finance, Operations and Development, and strived to ensure that AWID upholds the feminist principles and values in all of its operations. She brings over 20 years of experience in feminist leadership, strategy, and all aspects of finance and organizational development.
Faye is a committed Board Member of UAF-Africa and other women's rights organizations. She previously held a Head of Finance and Operations roles at Paediatric Adolescent Treatment for Africa and JASS - Just Associates Inc. in Southern Africa. She also held Directorship roles for International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) in Central and Southern Africa. She holds a Bcompt in Accounting Science from University of South Africa and is a member of the Southern African Institute for Business Accountants.
Position
Co-Executive Director
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Cheryl Ananayo
Ȃurea Mouzinho
Biography
Ȃurea Mouzinho is a feminist economic justice organizer from Luanda, Angola, with a 10-year career in research, grant-making, advocacy, and movement-building for women's rights and economic justice across Africa and the global south. Currently the Program Manager for Africa at Thousand Currents, she also serves on the Feminist Africa Editorial Board and is a member of Ondjango Feminista, a feminist collective she co-founded in 2016. A new mom to a Gemini boy, urea enjoys slow days with her young family and taking long strolls by the beach.
She occasionally tweets at @kitondowe.
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Juventina Villa Mojica
How did AWID get started?
AWID began in 1982 and has grown and transformed since then into a truly global organization.
Find out more:
Read From WID to GAD to Women's Rights: The First 20 Years of AWID