UN Women / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Guatemala - Rural Women Diversify Incomes and Build Resilience
Left
Half
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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.

Building Feminist Economies

Building Feminist Economies is about creating a world with clean air to breath and water to drink, with meaningful labour and care for ourselves and our communities, where we can all enjoy our economic, sexual and political autonomy.


In the world we live in today, the economy continues to rely on women’s unpaid and undervalued care work for the profit of others. The pursuit of “growth” only expands extractivism - a model of development based on massive extraction and exploitation of natural resources that keeps destroying people and planet while concentrating wealth in the hands of global elites. Meanwhile, access to healthcare, education, a decent wage and social security is becoming a privilege to few. This economic model sits upon white supremacy, colonialism and patriarchy.

Adopting solely a “women’s economic empowerment approach” is merely to integrate women deeper into this system. It may be a temporary means of survival. We need to plant the seeds to make another world possible while we tear down the walls of the existing one.


We believe in the ability of feminist movements to work for change with broad alliances across social movements. By amplifying feminist proposals and visions, we aim to build new paradigms of just economies.

Our approach must be interconnected and intersectional, because sexual and bodily autonomy will not be possible until each and every one of us enjoys economic rights and independence. We aim to work with those who resist and counter the global rise of the conservative right and religious fundamentalisms as no just economy is possible until we shake the foundations of the current system.


Our Actions

Our work challenges the system from within and exposes its fundamental injustices:

  • Advance feminist agendas: We counter corporate power and impunity for human rights abuses by working with allies to ensure that we put forward feminist, women’s rights and gender justice perspectives in policy spaces. For example, learn more about our work on the future international legally binding instrument on “transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights” at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

  • Mobilize solidarity actions: We work to strengthen the links between feminist and tax justice movements, including reclaiming the public resources lost through illicit financial flows (IFFs) to ensure social and gender justice.

  • Build knowledge: We provide women human rights defenders (WHRDs) with strategic information vital to challenge corporate power and extractivism. We will contribute to build the knowledge about local and global financing and investment mechanisms fuelling extractivism.

  • Create and amplify alternatives: We engage and mobilize our members and movements in visioning feminist economies and sharing feminist knowledges, practices and agendas for economic justice.


“The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing”.

Arundhati Roy, War Talk

Related Content

Anti-Rights Tactics, Strategies, and Impacts

Chapter 5

Anti-rights actors adopt a double strategy. As well as launching outright attacks on the multilateral system, anti-rights actors also undermine human rights from within. Anti-rights actors engage with the aim of co-opting processes, entrenching regressive norms, and undermining accountability.

Photo-OP // the first anniversary of the EU signature to the Council of Europe Convention to prevent and combat gender-based violence and domestic violence, the so-called Istanbul Convention
© ALDE Group/Flickr
Photo-OP // the first anniversary of the EU signature to the Council of Europe Convention to prevent and combat gender-based violence and domestic violence, the so-called Istanbul Convention

Anti-rights actors’ engagement in international human rights spaces has a principal purpose: to undermine the system and its ability to respect, protect and fulfill human rights for all people, and to hold member states accountable for violations. Some anti-rights tactics operate from outside the UN and include delegitimization and political pressure to defund the UN, or to withdraw from international human rights agreements.  In recent years, anti-rights actors have also gained increasing influence inside the UN. Their inside tactics include training of delegates, distortion of human rights frameworks, watering down human rights agreements, infiltrating NGO committees, applying for ECOSOC status under neutral names, infiltrating youth spaces, and lobbying to place anti-rights actors in key positions.

Table of Contents

  • Institutionalization of Anti-rights Actors in UN Mechanisms
  • Opting-out and Delegitimization
  • Lowering HR Standards
  • Co-optation - Building a Parallel HR Framework
  • Exercise: Yes, they are strong, but so are we!
  • Exercise: Holding Governments Accountable
     

Read Full Chapter >

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المانغو

ترجمة رولا علاء الدين

Jurema Araújo Portrait

جوريما آراوْخو،  معلّمة وشاعرة من ريو دي جانيرو. ساهمت في مجلة Urbana التي حرّرها الشاعران برازيل باريتو وسامارال، وفي كتاب Amor e outras revoluções “الحب والثورات الأخرى” مع العديد من الكتّاب الآخرين. بالتعاون مع أنجليكا فيراريس وفابيانا بيريرا، شاركت في تحرير O livro negro dos sentidos “الكتاب الأسود للحواس”، وهو مختارات إبداعية عن الحياة الجنسية للمرأة السوداء في البرازيل. جوريما عمرها 54 سنة. لديها ابنة وثلاثة كلاب وقطة والعديد من الأصدقاء.

Mango Cover

مَن يودّ المصّ معي؟

المانغو هي الثمرة المفضّلة عندي.
أفتح ثغري وأمصّها كلّها،
ويعلق لبّها بين أسناني 
وأسناني تنعم كي لا تؤذيها.
أضعها بين لساني وسقف حلقي وأضغط عليها
ثم أُخرجها وأمصّ كلَّ شبرٍ منها،
وعصيرُها يسيلُ في فمي وحوله
وأنا أتبلّل وأغرق في رحيقها الساحر.
وأعود وأدخلها كلّها في ثغري،
لأنّ المانغو هي البَذْرَة والعسل
وهي العِرْق والنَكهة.
ولمّا ينتهي الأمر، أجد نفسي منتشية
مُندّية بالرحيق مُحلاة وشفتاي مبلولتان.
المانغو خُلِقَت لمتعة المرغ. 


تقديم كتاب الحواس الأسود The Black Book of Senses

يومَ دعتني أنجليكا وفابي لأكون القَيِّمة على تشكيلة نصوص شبقية من تحرير نسوة سود لم أكن أعرف ما يعنيه عملُ القيِّم. الشبق ومشتقاته، هذه فهمتها جيداً، لكن عمل القَيِّم... ابتسمت تحت وطأة الخجل والإطراء. أظن أنّي شكرتهما، على الأقلّ آمل أنّي شكرتهما، وقلت في ذاتي: ماذا تعني هذه الكلمة اللعينة؟! حسناً، سأضطر إلى سَبر معاني هذا اللقب المُبهرَج وأنا أطبّقه. 

اليوم، أنا على دراية بما يعينه عمل القيِّم. هو بمثابة ممارسة الحبّ مع نصوص شخصٍ آخر، مع فنّ شخصٍ آخر، بغية تجميع كتاب وتنظيمه. وهذا تماماً ما قمت به. عرّيت بشهوانية أدبية كلّ نصّ لكلٍّ من الكاتبات. تعمّقت في كلمات وحواس الآخرين. ولَجَتني قصائدُ لم أكتبها. حكايات ما كنت لأجرؤ على تخيّلها قلبتني رأساً على عقب وأربكت مشاعري وعبثت بشهوتي الجنسية. وكانت نشوةٌ رائعة وفريدة: سماويّة وجسمانيّة وسامية في آنٍ واحد، فكريّة وحسّيّة.

تنبض هذه النصوص كالبظر المنتصب رغبةً، رطبةٌ، ينسال منها الفرح مع كلّ قراءة. كلمات ابتلعتني بإيحاءتها اللعوبة، تأخذني أعمق فأعمق في هذا العالم الرّطب.

غطست هذه النسوة السود إلى قعرِ هَيْجِهنّ وحوّلن أعمق تخيّلاتهنّ الشبقيّة إلى فنٍّ.

أُخْصِبَت هذه الأعمال بأسلوبِ كلٍّ من الكاتبات الخاصّ في التجربة الجنسانية، بحريّة، بسوداوية، بأنفسنا، بطريقتنا الخاصّة، بتمكّن. 

اخترت أن أوزّع هذه النصوص في مختلف أجزاء الكتاب ونظّمتها بحسب محتواها الأكثر رقّة أو انفعالية أو بديهية أو ضمنيّة.

استهلالاً لهذا «اللبّ الأسود المفترج»، تأتي أقسام ’التمهيدات‘ (Preliminaries) بنصوصها التي تقدّم لمحةً للقرّاء عن عالم الأطايب هذا، وهي بمثابة لمسَة شاملة رقيقة تُعرِّف بالمواضيع التي تطرحها النصوص في باقي الكتاب. 

يلي ذلك لهيبُ ’اللمس‘ (Touch) وهو جزءٌ يُعنى بكلّ ما تشعر به البشرة. تلك الطاقة التي تحرق أو تُثلِج أجسادنا، التي تفجّر هُرموناتنا وتوقظ حواسنا الأخرى. صحيحٌ أنّ كثيرين بيننا يستمتعون بشهوة التلصُّص، لكنّ ملامسة البشرة بالفم الدافئ والرّطب مثيرٌ، وهو كالتطواف في نعومة الآخر. تُغرينا اللمسة اللطيفة أو الحازمة وتجتاحنا القشعريرة، وذلك التوتّر الجميل الذي يسري من العنق إلى الظهر ولا يختفي إلا اليومَ التالي. ودفء الشفاه والفم واللسان الرّطب على البشرة، آه من حلاوة لسانٍ ينساب داخل الأذن، أو احتكاك الجلد بالجلد، والملابس تتموّج على الجسد وكأنّها امتدادٌ لليدّ. ولمّا يكون التروّي جزءاً من المتعة، وتعصف بك الإثارة بفعل قبضة مُحْكَمة وبعضٍ من الألم – أو الكثير منه، من يدري؟

أمّا ’الصوت‘ (Sound) – أو اللحن؟ – فيبيّن لنا أنّ الانجذاب يحصل أيضاً عبر حاسّة السمع: صوت الشخص، الهمسات، الموسيقى التي تشعل التواصل بين جسدٍ وآخر وقد تمسي محورَ الرغبة. فبالنسبة لبعضٍ منّا، لا يتطلّب الأمر إلّا الأوتار الصوتية لشخصٍ ذي صوتٍ جميل، فذاك الصوت الأجشّ أو العميق أو الرخيم يكون كممارسة الجنس سمعياً. أن نسمع سِبابَهم الصارخ أو كلامهم المعسول همساً في الأذن يكفي لتجتاحنا قشعريرة الإثارة من الرأس إلى أخمص القدميْن. 

في ’المذاق‘ (Flavor)، نأتي إلى اللسان وهو الخبير في استكشاف الخبايا يجول هائماً على جسد الآخر ويتلذّذ. وأحياناً يُقحَم اللسان قحماً لتذوُّق رحيق الآخر. فكرة أن يُشاركنا أحدٌ فراولته أو مانغته الشهيّة الملأى، بالعضّ واللحس، أو اللحس ثم العضّ، فكرةٌ كفيلة بإذابتنا. لكن لا شيء يعلو على حلاوة تذوُّق جسد الآخر بكهوفه وتلاله. إقحامُ اللسان في العمق لتذوُّق الثمرة، أو قضاءُ ساعاتٍ في تذوُّق رأس القضيب في الفم، أو رضعُ ثدي شهيّ لتذوُّق الحلمة... كلّها أفعال تسعى إلى حفظ ’مذاق‘ الآخر في الذاكرة.

نجد أيضاً نصوصاً تصف كيف تُستثار الرغبة عبر الأنف. ’الرائحة‘ (Smell)، أعزائي القرّاء، قد توقظ فينا شهوات الرغبة. أحياناً نلتقي شخصاً رائحته عبقة لدرجة أننا نودّ التهامه بأنفنا. يريد الأنف أن يجول في أنحاء الجسد ويبدأ من العنق وآهٍ من الرعشة الحلوة التي تصيبنا وتعرّي الروح! يقلّ حياء الأنف فيتعمَّق ويلفّ حول العنق ليلتقط عَبَق رائحة الآخر فيحفظها. وفي غياب هذا الشخص، إن إلتقط الأنف رائحة شبيهة يحضر الشخص في ذاكرتنا، أو إن استحضرته الذاكرة تجتاحنا الرائحة والإثارة.

نصل إلى ’النظر‘ (Look)، وهو برأيي غدّار الحواس، ومن خلاله ندرك الرغبة من وجهة «نظر». هنا النصوص تصف الرغبة والإثارة عبر حاسة النظر التي توقظ باقي الحواس. أحياناً، ابتسامةٌ تكفي لِنُصاب بالجنون. تبادُل النظرات؟ تلك النظرة التي تقول «أريدك الآن». نظرة التملّك تلك التي لا تنكسر إلا مع انتهاء المضاجعة، وقد تدوم بعدها. هذه نظرة فريدة من نوعها، تجذب الآخر فيعجز عن إشاحة نظره لوقتٍ طويل. والنظرات المُسترَقة حيث يشيح واحدٌ بنظره ما أن يلتفت إليه الآخر كأنّهما في مطاردة كالقط والفأر. وما أن تلتقي الأعين وينفضح أمرنا جُلّ ما يمكننا فعله هو أن تنفرج أساريرنا بابتسامة فاغرة. 

ختاماً، يأتي الانفجار في جزء ’الحواس كافة‘ (All Senses) حيث النصوص تمزج المشاعر لتبدو كحالة تأهّب لنصل إلى اللذة القصوى، إلى النشوة. 

طبعاً، لا شيء يفصل بوضوح بين هذه القصائد والحكايات. بعضها رقيقٌ بتلميحه. الإثارة تُشغِل الحواس كافّة، والأهمّ أنّها تُشغِل الرأس، فهُنا مقام كلّ ما يحدث والجسد بكامله يستجيب. لقد نظَّمتُ القصائد وفقاً لما أثارته فيّ عند قراءتها، ولكم الحريّة في مخالفة رأيي هذا. لكن بالنسبة لي، الرغبة تنبع من حاسّة معيّنة ومن ثم تنفجر، وثمّة لذّة في تتبّع مسار الرغبة وتحديد أيٍّ من الحواس استقلّت. 

إنّ القدرة على تحويل الإثارة إلى فنّ تعني تحرير أنفسِنا من الأحكام المسبقة والسجون ووصمات العار كلّها التي حبَسَنا فيها هذا المجتمع المُتمَحوِر حول العرق الأبيض.

كلّما تقوم كاتبة سوداء بتحويل الشبقيّ إلى فنّ فهي تخلع السلاسل العنصرية المؤذية التي تشلّ جسدها وتقمع جنسانيتها وتجعل منّا غرضاً لجشع الآخرين. إنّ كتابة الشعر الشبقيّ هي استعادة لسلطتها على جسدها وهي التنقّل بلا خوف بين ملذّات الرغبة من أجل ذاتها ومن أجل الآخرين ومن أجل الحياة. 

الكتابات الأدبية الشبقيّة هي نحن عندما نتّخذ الشكل الفنّي. الشكل الذي يتيح لنا إظهار أفضل ما لدينا وآرائنا في الحبّ الملأى لذّة والمتبّلة بشهوة أجسادنا والتي تُترجَم عبر وَعْينا الفنّي. نحن متنوّعات، وهنا نشارككم هذا التنوّع في الأحاسيس عبر الكلمات المُشبَعَة إثارة. صحيح، حتّى كلماتنا ترشَح برغبتنا الجنسية وترطّب آياتنا وتجعل من شهواتنا قصائدَ. النشوة، بالنسبة لنا، إنجاز. 

أن تكون عقولنا وأجسادنا وجنسانياتنا سوداء هو أمرٌ ضروري لاستئناف لذّتنا واستعادة نشوتنا. عندها فحسب نصير أحراراً. هذه العملية برمّتها إنجازٌ وهي لا تخلو من الألم. لكنّه من المفرح أن نجد أنفسنا في مكان مختلف جداً عن حيث تمّ وضعنا. 
أشعر أنّي لكنّ/لكم، أنّي لنا. تذوّقوا هذه الكلمات العذبة معنا، تلذّذوا بها، ولْتَكُن وليمة. 


هذا النص مقتبس من مقدمة كتاب «O Livro Negro Dos Sentidos» وهي تشكيلة قصائد شبقيّة لثلاثٍ وعشرين كاتبة سوداء.

Cover image for Communicating Desire
 
Explore Transnational Embodiments

This journal edition in partnership with Kohl: a Journal for Body and Gender Research, will explore feminist solutions, proposals and realities for transforming our current world, our bodies and our sexualities.

Explore

Cover image, woman biting a fruit
 

التجسيدات العابرة للحدود

نصدر النسخة هذه من المجلة بالشراكة مع «كحل: مجلة لأبحاث الجسد والجندر»، وسنستكشف عبرها الحلول والاقتراحات وأنواع الواقع النسوية لتغيير عالمنا الحالي وكذلك أجسادنا وجنسانياتنا.

استكشف المجلة

Will there be a young feminist space? A disability justice space? A digital/tech hub? Funder coffee hours? Wellbeing and healing spaces?

We will share information about the program, the spaces, and the way for everyone to participate in shaping them, as soon as we can, and ways for you to participate in shaping them - on the road to the Forum, and during the Forum. Please stay tuned!

Pleasure(s) as the key to personal freedom

By Nkhensani Manabe

The conversation title "Pansexual, Gynasexual or Abrosexual? A dive into queerness, pleasure and sex positivity" gives one much to think about. Tiffany Kagure Mugo, author, educator and curator of HOLAAfrica, begins the discussion with a reading from Touch, a recently published collection of fiction and non-fiction essays on sex, sexuality and pleasure. In this excerpt, the author puts forward the idea that pleasure is constant and ongoing, it is to be found in everyday activities and is not confined to sexual intercourse.

This idea, that pleasure is as much a part of daily life as anything else, runs through the discussion, which also covers topics of desire, attraction and sexual orientation.

Pleasure Garden exhibition: the photographic and illustrative collaboration produced by Siphumeze and Katia
Pleasure Garden exhibition: the photographic and illustrative collaboration produced by Siphumeze and Katia

Early on, there is this sense of hope and possibility. Tiffany presents options and explains alternatives, giving us new language to speak about who we are, what we like, and how we want it. This is about desire and sex, but mostly it is about self-knowledge and empowerment. Tiffany speaks passionately about making decisions from a place of power: learning your own identity so that you are able to make the best choices for yourself. 

In a conversation that is open and free, representing the attitude that Tiffany would have us all adopt, we learn that knowledge about sex and sexuality is ever-changing, the boundaries are shifting. What we may have learned or, more importantly, been kept away from as children or adults is exactly where we should start unlearning and reprogramming. Tiffany notes that young people these days need tools to understand the experiences they are already having, a reminder to never underestimate what children and teenagers know about the kind of pleasure(s) they want to pursue in life.

The conversation opened my mind to something: knowing myself will help to build my confidence; I will be able to approach relationships with care not only for myself but for others, too. Learning the language of orientation, attraction, desire and pleasure will go towards deepening my future connections. I appreciated the space to think about this aspect of my life -- the private, intimate parts that I don’t access often. Tiffany’s enthusiasm about pleasure and identity pushed my own boundaries, allowing me to entertain new personal possibilities. 

The idea of learning how to make holistic connections is still not common. Largely, we live in a culture of instant and fleeting connections. There is hardly any time to truly reflect on how and why we are seeking relationship or partnership -- at least, not until a moment of crisis. 

Of course, there are selected spaces that welcome questions and discussions, such as the AWID Crear Résister Transform Festival and other free-thinking online platforms or publications -- but access to information from a helpful, non-judgemental source is something people are still trying to figure out. This may be in part because people are not confident in the language of sexuality and pleasure. 

Sex and Spirtuality
Pleasure Garden exhibition: the photographic and illustrative collaboration produced by Siphumeze and Katia

The notion of language and tools repeats itself throughout Tiffany’s presentation. Tiffany and her colleagues are doing the work of talking, teaching and nurturing. Seeing what people need, where they are, what they want for themselves, and walking alongside them as they build their ideal worlds. Giving them new words and definitions to help give shape to their identities at different stages of their lives. 
These are the kinds of conversations that are necessary, even in a society that has myriad healthcare messages broadcast with varying degrees of details at any given moment. Sometimes people need to be brought back from the big picture moments and encouraged to learn about their individual opinions and desires. This is what Tiffany’s talk does: it gives people a space in the larger puzzle. 

A highlight of Tiffany’s talk was the section on the different types of attraction. 

Sexual -- as in, the express desire to have intercourse with a person or people
Sensual -- the desire to touch a person or people, to be physically close without necessarily including intercourse
Romantic -- the desire to date or be in a relationship with a person or people
Platonic -- the desire to build close friendships 
Aesthetic -- the desire to look at and be pleased by the appearance of a person or people

These five types or levels of attraction offer a shorthand for desire and pleasure, and help to contextualise the different kinds of pleasure people can experience. 

Thinking of attraction beyond the physical or sexual offers a new perspective on connection. It is a chance to take the pressure off relationships, which opens up opportunities for different, more enlightened and fulfilling partnerships. 

This freedom and knowledge that Tiffany presents is a roadmap to the future. The presentation offered a new perspective on what is possible. 

As the opening excerpt states, pleasure is ongoing. In light of Tiffany’s discussion, it is also clear that it is dynamic and exciting. There is always more to know. 

This may be daunting at first, but on the other side of hesitation is hope, potential and freedom. 

CFA 2023 - Suggested Activities Format - EN

Suggested Activity Formats

 

Panel: In Panel discussions, explore an issue or challenge from different perspectives, or share a learning or experience, followed by audience questions if time allows.


Talk Show: Have a more spontaneous conversation in Talk-Show style. Talk Shows can be a conversation among several people, facilitated by a talk-show host. Audience questions can determine the conversation’s direction.


Discussion: These can take the form of world cafes, fishbowls, and other methodologies that facilitate participants’ active involvement in conversations. Highly participatory.


Workshop: Interactive sessions that invite participants to build new skills in any and all areas of life and activism.


Strategy Session: This is an invitation to think through an issue or strategy, in depth, with others. A space to learn from each other: what works, what doesn’t, and how do we develop new and collective strategies to create the worlds we dream of.


Sharing Circle (also known as “Birds of a Feather”): Ideal for small groups, in a more intimate setting, to hear from each other, spark discussion and carefully address topics that may be specific, sensitive and complex.


Arts – Participatory Workshop: Participatory activities involving arts and creative expression. Whether through visual art, theater, film, mural, dance, music, collective craft or artmaking, etc., we welcome all ideas celebrating feminist art and creativity as forms of social change, healing, expression and transformation.


Arts – Performances, Installations and Exhibitions: We welcome submissions that offer Forum participants new experiences and perspectives, expand our horizons, and challenge and inspire us to think, feel and organize in new ways.


Healing: Diverse activities tailored both for groups and individuals, from learning relaxation techniques to discussing burnout prevention, from trauma-informed practices of care for our body, mind and soul to healing rifts within our movements.

Asma Jahangir

Asma was a leading Pakistani rights activist, fearless critic of the military’s interference in politics and a staunch defender of the rule of law.

She was the founding chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent group, and was a trustee of the International Crisis Group. She won international awards and served as the United Nations rapporteur on human rights and extrajudicial killings.

She is remembered fondly by colleagues and friends at AWID

“With her life, Asma rewrote the history that many of us were told as women. Asma changed the world. She changed it in Pakistan, and she changed it in our imaginations."

 


 

Asma Jahangir, Pakistan

We Are the Ones We Have been Waiting For!

We’re beginning a new year--2023. COVID-19 continues to infect and re-infect many, many people around the world. We are witnessing the resurgence of right-wing and fascist governments, even in places we may not have expected like Sweden. War, armed conflict, and dramatic increase in militarization, militarism, and military spending are enabling the unbridled capital accumulation by the few, with participation of seemingly “strange” alliances locking arms, both visibly and invisibly, where economic and political elites of the Global North and Global South are benefitting beyond our wildest imagination. In the meanwhile, our people and the natural environment pay enormous costs and suffer all the expected and unexpected consequences.

As all of you and all of us at AWID know, feminists in multiple movements around the world are resisting and organizing against multiple faces of tyranny, creating alternative structures, implementing grassroots strategies, and building transnational alliances. We are generating joy, inspiring one another, singing, and dancing within and against the prevailing culture of killing and cynicism that seems to have engulfed so much of the world.

We--Staff and Board--of AWID are prepared and inspired more than ever before to face challenges by strengthening our relationships with our members and organizational partners, meeting and getting to know those who we are yet to meet and do what we do best: support the global feminist movements. Although we were sad facing the departures of our beloved former Co-Eds Cindy and Hakima, our wonderful new Co-EDS Faye and Inna along with committed and creative staff have embraced the moment that encapsulates both opportunities and threats.

For sure, all of us at AWID and all our movement folks know:  As the Caribbean US poet and activist June Jordan wrote to the South African women activists during the height of the apartheid regime, “We are the ones we have been waiting for”!

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جديد

محاور جديدة: السفر إلى الفضاء عبر الحدود


سيجتمع المشاركات/ون فعليًا في عدد من المواقع خارج مكان انعقاد المنتدى في بانكوك، في أجزاء مختلفة من العالم، في كل يوم من أيام المنتدى. وستكون جميع هذه المواقع ذاتية التنظيم مرتبطة افتراضيًا لموقع انعقاد المنتدى في بانكوك. كما هو الحال مع الأفراد المتواصلون عبر الإنترنت، سيتمكن المشاركون/ات من تسيير النشاطات والمشاركة في المحادثات والاستمتاع ببرنامج غني ومتنوع.

سيتم الإعلان عن مواقع التجمعات في عام 2024.

Kate McInturff

From Peacebuild to the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, Amnesty International, and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), Kate had a lifelong passion for women’s rights and gender equality and dedicated her career to fighting inequality and making the world a more compassionate place.

Kate was a member of the Coordinating Committee of Social Watch and a contributor to the Canadian National Social Watch reports.  As a Senior Researcher at the CCPA, Kate received national acclaim for researching, writing, and producing the annual “The Best and Worst Places to be a Woman in Canada” report.

Kate died peacefully surrounded by her family, following a three-year battle with colon cancer. She is described by loved ones as a “Funny, Fearless, Unapologetically Feminist.”


 

Kate McInturff, Canada

Donation Success


Thank you for taking a step further to change the world!

Your generous contribution will help us support feminist movements across the globe working to achieve gender justice and women’s human rights worldwide.

You can also support our work as an AWID Member. Find out how here.

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Amal Bayou

Amal was a prominent politician and parliamentarian in Libya. She was a faculty member at Benghazi University from 1995 until her death in 2017.

Amal was a civil society activist and a member of various social and political initiatives. She assisted the families of martyrs and the  disappeared, and was a founding member of a youth initiative called ‘’Youth of Benghazi Libya”. In the 2014 parliamentary elections, Amal was elected to the House of Representatives with more than 14,000 votes (the highest number of votes anyone received in the 2014 elections).

Amal will remain in the memories of many as a woman politician working to ensure a better future in one the most difficult and conflict-ridden contexts in the region.


 

Amal Bayou, Libya

Will there be any support for materials or other preparatory costs for workshops?

You can expect all the standard materials for workshops and presentations: flip charts, markers, sticky notes, in addition to projectors and audio-visual equipment. Any additional materials are the responsibility of the activity organizers. AWID’s logistics team will be available to answer questions and advise.

Andaiye

Andaiye in Swahili means ‘a daughter comes home’. Born Sandra Williams on 11 September 1942 in Georgetown, Guyana, she changed her name to ‘Andaiye’ in 1970 as the Black Power movements swept her country and the wider Caribbean region. 

Andaiye was seen as a transformative figure on the frontlines of the struggles for liberation and freedom. She was an early member and active in the leadership of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), a socialist party in Guyana which fought against authoritarian rule and continued throughout her life to focus on justice for the working-class and rural women’s rights and on bridging ethnic barriers between Indo and Afro-Guyanese women. 

Andaiye was a founding member of Red Thread Women, an organization that advocated for women’s care work to be fairly remunerated, worked at the University of the West Indies and with CARICOM. Never afraid to challenge governments, she pointed out gender imbalances in state boards, laws that discriminated against sex workers, called for abortion rights in Jamaica and spoke out against trade agreements such as the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allowed for the free movement of women domestic migrant workers but did not give their children the same rights.  

Andaiye published several scholarly essays, wrote newspaper columns and also edited the last books of Walter Rodney, the Guyanese political activist and fellow WPA leader, who was assassinated in 1980. A cancer survivor, Andaiye was one of the founders of the Guyana Cancer Society and the Cancer Survivors’ Action Group. She also served on the executive of the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA), as a Director of Help and Shelter and as Board Member of the Guyana National Commission on Women. She received a number of awards, including the Golden Arrow of Achievement in Guyana (the fourth highest national award).

Andaiye passed away on 31 May 2019 at the age of 77. The subsequent tributes that flowed in from activists, friends and those inspired by her life spoke eloquently to her amazing legacy and her beautiful humanity.

Here are but a few: 

“Andaiye had a profound effect on me...she was so many things, an educator, fighter, she taught me to be self-critical, to think more clearly, she taught me about survival, about incredible courage, about compassion, about going beyond external appearances and treating people as people and not being distracted by status, class, race...anything.”
- Peggy Antrobus, Feminist Activist, Author, Scholar, Barbados

“The kind of confident idealism Andaiye expressed, this willingness to confront the world and a stubborn belief that you could actually change it... That politics of hope...How else to honour her life, legacy and memory but to keep doing the work ethically and with ongoing self-critique? And to put women’s caring work at the center of it.”
- Tonya Haynes, Barbados

“I can hear her quip at our collective keening. So through the tears I can laugh. Deep bows to you beloved Andaiye, thank you for everything. Love and light for your spirit’s journey. Tell Walter and all the ancestors howdy.” - Carol Narcisse, Jamaica

Read more tributes to Andaiye

กลุ่มของฉันหรือฉันควรจะเข้าร่วมในฟอรั่มที่ถูกยกเลิก ฉันจะเข้าร่วมในฟอรั่มนี้ได้อย่างไร?

เราจะติดต่อกับองค์กรพาร์เนอร์ในอดีตเพื่อให้มั่นใจว่าความพยายามที่เคยเตรียมไว้ในอดีตมีความหมาย หากองค์กรของคุณมีการเปลี่ยนแปลงข้อมูลติดต่อจากฟอรัมครั้งก่อนหน้ากรุณาแจ้งให้พวกเราทราบเพื่อให้เราสามารถติดต่อถึงคุณได้

Janet Benshoof

Janet Benshoof was a human rights lawyer from the United States and an advocate for women’s equality, sexual and reproductive rights.

She campaigned to broaden access to contraceptives and abortions across the world, and battled anti-abortion rulings and in the American territory of Guam. She was arrested in 1990 for opposing her country’s most restrictive abortion law, but won an injunction at the local court in Guam that blocked the law and eventually won at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, striking down the law for good.

“The women in Guam are in a very tragic situation. I never intend to be quiet about that.” - Janet Benshoof for People Magazine

Janet established landmark legal precedents including the US Food and Drug Administrations’ approval of emergency contraception, as well as the application of international law to ensure the rights of rape victims in the Iraqi High Tribunal’s prosecution of Saddam-era war crimes. 

Janet was President and founder of the Global Justice Center, as well as founder of the Center for Reproductive Rights, the world’s first international human rights organization focused on reproductive choice and equality. She served 15 years as Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Rights Project, where she spearheaded litigation shaping US constitutional law on gender equality, free speech, and reproductive rights.

“Janet was known for her brilliant legal mind, her sharp sense of humor, and for her courage in the face of injustice.” - Anthony D. Romero

Named one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America” by the National Law Journal, Janet was the recipient of numerous awards and honors. 

She was born in May 1947 and passed away in December 2017. 

ฉันจะสามรถหาทุนสนับสนุนการเข้าร่วม AWID ฟอรัมได้อย่างไร

ถ้ากลุ่มหรือองค์กรของคุณได้รับการสนับสนุนเงินทุน คุณสามารถพูดคุยกับแหล่งทุนของคุณได้ตั้งแต่ตอนนี้หากพวกเค้าสามารถสนับสนุนการเดินทางและการเข้าร่วมของคุณได้ หลายองค์กรวางแผนงบประมาณปีหน้าในปี 2566 จึงเป็นการดีกว่าหากสามารถพูดคุยกับพวกเค้าก่อนภายในปีนี้

Gloria Chicaiza

Gloria Chicaiza, an Ecuadorian social and environmental activist, was a fervent defender of land and water. She defied the status quo, fighting against a model of development based on extraction and worked tirelessly for ecological justice and the rights of communities affected by mining.  

In diverse areas of Ecuador, Gloria was part of resistance actions in favour of protecting the ecosystem. With passion and dedication, Gloria supported the indigenous and environmental movement, its communities and organizations who oppose mining projects and protect their territories and collective life projects. She spoke out, in local and international foras, against the criminalization of dissent and resistance, the pressure and violence being enacted against community activists, in particular, women human rights defenders and in support of community led efforts for food sovereignty and sustainability

She was the Mining Justice Coordinator at Acción Ecológica, member of the Latin American Network of Women Defenders of the Social and Environmental Rights and a Board member at the Observatory of Mining Conflicts of Latin America.

In October 2010, Gloria was accused by the mining company Curimining / Salazar Resources S.A. (with Headquarters in Vancouver, Canada) of sponsoring an act of terrorism, sabotage and illegal association to commit a crime. Acción Ecológica believed this to be “in retaliation for her work of denouncing the impacts of mining activities in the country.”

In 2014, Gloria supported the coordination of a delegation to the UN COP 20 Dialogue on Climate Change. The group consisted of 25 Indigenous women from Latin America.

Gloria passed away due to complications from a lung transplant on December 28, 2019. She is remembered for her resistance and tireless work. 

"The fastest way to achieve sustainability is still resistance." -  Gloria Chicaiza (2010 interview)



Tributes:

“Para GLORIA. GLORIA Agua. GLORIA Tierra. GLORIA Madre. GLORIA Revolución. GLORIA Hermana. GLORIA Cielo. GLORIAmiga. GLORIAstral. Thank you for weaving us together.” -Liliana Gutierrez

“Thank you Glorita, for sustaining hope, for keeping the fabric strong, for connecting the community, for the united hands, for solidarity, thank you Glorita for standing with us in the most difficult moments. Thank you for teaching us that throughout life, nobody gets tired.” (Chakana News)

“Gloria Chicaiza cherished and flourished in being one of many. And as humble as she was, she had an uncanny ability to lead and maintain a steady and thunderous beat, a life-affirming pulse that guided, mobilized, and inspired communities and networks in the protection of Mother Earth. She denounced all forms of violence against cuerpos-territorios. She endorsed el buen vivir.” - Gabriela Jiménez, Latin America Partnerships Coordinator, KAIROS

“Thank you Gloria Chicaiza from infinity we are sure that you will continue to support our struggle. You who continued to struggle with us despite your failing health. You will live on in the forests and the water that you defended with such courage. You will live on in our hearts.”- The community of Intag in Ecuador

Read more Tributes to Gloria