Evelinda Ramirez Reyes
AWID Forum: Co-creating Feminist Futures
In September 2016, the 13th AWID international Forum brought together in Brazil over 1800 feminists and women’s rights advocates in a spirit of resistance and resilience.
This section highlights the gains, learnings and resources that came out of our rich conversations. We invite you to explore, share and comment!
What has happened since 2016?
One of the key takeaways from the 2016 Forum was the need to broaden and deepen our cross-movement work to address rising fascisms, fundamentalisms, corporate greed and climate change.
With this in mind, we have been working with multiple allies to grow these seeds of resistance:
- Our Seed Initiatives, has helped 20 ideas that emerged at the Forum to grow into concrete actions
- The video “Defending people and planet” and guide “Weaving resistance through action” put courageous WHRDs in the spotlight and present concrete strategies they use to confront corporate power.
- With our animations about the State of Our Feminist Movements and Climate and Environmental Justice, movements now have creative tools to support their advocacy work.
- The compiling artistic expressions of our #MovementsMatter series continues to inspire stronger and more creative organizing around the world.
- Movements can also benefit from new methodologies on Visioning Feminist Futures (Coming up soon!)
And through our next strategic plan and Forum process, we are committed to keep developing ideas and deepen the learnings ignited at the 2016 Forum.
What happens now?
The world is a much different place than it was a year ago, and it will continue to change.
The next AWID Forum will take place in the Asia Pacific region (exact location and dates to be announced in 2018).
We look forward to you joining us!
The next AWID Forum will take place in the Asia Pacific region (exact location and dates to be announced in 2018).
We look forward to you joining us!
About the AWID Forum
AWID Forums started in 1983, in Washington DC. Since then, the event has grown to become many things to many peoples: an iterative process of sharpening our analyses, vision and actions; a watershed moment that reinvigorates participants’ feminisms and energizes their organizing; and a political home for women human rights defenders to find sanctuary and solidarity.
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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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CFA 2023 - Submit Button - FR
He respondido la encuesta, pero cambié de opinión y deseo que se retire nuestra respuesta, ¿qué hago?
Si por algún motivo deseas que retiremos y borremos tus respuestas, tienes todo el derecho a hacerlo. Puedes contactarnos a través del formulario disponible aquí indicando «Encuesta WITM (¿Dónde está el dinero?) » en el título del mensaje, y procederemos a retirar y borrar tu respuesta.
#7 - Sexting like a feminist Tweets Snippet EN
Come correct! And show your sources…
Ursula K Le Guin
Ursula était une romancière américaine dont les genres littéraires de prédilection étaient la science-fiction et le genre fantastique.
Elle a connu le succès grâce à son roman « La main gauche de la nuit », où elle imagine une société du futur où les personnes sont ambisexuelles - leur sexe n’est pas déterminé. Parmi les premiers grands livres de science-fiction féministes, ce roman explore les influences du genre et du sexe dans la société. Ursula était une source d'inspiration pour ses écrits subversifs et originaux, ainsi que pour les thèmes du féminisme et de la liberté qui lui tenaient tellement à cœur.
En 1983, lors d'un discours au Mills College en Californie, elle a déclaré aux diplômé-e-s : « Pourquoi une femme libre ayant suivi une formation universitaire devrait-elle combattre Macho-Man ou le servir ? Pourquoi devrait-elle vivre sa vie selon son bon vouloir ? J'espère que vous vivrez sans avoir besoin de dominer et sans avoir besoin d'être dominé-e ».
Keila Almanza
CFA 2023 - Online and Hybrid - ar
جديد
عبر الإنترنت وهجين
كمشارك/ة عبر الإنترنت، يمكنك توجيه النشاطات والتواصل والتحدث مع الآخرين/ الأخريات وتجربة الإبداع والفن والاحتفال بمنتدى جمعية حقوق المرأة في التنمية بشكل مباشر. سيستمتع المشاركون/ات المتصلون/ات عبر الإنترنت ببرنامج غني ومتنوع، بدءًا من ورشات العمل والنقاشات وحتى نشاطات الاستشفاء والعروض الموسيقية. ستركز بعض الأنشطة على التواصل بين المشاركين/ات عبر الإنترنت، وسيكون البعض الآخر هجينًا بالفعل، يركز على الاتصال والتفاعل بين المشاركين/ات عبر الإنترنت وأولئك الموجودين/ات في بانكوك.
Puis-je communiquer cette enquête à d’autres?
Oui, n’hésitez pas à le faire! Nous vous encourageons à communiquer le lien vers l’enquête à vos réseaux. Plus les points de vue exprimés et collectés seront divers, plus notre compréhension du paysage du financement de l’organisation des mouvements féministes sera exhaustive.
#2 - Sexting like a feminist Tweets Snippet ES
¿A quién no le gusta que le den una pista visual?
‘La sexualidad es fluida y en este momento mi vagina también’
#FeministFestival #SextLikeAFeminist
Janette Sunita
From India, Janette was feisty, formidable, compassionate and loving.
Janette’s intolerance of injustice and fierce commitment to standing up for all people’s rights led her to work at TARSHI (an NGO that works on sexuality and sexual and reproductive health and rights) for more than 15 years. Janette ably managed and led the finance, human resources and operations aspects of TARSHI’s work, adeptly navigating the labyrinthine bureaucracy to which Indian NGOs are subjected.
Her team remembers that “She stood watch so we could steer well in open waters. A woman of many talents, Janette not only helped us procure our own office space but also designed it for optimal usage.She loved travel and animals and was interested in animal assisted therapy."
Piera Oria
CFA 2023 - Submit Button - ar
L’AWID EN 2014 : Renforcer les processus d’organisation en faveur des droits des femmes dans le monde entier
Snippet - WITM To share - AR
لمشاركة تجاربكم/ن المعاشة بما يتعلق بتمويل منظمتكم/ن
Manal Tamimi | Snippet FR
Manal Tamimi est une activiste palestinienne et une défenseuse des droits humains. Mère de quatre enfants, elle est titulaire d’une maîtrise en droit international humanitaire. Son activisme lui a valu d’être arrêtée trois fois et d’être blessée à plusieurs reprises, notamment avec des balles explosives réelles qui sont interdites sur le plan international. Sa famille est elle aussi prise pour cible : ses enfants ont été arrêtés et blessés à balles réelles plus d’une fois. Le dernier incident dont elle a été victime était une tentative d’assassinat contre son fils Muhammad, qui a reçu une balle dans la poitrine, près du cœur, quelques semaines après sa libération des prisons d’occupation où il avait passé deux ans. Sa philosophie de vie : « si on va me faire payer parce que je suis palestinienne et non parce que j’ai commis un crime, je refuse de mourir en silence ».
Juana Raymundo
Juana fue una indígena maya ixil, enfermera profesional y coordinadora del Comité de Desarrollo Campesino – CODECA de la microrregión de Nebaj Quiché.
El comité es una organización de derechos humanos formada por granjerxs indígenas dedicada a promover los derechos sobre la tierra y el desarrollo rural para las familias indígenas. Inicialmente, Juana se unió a CODECA como integrante de su rama juvenil, la Juventud de CODECA. Al momento de su muerte, había sido elegida para ser parte del Comité Ejecutivo del Movimiento de Liberación de los Pueblos (MLP).
Su cuerpo fue encontrado por lxs vecinxs, junto a un pequeño río en el camino cerca de Nebaj y Villa Acambalam, en Guatemala. Según CODECA, el cuerpo de Juana mostraba signos de tortura.
Albertina Sisulu
Forum 2024 - FAQ - Travelling to Bangkok FR
Voyager à Bangkok
2019: Feminist Realities in a changing world
AWID began preparing this annual report just as the global pandemic began to unravel how we gather, organize and live our lives. It is impossible to review what we have done without COVID-19 tinting our assessment.
Download the full 2019 Annual review
Co-Creating Feminist Realities is no longer just an AWID Forum theme - it is a rallying cry in response to a pandemic that has laid bare the failures of social, political and economic systems.
It is an urgently needed affirmation that there are other, more just ways of organizing our lives. During 2019 hundreds of groups shared their experiences and proposals for feminist realities with us, ranging from radical networks of community support in Latin America facilitating self-managed abortion, to practices of community-centered economies in Indonesia and community-centered food systems in India and the US, to a re-imagination and new practice of harm-free rites of passage in Sierra Leone. These are the experiences that will chart a path forward for a “new normal”.
Yet long histories of oppression and violence can make it difficult to imagine the possible. A key part of our work in 2019 was to spark these explorations through a toolkit AWID launched to support groups interested in unearthing the stories and aspirations that are the building blocks of feminist propositions.
While we focus on our proposals for a different world, we recognize the challenging context around us.
Through the Observatory on the Universality of Rights, Feminists for a Binding Treaty, Count Me In! and other alliances, AWID has continued to push back against unfettered corporate power and fascist and fundamentalist agendas that undermine women’s rights and gender justice. With dim prospects for transformative change through multilateral processes and limited responsiveness from most states, we are redoubling our efforts to ensure that feminist movements, in all their diversity, are resourced in ways that match the critical roles they play - supporting their communities, demanding rights and responding to crises. In 2019 we introduced feminist principles and approaches to ground-breaking funds like the Spotlight Initiative and the Equality Fund, and succeeded in leveraging resources through feminist reality seed grant funding from feminist funders.
As we look ahead, it is clear that the context is calling for a transformation of our organizing strategies:
- we are learning to navigate global advocacy confined to online channels,
- we grapple with the uncertainty of when and how we can convene in person, and
- we use the tools at our disposal to tighten connections across local to global spheres.
AWID is embarking on a new membership model that lowers barriers to access and emphasizes opportunities for engagement and cross-member connection. We will continue to experiment with different online tools and processes for building community. Cross-movement engagement will stay at the center of our work. AWID’s actions in solidarity with oppressed movements and identities, even and especially where these are marginalized in feminist movements, are important to drive change and support broad and inclusive movements for all.
Crisis is not new to feminist and social movements.
We are resilient, we adapt, and we show up for each other. And we have to keep doing better. Thank you to all who are part of the journey with us.
Download the full 2019 Annual review