Special Focus

AWID is an international, feminist, membership organisation committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development and women’s human rights

Confronting Extractivism & Corporate Power

Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) worldwide defend their lands, livelihoods and communities from extractive industries and corporate power. They stand against powerful economic and political interests driving land theft, displacement of communities, loss of livelihoods, and environmental degradation.


Why resist extractive industries?

Extractivism is an economic and political model of development that commodifies nature and prioritizes profit over human rights and the environment. Rooted in colonial history, it reinforces social and economic inequalities locally and globally. Often, Black, rural and Indigenous women are the most affected by extractivism, and are largely excluded from decision-making. Defying these patriarchal and neo-colonial forces, women rise in defense of rights, lands, people and nature.

Critical risks and gender-specific violence

WHRDs confronting extractive industries experience a range of risks, threats and violations, including criminalization, stigmatization, violence and intimidation.  Their stories reveal a strong aspect of gendered and sexualized violence. Perpetrators include state and local authorities, corporations, police, military, paramilitary and private security forces, and at times their own communities.

Acting together

AWID and the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD-IC) are pleased to announce “Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractivism and Corporate Power”; a cross-regional research project documenting the lived experiences of WHRDs from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

We encourage activists, members of social movements, organized civil society, donors and policy makers to read and use these products for advocacy, education and inspiration.

Share your experience and questions!

Tell us how you are using the resources on WHRDs Confronting extractivism and corporate power.

◾️ How can these resources support your activism and advocacy?

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Thank you!

AWID acknowledges with gratitude the invaluable input of every Woman Human Rights Defender who participated in this project. This project was made possible thanks to your willingness to generously and openly share your experiences and learnings. Your courage, creativity and resilience is an inspiration for us all. Thank you!

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Snippet FEA Intro Acknowledgments (EN)

We would like to thank the Amar.ela collective of women feminists activists and creatives who made this series possible, and especially Natalia Mallo (the team’s octopus) for her support and accompaniment throughout this journey.

We also extend our deepest gratitude and admiration to all the collectives and people who participated in this project, and we thank them for sharing their time, wisdom, dreams and hopes with us. We thank you for making this world a more just, feminist and sustainable one.

We hope the rest of the world will be as inspired by their stories as we are.

Janet Benshoof

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

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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.

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

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Tenderness is the Sharpest Resistance

A Film Series on Asian/Pacific Feminist Realities 

Curated by Jess X. Snow With assistance from Kamee Abrahamian and Zoraida Ingles 

Across Asia and the Pacific, and all of it’s vast diaspora, fierce women and trans folks have been fighting for a future where they can all be free. As rising sea levels threaten the Pacific islands, and the coasts of continental Asia, the fight to protect other Earth and the Ocean intensifies all over the globe. Our planet stores a geologic memory of everything that it has experienced. The rise of colonization, industrialization, and environmental destruction is connected to the rise of the binary patriarchal nation state. The power within the Earth, to reincarnate, heal, and bloom in the face of violence, must then be connected to the woman, to motherhood, to indigeneity and all forces that are expansive, sacred and queer. It is no coincidence that Feminist Realities unite the fight to protect the rights of women, trans and LGBTQ+ people with the fight to protect the Earth. From mother-daughter protectors of Mauna Kea in the Kingdom of Hawaii, to the complex mother-child relationships of Vietnamese refugees, to queer sexual awakenings in conservative India, the reclaimation of home in Inner Mongolia, to the struggle toward LGBTQ liberation in the Phillipines -- this collection of films is a cosmology of the ways current-day Asian Pacific women and queer and trans folks champion the journey to our collective liberation across oceans and borders. 

All of these films have a strong sense of place: indigenous activists protect their sacred lands, youth peel back colonial narratives of their homeland to uncover hidden truths, complex motherhood and relations of care are explored, and characters turn to their own bodies and sexuality as sanctuary when the family and city that surrounds them threaten their safety. 


AFTEREARTH

By Jess X. Snow

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Watch our conversation with the filmmakers


Jess X Snow:

Jess X. Snow is a film director, artist, pushcart-nominated poet, children’s book author and community arts educator who creates queer asian immigrant stories that transcend borders, binaries and time. 

Follow us on Social Media to receive news about upcoming events and screenings:

Facebook: @AWIDWomensRights
Instagram: @awidwomensrights
Twitter ENG: @awid
Twitter ES: @awid_es
Twitter FR: @awid_fr
LinkedIn: Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)

Snippet - GII Intro (ES)

La inversión con impacto de género y el auge de las falsas soluciones.

Un análisis para los movimientos feministas

La inversión con impacto de género (IIG) se ha convertido en tendencia como una solución a la desigualdad de género. Sin embargo, como lo demuestra nuestro informe, en realidad es parte del problema. Las instituciones públicas y privadas que fomentan la IIG la equiparan con la promoción de la igualdad de género y con mayores recursos para mujeres y niñas.

Ninguna de estas aseveraciones tiene una base empírica.

Por el contrario, la IIG es otra expresión de la subordinación de nuestras vidas y nuestras sociedades a la misma lógica financiera que ha configurado, y sigue configurando, las profundas desigualdades de nuestro mundo.

Con este informe, AWID ofrece a lxs lectorxs (feministas, defensorxs de la justicia de género y otrxs actorxs del sector de la inversión con impacto de género) un análisis crítico y pruebas fundamentadas para entender la IIG, sus narrativas y sus implicancias económicas y políticas para los movimientos feministas.

Juli Dugdale

Juli Dugdale fue una feminista australiana que practicaba un liderazgo intergeneracional arraigado en los principios del feminismo, la inclusión y la igualdad. Fue líder, colega y mentora para muchas mujeres, especialmente, para las mujeres jóvenes de todo el mundo.

Juli fue una integrante comprometida del equipo del movimiento Young Women's Christian Association [Asociación Cristiana de Mujeres Jóvenes] (YWCA, por su siglas en inglés), una voluntaria y una ferviente defensora del liderazgo de las mujeres jóvenes por más de 30 años.

Se convirtió en un vínculo fuerte entre el movimiento australiano y la Oficina de la YWCA Mundial. Su confianza en la capacidad de liderazgo de las mujeres jóvenes llevó a establecer una asociación de varios años con el Departamento de Asuntos Exteriores y Comercio de Australia y a la creación del manual Rise Up (Rebélate), una guía global para el liderazgo transformador de las mujeres jóvenes, lanzada en 2018.

Juli falleció en Ginebra el 12 de agosto de 2019.


Tributos:

"Para quienes llegaron a trabajar con Juli, fue un privilegio.  Quienes no lo hicieron,  pueden tener la certeza de que su legado continúa en el trabajo que hacemos cada día y en la misión del movimiento de la YWCA". - YWCA Australia

"Juli Dugdale siempre ocupará un lugar profundo en el corazón de muchas personas en el movimiento de la YWCA, especialmente aquí, en Aotearoa, y a través del Pacífico. Juli tenía una relación especial con el Pacífico y fue un apoyo increíble para las mujeres jóvenes de allí. Ella era humilde, amable, cariñosa, dedicada, apasionada y tenía un corazón generoso. Ella encarnó la visión de la YWCA de "liderazgo transformador" con una extraordinaria visión y previsión de futuro, y ayudó a empoderar a generaciones de mujeres jóvenes líderes de todo el mundo". - YWCA Nueva Zelanda

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< arte: «When They See Us» [Cuando nos ven], Lame Dilotsotlhe

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Actores anti-derechos

Capítulo 4

Una red compleja de actores anti-derechos, en constante evolución, está ejerciendo cada vez más influencia en los espacios internacionales y en las políticas nacionales. Respaldados a menudo por financiaciones poco transparentes, estos actores construyen alianzas tácticas sobre distintos temas y cruzando diferentes regiones y credos para aumentar su impacto.

Image from #GenderAndSex Conference
© HazteOir.org/Flickr
23.02.2018 I Congreso Internacional sobre Género, Sexo y Educación (#GenderAndSex Conference)

Estamos viendo actores fascistas y fundamentalistas que, si bien tienen un discurso nacionalista, son completamente transnacionales en lo que respecta a sus basamentos ideológicos, sus alianzas políticas y sus redes de financiamiento. En algunos casos, estos grupos están respaldados por flujos financieros poco transparentes vinculados con grandes empresas o con partidos políticos de extrema derecha. Sin embargo, también crean alianzas estratégicas, que incluyen, en algunos casos, segmentos de los movimientos feministas y por los derechos de las mujeres, y se distancian de los elementos más evidentemente extremistas para parecer más legítimos. Los actores anti-derechos también se expanden y replican su estilo de organización antiderechos (ya sea a través de campañas y grupos de presión, o de litigios estratégicos) en todo el planeta.

Índice de contenidos

  • CitizenGo
  • Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)
  • Financiación de actores antiderechos
  • Los vínculos entre feministas trans-excluyentes y fundamentalistas cristianxs
  • Ejercicio: Esquematicemos el panorama
  • Historia de movimiento de resistencia: Catolicadas, una poderosa herramienta de comunicación para promover la igualdad de género y los derechos sexuales y reproductivos

Leer el capítulo completo

Snippet Forum Stories Title

Stories of Change: AWID Forums