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:
◾️ 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.
Related Content
Snippet FEA Care as the foundation (ES)
El cuidado como base de las economías
La pandemia de COVID-19 puso de relieve la crisis mundial de los cuidados y demostró los fracasos del modelo económico dominante que está destruyendo servicios públicos esenciales, infraestructuras sociales y sistemas de atención en todo el mundo.
Cozinha Ocupação 9 Julho, Asociación de Mujeres Afrodescendientes del Norte del Cauca (ASOM) y Metzineres son solo algunos ejemplos de economías de cuidado que centran las necesidades de las personas marginalizadas y la Naturaleza, así como el trabajo de cuidados, el trabajo reproductivo, invisibilizado y no remunerado necesario para garantizar la sostenibilidad de nuestras vidas, nuestras sociedades y nuestros ecosistemas.
Snippet - WITM Why now_col 1 - EN
Why should I take it now?

Feminist, women’s rights, gender justice, LBTQI+ and allied movements around the world are at a critical juncture, facing a powerful backlash on previously-won rights and freedoms. Recent years have brought the rapid rise of authoritarianism, violent repression of civil society, criminalization of women and gender-diverse human rights defenders, escalating war and conflict in many parts of our world, continued perpetuation of economic injustices, and the intersecting health, ecology and climate crises.
Estela Ambrosio Luna
Nuala Fennell
Snippets FEA EoS The Cover (ES)

La Cubierta
Cuidados y sanación
Snippet - WITM Our objectives - EN
Our research objectives
1 |
Provide AWID members, movement partners and funders with an updated, powerful, evidence-based, and action-oriented analysis of the resourcing realities of feminist movements and current state of the feminist funding ecosystem. |
2 |
Identify and demonstrate opportunities to shift more and better funding for feminist organizing, expose false solutions and disrupt trends that make funding miss and/or move against gender justice and intersectional feminist agendas. |
3 |
Articulate feminist visions, proposals and agendas for resourcing justice. |
Faustine Mpanga Mule
Saskia Poldervaart
Our Companion Sites
The Young Feminist Wire
An online community for and by young feminists working on women’s human rights, gender equality and social justice around the world.
The Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs)
The platform is the go-to place for information and resources on safeguarding the universality of rights in international and regional human rights spaces.
The Young Feminist Fund-FRIDA
Provides funding for young feminist-led initiatives. It aims to strengthen the capacity of young feminist organizations to leverage resources for their work and to increase donors’ and allies’ commitments to resourcing young feminist activism.
Online Directory of Urgent Responses for WHRDs
A go-to site to learn about the urgent responses undertaken to protect women human rights defenders and to find tools and resources to support the work and wellness of WHRDs.
IM-Defensoras (Mesoamerican Initiative for Women Human Rights Defenders)
A regional initiative created to prevent, respond, document and make public all cases of violence against women human rights defenders in the Mesoamerican region.
The WHRD International Coalition
The WHRD IC is a resource and advocacy network for the protection and support of women human rights defenders worldwide.
Post-2015 Women´s Coalition
A Coalition of feminist, women´s rights, women´s development, grassroots and social justice organisations working to challenge and reframe teh global development agenda.
Women´s Major Group on Development
The role of the Women’s Major Group is to assure effective public participation of women’s non-governmental groups in the UN policy processes on Sustainable Development, Post2015 and Environmental matters.
Women Working Group on Financing for Development
An alliance of women’s organizations and networks to advocate for the advancement of gender equality, women’s empowerment and human rights in the Financing for Development (FfD) related UN processes.
Snippet FEA EoS Artisana (FR)

L’Artisan·e
Art et créativité
Why should I consider responding to the survey?
There are many reasons why your response to the WITM survey matters. The survey offers the opportunity to share your lived experience of mobilizing funding to support your organizing; claim your power as an expert on how money moves and who it reaches; and contribute to collective and consistent advocacy to funders moving more and better funding. Over the last two decades, AWID’s WITM research has proven to be a key resource for activists and funders. We wholeheartedly invite you to join us in its third iteration to highlight the actual state of resourcing, challenge false solutions, and point out how funding must change for movements to thrive and meet the complex challenges of our times.
Luz Yeni Montaño
AWID IN 2014: Strengthening Women’s Rights Organizing Around the World

AWID is very pleased to share our 2014 Annual Report.
From building knowledge on women’s rights issues to amplifying responses to violence against women human rights defenders (WHRDs), our work last year continued to strengthen feminist and women’s rights movements across the world.
Get learn how we built the capacity of our members and broader constituency, pushed hard to keep women’s rights on the agenda of major international development and human rights processes, and helped increase coverage of women’s rights issues and organizing through the media. You'll find a panoramic sampling of our projects and some concrete numbers demonstrating our impact.
Collaboration is at the heart of all that we do, and we look forward to another year of working together to take our movements to the next level.
A sneak peak inside the report
Despite an increasingly challenging panorama, there are important signs of hope for advancing women’s rights agendas. Women’s rights activists remain crucial in creating openings to demand structural change, sustaining their communities, opposing violence and holding the line on key achievements. And there are important opportunities to influence new actors and to mobilize greater resources to support women’s rights organizations.
In this context, strong collective action and organizing among women’s rights activists remains essential.
Our impact

- We built knowledge on women’s rights issues
- We strengthened our online community
- We helped improve responses to violence against WHRDs
- We strengthened movement building through collaborative working processes
- We pushed hard to keep women’s human rights on the agendas of major international development processes
- We helped women’s rights organizations better influence donors and increased visibility and understanding of women’s rights organizations among the donor community
- We contributed towards increased and improved coverage of women’s rights issues and organizing in mainstream media
I am sincerely thrilled by AWID’s accomplishments since 1982 and hope to be able to pay at least a modest contribution to its hard work for the benefit of women and situation of gender equality.” — Aleksandra Miletic-Santic, Bosnia Herzegovina
Our Members

Read the full report
Zarema Sadulayeva
English article
English article created from Spanish site
Snippet FEA NSS has a vision of an Africa (FR)
“Nous Sommes la Solution a une vision d'une Afrique où, solidairement, les femmes rurales impliquées dans la prise de décision peuvent cultiver, transformer, vendre et consommer les produits de l'agriculture familiale tout en préservant l'environnement, pour un développement harmonieux et durable”
En nuestro caso, reorientamos dinero a nuestros socios beneficiarios y nos identificamos como fondo de mujeres/feminista, ¿deberíamos responder la encuesta?
No. Valoramos muchísimo su trabajo, pero no estamos buscando respuestas de fondos de mujeres/feministas por el momento. Alentamos a compartir la encuesta con sus socios beneficiarios y con sus redes feministas.
María Verónica Reina
María was recognized globally for her extraordinary leadership in the disability community.
She represented the International Disability and Development Consortium during the negotiation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2001-2006).
Her work was devoted to the implementation of the goal of the Convention - realization of universal human rights by, for and with persons with disabilities for an inclusive, accessible and sustainable world.
In her words, her leadership was about “...serving the disability community, starting with small tasks that others may not wish to do”.
She passed away on October 27, 2017 in her hometown of Rosario, Argentina.
Read more about María Verónica Reina in her own words
2019: Realidades feministas en un mundo cambiante
AWID comenzó a preparar este informe anual en el momento en que la pandemia global empezaba a desintegrar las formas en que nos reunimos, nos organizamos y vivimos nuestras vidas. Es imposible reseñar lo que hemos hecho sin que el COVID-19 afecte nuestra evaluación.
Descargar el informe anual 2019 completo (PDF)
La creación conjunta de realidades feministas ya no es solamente un tema del Foro de AWID: es un llamamiento a la acción en respuesta a una pandemia que ha puesto en evidencia las falencias de los sistemas sociales, políticos y económicos.
Es una afirmación, urgentemente necesaria, de que existen otros modos, más justos, de organizar nuestras vidas. Durante 2019, cientos de grupos compartieron con nosotrxs sus experiencias y propuestas de realidades feministas, que van desde las redes radicales de apoyo comunitario que facilitan el aborto autogestionado en América Latina y las prácticas de economías comunitarias en Indonesia y de sistemas alimentarios comunitarios en India y EEUU, hasta la reconcepción y renovación de las prácticas no perjudiciales para ritos de iniciación en Sierra Leona. Estas son las experiencias que trazarán un camino hacia una «nueva normalidad».
Sin embargo, las largas historias de opresión y violencia pueden hacer que resulte difícil imaginar lo posible.
Una parte clave de nuestro trabajo de 2019 fue alentar estas exploraciones a través de una guía que AWID lanzó para apoyar a aquellos grupos interesados en descubrir las historias y las aspiraciones que son los componentes esenciales de las proposiciones feministas.
Mientras nos focalizamos en nuestras propuestas para un mundo diferente, también reconocemos el complejo contexto que nos rodea. A través de alianzas con el Observatorio sobre la Universalidad de los Derechos, las Feministas por un Tratado Vinculante, el Consorcio Count Me In! y otras organizaciones, AWID ha continuado resistiendo contra el poder corporativo irrestricto y contra las agendas fascistas y fundamentalistas que socavan los derechos de las mujeres y la justicia de género. En vista de las escasas posibilidades de lograr un cambio transformador a través de procesos multilaterales y de la limitada receptividad de la mayoría de los Estados, estamos redoblando nuestros esfuerzos para garantizar que los movimientos feministas, en toda su diversidad, sean financiados de forma proporcional al papel crítico que desempeñan al apoyar a sus comunidades, reclamar derechos, y responder a las crisis. En 2019, introdujimos principios y enfoques feministas para fondos innovadores como la Iniciativa Spotlight y el Fondo Igualdad, y logramos obtener recursos a través de subvenciones de fondos semilla para realidades feministas provenientes de donantes feministas.
Si miramos hacia adelante, resulta claro que el contexto requiere una transformación de nuestras estrategias de organización:
- estamos aprendiendo a manejar el trabajo de incidencia global aún confinado a los canales en línea,
- lidiamos con la incertidumbre respecto de cuándo y cómo podremos reunirnos en forma presencial y
- utilizamos las herramientas que tenemos a disposición para estrechar conexiones desde las esferas locales a las mundiales.
AWID se está embarcando ahora en un nuevo modelo de membresía que reduce las barreras para el acceso y pone el énfasis en las oportunidades para la participación y la conexión entre afiliadxs. Seguiremos experimentando con distintas herramientas y procesos virtuales para construir comunidad. La interacción entre movimientos continuará siendo central para nuestro trabajo. Las acciones de AWID en solidaridad con los movimientos y las identidades que sufren opresión (incluso y especialmente cuando estas quedan marginalizadas dentro de los movimientos feministas) son importantes para impulsar el cambio y brindar apoyo a los movimientos amplios e inclusivos para todas las personas.
La crisis no es nueva para los movimientos feministas y sociales.
Somos resilientes, nos adaptamos, y nos hacemos presentes para lxs demás. Y tenemos que seguir haciéndolo mejor. Gracias a todxs ustedes, que son parte del viaje junto con nosotrxs.
