Memory as Resistance: A Tribute to WHRDs no longer with us
AWID’s Tribute is an art exhibition honouring feminists, women’s rights and social justice activists from around the world who are no longer with us.
In 2020, we are taking a turn
This year’s tribute tells stories and shares narratives about those who co-created feminist realities, have offered visions of alternatives to systems and actors that oppress us, and have proposed new ways of organising, mobilising, fighting, working, living, and learning.
49 new portraits of feminists and Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) are added to the gallery. While many of those we honour have passed away due to old age or illness, too many have been killed as a result of their work and who they are.
This increasing violence (by states, corporations, organized crime, unknown gunmen...) is not only aimed at individual activists but at our joint work and feminist realities.
The stories of activists we honour keep their legacy alive and carry their inspiration forward into our movements’ future work.
The portraits of the 2020 edition are designed by award winning illustrator and animator, Louisa Bertman.
AWID would like to thank the families and organizations who shared their personal stories and contributed to this memorial. We join them in continuing the remarkable work of these activists and WHRDs and forging efforts to ensure justice is achieved in cases that remain in impunity.
“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.” - Mexican Proverb
The Tribute was first launched in 2012
It took shape with a physical exhibit of portraits and biographies of feminists and activists who passed away at AWID’s 12th International Forum, in Turkey. It now lives as an online gallery, updated every year.
To date, 467 feminists and WHRDs are featured.
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Reason to join 1
Faites partie d’une organisation et d’une communauté internationales, associatives et féministes. Nos membres sont établi·e·s dans toutes les régions du monde; iels apprennent les un·e·s des autres et se soutiennent mutuellement dans un réseau mondial fondé sur la solidarité.
Upasana Agarwal



Sobre Upasana Agarwal

Moushmi Narain
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Through in-person events, lives on our socials, an exhibit booth and more; we are showing up to convene, amplify and support the voices and participation of our members, partners and allies.
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Follow us on social media for more details on how to participate! Be part of the conversations using the hashtags #AWIDatCSW68 and #ReclaimFeministPower.
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Solidarity: membership why page
Solidarity
We take a position in solidarity with each other and diverse struggles for justice and freedoms. We strive to mobilize and strengthen collective action and practice meaningful ways of working with each other.
Marren Akatsa-Bukachi
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Chapitre 2
Bien plus de la moitié de la population mondiale est aujourd’hui dirigée par l’extrême droite. C’est sur cette toile de fond que défenseur·e·s des droits humains et féministes luttent pour « tenir bon », protéger le multilatéralisme et le système international des droits humains, alors que leurs engagements les exposent à de violentes répressions. Ces institutions sont cependant de plus en plus soumises aux intérêts du secteur privé. Les grandes entreprises, surtout les sociétés transnationales, siègent à la table des négociations et occupent des fonctions de leadership dans plusieurs institutions multilatérales, l’ONU notamment. Le lien entre ultranationalisme, restriction de l’espace civique et emprise des entreprises a un impact considérable sur la réalisation ou non des droits humains pour tout le monde.

Danger - Trump and the Far Right.
Sommaire
- Nationalisme et ultranationalisme
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- Répression et restriction des espaces civiques pour les activistes féministes et les défenseur·e·s des droits humains des femmes et des personnes LGBTIQ+
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Matilde Lindo Crisanto
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To share your lived experience with mobilizing funding for your organizing
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Our values - Justice and systemic change
Justicia y cambio sistémico
Trabajamos por un mundo basado en la justicia social, ambiental y económica; y por la interdependencia, la solidaridad y el respeto. Trabajamos para desmantelar los sistemas de poder opresivo y contra todas sus manifestaciones, incluidos el patriarcado, los fundamentalismos, los militarismos, los fascismos y el poder corporativo que amenazan nuestras vidas y nuestro mundo. Queremos un mundo justo en el que los recursos y el poder sean compartidos en formas que permitan que todas las personas prosperen.
Eva Ayiera Maina
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The Crear, Résister, Transform Story by Coumba Toure
A magical experience of feminist story telling led by pan-African feminist Coumba Toure, performing in the age old tradition of West African griots.
And we gathered again
We gathered our stories our strength
our songs
our tears
our rage
our dreams
our success
our failures
And we pull them all together
In one big bowl to share
for a moon of thoughts
And we stay in touch
We shake each others minds
we caress each other souls
While our hands still are tied
And our kisses and hugs are banned
Yet we grow stronger by the hour
Weaving together our voices
Crossing the sound barriers
as we speak in tongues
We are getting louder and louder
We know about differences from others
and from each other so we are stitching our beauties into patchwork or thoughts
From our deepest learnings from our powers
Sometimes we are surrounded by terror
by confusions by dishonesty
But we wash out in the Ocean of love
We are weavers of dreams
To clothes or new world
Thread after thread
As small as we are
Like little ants building our movement
Llike little drops building our rivers
We take steps forward and steps backward
Dancing our way back to sanity
Sustain to the rhythm of our hearts keep
Beating please don't not stop
And we are here transmitter of forgotten generosity
drop after drop growing like the ocean
growing like the river flowing from our souls .
showing our strength to be the water
that will clean this world
and we are gathering again can you feel us
I would lie if I say I said I am
Ok not to see you I do miss my people
I miss your touch and
You unfiltered and unrecorded voices
I miss our whispers and our screams
Our cries of the aborted revolution
We only want to give birth to new worlds
So fight to erase the borders between us
And we gathered again
We gathered our stories our strength
our songs
our tears
our rage
our dreams
our success
our failures
And we pull them all together In one big bowl to share
For a moon of thoughts
And we stay in touch
We shake each others minds
we caress each other souls
While our hands still are tied
And our kisses and hugs are banned
Yet we grow stronger by the hour
Weaving together our voices
Crossing the sound barriers
as we speak in tongues
We are getting louder and louder
We know about differences from others
and from each other so we are stitching our beauties into patchwork or thoughts
From our deepest learnings from our powers Sometimes we are surrounded by terror by Confusions by dishonesty
But we watch out in the Ocean of love
We are weavers of dreams
To clothes or new world
Thread after thread
As small as we are like little ants building our movements
like little drops building our rivers We take steps forward and steps backward
dancing our way back to sanity
Sustain to the rhythm of our hearts
keep beating please don't not stop
And we are here transmitter of forgotten generosity
Drop after drop growing like the ocean
growing like the river flowing from our souls
showing our strength to be the water
that will clean this world
and we are gathering again can you feel us
I would lie if I I said I am Ok
not to see you
I do miss my people
I miss your touch and
You unfiltered and unrecorded voices
I miss our whispers and our screams
Our cries over the aborted revolutions
We only want to give birth to new worlds
So fight to erase the borders between us
Please don’’t stop
Natalia Estemirova
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L’enquête est disponible en français, anglais, arabe, espagnol, portugais et russe!
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