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Special Focus

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

Protection of the Family

The Issue

Over the past few years, a troubling new trend at the international human rights level is being observed, where discourses on ‘protecting the family’ are being employed to defend violations committed against family members, to bolster and justify impunity, and to restrict equal rights within and to family life.

The campaign to "Protect the Family" is driven by ultra-conservative efforts to impose "traditional" and patriarchal interpretations of the family, and to move rights out of the hands of family members and into the institution of ‘the family’.

“Protection of the Family” efforts stem from:

  • rising traditionalism,
  • rising cultural, social and religious conservatism and
  • sentiment hostile to women’s human rights, sexual rights, child rights and the rights of persons with non-normative gender identities and sexual orientations.

Since 2014, a group of states have been operating as a bloc in human rights spaces under the name “Group of Friends of the Family”, and resolutions on “Protection of the Family” have been successfully passed every year since 2014.

This agenda has spread beyond the Human Rights Council. We have seen regressive language on “the family” being introduced at the Commission on the Status of Women, and attempts made to introduce it in negotiations on the Sustainable Development Goals.


Our Approach

AWID works with partners and allies to jointly resist “Protection of the Family” and other regressive agendas, and to uphold the universality of human rights.

In response to the increased influence of regressive actors in human rights spaces, AWID joined allies to form the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs).  OURs is a collaborative project that monitors, analyzes, and shares information on anti-rights initiatives like  “Protection of the Family”.

Rights at Risk, the first OURs report, charts a map of the actors making up the global anti-rights lobby, identifies their key discourses and strategies, and the effect they are having on our human rights.   

The report outlines “Protection of the Family” as an agenda that has fostered collaboration across a broad range of regressive actors at the UN.  It describes it as: “a strategic framework that houses “multiple patriarchal and anti-rights positions, where the framework, in turn, aims to justify and institutionalize these positions.”

 

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Feminist film club - holding up the skies

Check out the AWID Feminist Film Club program “Holding up the Skies” - a film series on Feminist Realities from Africa and the African Diaspora curated by Gabrielle Tesfaye

WATCH

Qui peut financer ma mobilisation pour les droits des femmes ?

Notre liste de liste de donateurs est actuellement en cours de révision. Nous savons que les féministes ont encore besoin et méritent des ressources plus nombreuses et de meilleure qualité !

Rejoignez notre liste de diffusion pour rester informé de cette mise à jour.

Vous pouvez également devenir membre et trouver et créer des liens avec des féministes du monde entier.

Rejoindre L'AWID

When can I register for the Forum? How much does it cost to register? What does Registration Include?

Registration will start early 2024. We will announce the exact registration date and registration fee soon. Registration will include participation in the Forum, plus lunch and snacks (breakfast to be provided at the hotels), and one onsite dinner.

ours chapter 3 fr

Chapitre 3
Les discours antidroits

Les discours antidroits continuent à évoluer. Outre le recours à des arguments religieux, culturels et traditionnels, les acteur·rice·s antidroits s’approprient le langage de la justice sociale et des droits humains pour travestir leurs véritables programmes et gagner ainsi en légitimité.

En lire plus
 

Clone of Annonce: Forum AWID 2024

Image avec les mots: annonce: forum awid 2024. L'arrière-plan a une photo pâle du public lors du forum précédent et a un dégradé qui va du violet à gauche au jaune à droite.

Il est temps pour le prochain forum de l’AWID en 2024.

Lorsque des milliers de féministes se réunissent, nous créons une grande force de solidarité qui a le pouvoir de changer le monde. Le Forum de l’AWID sera pour nous un moment de repos et de guérison ensemble, de connexion au-delà des frontières et de découverte de nouvelles orientations stratégiques courageuses.

La date et le lieu seront annoncés l'année prochaine, dès que possible. Nous sommes ravi.es et nous savons que vous le serez aussi. Restez à l'écoute!

Assurez-vous de nous suivre sur les médias sociaux et de vous inscrire à notre liste de diffusion pour rester informé!

¿AWID proporciona becas para asistir al Foro?

Nuestro Fondo de Acceso ofrecerá un número limitado de becas para financiar la participación de activistas que de otra manera no podrían asistir y que no tienen relaciones con donantes que puedan cubrir su participación. Por lo tanto, si tienes otras posibilidades, te animamos a explorarlas. Haremos todo lo posible para ofrecer la mayor cantidad de becas y compartiremos más información sobre este proceso y cómo postular a principios de 2024.

Rights at Risk: Time for Action

Report:

Rights at Risk: Time for Action

The most recent report from the Observatory on the Universality of Rights unpicks discourses like “gender ideology”, “prenatal genocide”, and “cultural imperialism”. It also digs into CitizenGo, Alliance Defending Freedom, and anti-rights funding flows. You’ll also find analysis on regional human rights systems and successful feminist strategies and wins!

Get the report

No care economies without domestic workers!

A Manifesto 

As feminist and labour movements, together in solidarity, we articulate the following points as a collective vision for care economies with domestic workers rights at the centre. We call on feminist and social movements to join the call to rethink the economy with care at its centre recognising the rights, agency and leadership of domestic worker movements.

Our manifesto is a response to a complex context.

Domestic and care work is in the limelight after the COVID-19 global pandemic as it provided the means to carry the world through multiple intersecting crises at the global scale. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other multilateral institutions also acknowledge the importance of care and domestic work in sustaining the world’s economy. However, it is our analysis that this recognition most often takes an instrumentalist approach (i.e. care work sustains the ‘productive’ economy) focused on profiteering from care work without recognizing care as a human right and public good, or providing recognition and rights to the workers undertaking the bulk of this labour.

The manifesto is available in English, French, Spanish, Amharic and Thai.

Download the full manifesto

Y aura-t-il des rassemblements régionaux, thématiques ou autres avant le Forum ?

Nous pensons que oui ! Le processus de planification n'en est qu'à ses débuts, alors restez à l'écoute car les plans sont en pleine préparation.

Animación: ¡Llamando a todas las superheroínas feministas!

Animación:

Llamando a todas las superheroínas feministas!

Sigue a nuestra superheroína mientras se embarca en una misión para recuperar las narrativas capturadas por los actores antiderecho en todo el mundo.

Ver la animación

Construcción de economías feministas

La Construcción de Economías Feministas se trata de crear un mundo con aire limpio para respirar y agua limpia para beber, con trabajo significativo y cuidado para nosotrxs y nuestras comunidades, donde todxs podamos disfrutar de nuestra autonomía económica, sexual y política.

En el mundo en que vivimos hoy, la economía sigue dependiendo del trabajo de cuidado no remunerado o subvalorado que realizan las mujeres para ganancia de otrxs. La búsqueda del «crecimiento» solo expande el extractivismo, un modelo de desarrollo basado en la extracción y explotación masiva de los recursos naturales que sigue destruyendo a las personas y al planeta mientras concentra la riqueza en manos de las elites globales. Mientras tanto, el acceso a la salud, a la educación, a un salario digno y a la seguridad social se están convirtiendo en el privilegio de pocxs. Este modelo económico se asienta sobre la supremacía blanca, el colonialismo y el patriarcado.

Adoptar solamente un «enfoque de empoderamiento económico de las mujeres» es solo integrar aún más a las mujeres a este sistema. Ese ‘empoderamiento’ puede ser un medio temporal de supervivencia,  pero debemos plantar las semillas que hagan que otro mundo sea posible mientras derribamos los muros del que ya existe.


Creemos en la capacidad de los movimientos feministas de trabajar para el cambio con alianzas amplias que atraviesen distintos movimientos sociales. Al amplificar las propuestas y visiones feministas, nuestro objetivo es construir nuevos paradigmas para economías justas.

Nuestro enfoque debe ser interconectado e interseccional, porque la autonomía sexual y corporal no será posible hasta que todxs y cada unx de nosotrxs disfrute de sus derechos e independencia económicos. Queremos trabajar con quienes resisten y enfrentan el auge mundial de la derecha conservadora y de los fundamentalismos religiosos, porque no es posible ninguna economía justa hasta que no hagamos crujir las bases del actual sistema.


Nuestras acciones

Nuestro trabajo enfrenta al sistema desde adentro y expone sus principales injusticias

  • Promovemos agendas feministas: Enfrentamos al poder corporativo y su impunidad por los abusos de derechos humanos trabajando con aliadxs. Así nos asegurarnos de llevar a los espacios de decisión política las perspectivas feministas, de derechos de las mujeres y de justicia de género. Un ejemplo sobre el que puedes leer más es nuestro trabajo sobre el futuro instrumento legalmente vinculante sobre las «corporaciones transnacionales y otras empresas comerciales con respecto a los derechos humanos», en el Consejo de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas.

  • Movilizamos acciones solidarias: Trabajamos para fortalecer los vínculos entre los movimientos feministas y por la justicia impositiva, incluyendo el reclamo de que los recursos públicos perdidos a través de los flujos financieros ilícitos (IFFs, por sus siglas en inglés) sean usados para asegurar la justicia social y de género.

  • Construimos conocimiento: Brindamos a las defensoras de derechos humanos información estratégica que es vital para enfrentar el poder corporativo y el extractivismo. Contribuiremos a construir conocimiento acerca del financiamiento local y global para el extractivismo,y los mecanismos de inversión que lo sostienen.

  • Creamos y difundimos alternativas: Movilizamos a nuestra membresía y a los movimientos imaginando de manera colectiva economías feministas, y compartiendo conocimientos, prácticas y agendas feministas por la justicia económica.


«La revolución corporativa va a colapsar si nos rehusamos a comprar lo que están vendiendo: sus ideas, su versión de la historia, sus guerras, sus armas, su idea de inevitabilidad. Otro mundo no solo es posible, sino que está en camino. En los días tranquilos, puedo oírlo respirar».

Arundhati Roy, War Talk.

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Umyra Ahmad

Biography

Umyra Ahmad is a Malaysian feminist with a background in international and regional advocacy, and human rights education. In AWID, she works on advancing rights related to gender and sexuality at the UN. Prior to joining, she was a programme officer at IWRAW Asia Pacific, where she supported regional, national and grassroots organizations in using UN treaty body mechanisms as a tool for state accountability and access to justice. In Malaysia, she works with queer and refugee collectives and supports coordination of various mutual aid initiatives.

Position
Advancing Universal Rights and Justice Advocacy Lead
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Christine Hayhurst

Biography

With over 30 years of finance experience, Christine has devoted her career to furthering nonprofit missions on a global scale. Her contributions extend to serving as Treasurer on the Board of an NGO. Christine joined AWID in 2007 as Controller and in 2023 took on the role as Director of Finance. During her spare time she enjoys traveling, gardening and hiking.

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Director of Finance
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Where does AWID get its funding?

AWID’s work is made possible through the financial support of a wide range of donors including multilateral and bilateral agencies, private foundations and women’s funds.

View a list of our current donors

I am a women human rights defender (WHRD) and am currently under threat. Where can I go for help?

July 2015

Women's Forum on Financing for Gender Equality

  • The Forum took place on 10 July 2015 in Addis Ababa and convened feminists, grassroots women, gender advocates, academics and representatives of women’s rights organizations/networks with specific inputs by UN representatives and other policy makers.
  • The objectives of the Women's Forum were to: share information on the state of play in the latest FfD negotiations; jointly analyze the FfD panorama and follow-up; build a common women’s rights positioning; and strategize on how to meaningfully and substantively engage from a feminist perspective at the Addis FfD Conference.
  • The Women's Forum was organized by the Women's Working Group on FfD, in collaboration with FEMNET, African Women's Development Fund (AWDF) and the Post 2015 Women's Coalition with support from UN Women.
  • Read the Women's Working Group reaction to the Addis Ababa Action Agenda

CSO FfD Forum

  • The CSO FfD Forum took place in Addis Ababa on 11-12 July 2015 and aimed to: inform participating CSOs on the state of play of the official process and coordinate civil society participation in the 3rd FfD Conference; develop a collective CSO Forum Declaration as well as the CSO messages for the FfD Conference Roundtables, the CSO FfD Group-led side events and any other opportunities that might emerge; and plan and organize future areas of CSO engagement on Financing for Development, beyond the 3rd FfD Conference.
  • Read the Declaration from the Addis Ababa Civil Society Forum on Financing for Development
  • For more information, please visit the CSO FfD Group's website or contact the Addis Ababa CSO Coordinating Group (addiscoordinatinggroup@gmail.com).

The Third UN International Conference on Financing for Development

  • The third Conference on Financing For Development took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 13-16 July 2015 and focused on: assessing the progress made in the implementation of the 2002 Monterrey Consensus and the 2008 Doha Declaration; addressing new and emerging issues, including in the context of the recent multilateral efforts to promote international development cooperation. Taking into account: the current evolving development cooperation landscape; the interrelationship of all sources of development finance; the synergies between financing objectives across the three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental); and the need to support the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015; and reinvigorating and strengthening the financing for development follow-up process.
  • The Addis Ababa Action Agenda was adopted on 15 July 2015 by Heads of State, Governments and High Representatives at the UN.
  • The feeling however from developing countries, CSOs and more specifically women's organisations was that the Addis Ababa Action Agenda failed to meet the target. The Women's Working Group expressed its strong disappointment and demanded structural changes in the global economic governance and development architecture. Read their reaction to the outcome document. Hundreds of civil society organizations and networks from around the world also expressed deep concerns and reservations. Read their response to the outcome document.

Snippet FEA A Caring Economy (EN)

A CARING

ECONOMY

Feminists Centering Care in the Economy:
A Cross-Movement Dialogue

What if we reimagined ways of caring for our communities?

What if the economy was not about someone else’s profit but about care for our individual and collective wellbeing? These stories are about building communities of care with and for people who are historically and presently excluded, disenfranchised and dehumanized by both state and society. These are the stories of feminists centering care in the economy.

I can’t attend the Forum in person, how else can I participate?

More than just an event, the AWID Forum is part of our Feminist Realities Journey, with many spaces to come together, online and offline, for sharing, discussing, strategizing and co-creating feminist realities.

Learn more about the Feminist Realities Journey and everything that will happen before the Forum. Join our mailing list to stay tuned for Post-Forum announcements!

We are exploring options to participate virtually at the Forum and we will share information when we know what we can offer.

Snippet FEA Mano Cambiada (EN)

Two hands shaking - lighter skinned hand with a yellow shirt and darker skinned hand with a burgundy shirt. The words "Mano cambiada" are written over in cursive.

MANO CAMBIADA

("exchange hand") 

Term of the black communities of the Northern Cauca for the minga, the collective work based on solidarity and mutual support.

Snippet FEA EoS The Howl (EN)

Three arms with fist raised: one black, pink, and the last one in purple

The Howl
Participation and activism

Snippet FEA Bio fertilizer and Sum-Pack (EN)

ILLUSTRATION OF NSS Products: Bio fertilizer and Sum-Pack - Natural stock cubes

My question isn’t answered here

For additional questions, please use our contact form. We will keep updating this document based on the queries we receive from you!

Snippet Kohl - Panel | El placer más allá de las fronteras

Panel | El placer más allá de las fronteras

con Lindiwe Rasekoala, Lizzie Kiama, Jovana Drodevic y Malaka Grant

YOUTUBESOUNDCLOUD (inglés)