Intisar Al-Hasairi
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.”
Related Content
2022: Transitions, Inspiration & Collective Power
Our strategic plan “Feminist Realities” completed its final year at the end of 2022. For the past five years, this bold framework pushed us to go beyond feminist futures and to recognize the feminist solutions and ways of life that already exist in the here and now. Realities that must be uplifted, celebrated, and popularized. The Feminist Economies We Love multimedia story project and Our:Resource knowledge hub on autonomous ways to resource feminist activism are just two examples of this visionary work, always deeply collective with diverse feminist movements.
Download the full 2022 Annual review
2022 was a year of transitions in AWID.
With this reflection on the year, we invite you to celebrate with us beautiful closures and promising beginnings. Change and transitions are an inseparable part of life and movements, which we seek to embrace with intention and care.
Nicole Barakat
we are infinite
An exhibition by Nicole Barakat, embodying her reconnection with the diaspora of objects from her ancestral homelands in the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region.
Barakat presents a collection of textile works as manifestations of her practice of engaging with displaced, and often stolen objects held within Western museum collections including the Louvre, British Museum and Nicholson Museum.
To by-pass the gatekeepers and breach the vitrines holding these ancestral objects, Barakat reclaims pre-colonial, non-linear, receptive forms of knowing that are often devalued and dismissed by colonial and patriarchal institutions - engaging with coffee cup divination, dream-work, intuitive listening and conversations with the objects themselves (source).
About Nicole Barakat
Nicole Barakat is a queer femme, SWANA artist born and living on Gadigal Country (so-called Sydney, Australia). She works with deep listening and intuitive processes with intentions to transform the conditions of everyday life. Her work engages unconventional approaches to art-making, creating intricate works that embody the love and patience that characterises traditional textile practices.
Her works include hand-stitched and hand-cut cloth and paper drawings, sculptural forms made with her own hair, cloth and plant materials as well as live work where she uses her voice as a material.
Nicole’s creative practice is rooted in re-membering and re-gathering her ancestral knowing, including coffee divination and more recently working with plants and flower essences for community care and healing.
Her works include hand-stitched and hand-cut cloth and paper drawings, sculptural forms made with her own hair, cloth and plant materials as well as live work where she uses her voice as a material.
Nicole’s creative practice is rooted in re-membering and re-gathering her ancestral knowing, including coffee divination and more recently working with plants and flower essences for community care and healing.
Snippet FEA Principles of work Transparency (ES)
TRANSPARENCIA
متى ستكون نتائج الاستطلاع جاهزة؟
سنقوم بتحليل الردود على الاستطلاع للوصول للاستنتاجات الأساسية والنتائج خلال المنتدى العالمي ل AWID في بانكوك، وعن طريق الانترنت في ديسمبر (كانون الأول) 2024. الرجاء التسجيل هنا لحضور المنتدى.
Contributors of toolkit (WITM landing page)
Deseamos agradecer a las personas que hicieron aportes y fueron consultadas para la elaboración de este Manual:
- Angelika Arutyunova
- Cindy Clark
- Kamardip Singh
- Martin Redfern
- Pei Yao Chen
- Srilatha Batliwala
- Veronica Vidal
Sylvia Robinson
"Life is...about living in joy - waking up with purpose, feeling our creative energy, answering your calling." - Sylvia Robinson
Sylvia Robinson, a tireless community organizer and leader, was the founder and Executive Director of The Emergence Community Arts Collective (ECAC) in Washington DC.
This hub and performance space combine education, civic engagement, arts, social and spiritual services, and sustainable environmental practices. Sylvia envisioned it as a home where “there was a balance and synergy with the activities that people needed in order to sustain life.”
She was also one of the founding members of the Georgia Avenue Community Development Taskforce, a neighborhood group that works on social justice and organizing in Northwest DC to make sure the community has a voice in redevelopment and gentrification in the area.
“We're asking for affordable housing. We're asking that the small businesses that have been here for a long time don't get wiped out by new retail. We're asking for green space and space for people to get together to socialize. We're asking for streetscape improvements—better roads and lighting in the corridor.” - Sylvia Robinson about the Taskforce
Prior to becoming an organizer and after receiving a degree in computer science, Sylvia worked in air traffic control systems for over a decade. She then moved into drug and alcohol counselling, becoming increasingly engaged in community work.
“It was my call to be involved in community.” - Sylvia Robinson
Born in Washington D.C. on 14 August 1961, Sylvia passed away on 18 September 2017 after a battle with cancer.
“Sylvia's spirit and legacy will continue to inspire this community for many years to come.” - ECAC
Ritu
Biography
Ritu est une technologue féministe qui apporte son expérience au secteur non lucratif, animée par une passion pour l'utilisation d'approches innovantes pour trouver des solutions technologiques féministes. Titulaire d'un master en technologie des applications informatiques de l'Institut indien de technologie, son rôle au sein de l'AWID couvre un large spectre de responsabilités. De la supervision de la sécurité numérique et gestion des serveurs à l'administration des bases de données, en passant par le renforcement des capacités, l'évaluation technologique, la mise en œuvre de logiciels et de solutions cloud, Ritu veille à ce que l'infrastructure informatique de l'AWID soit résiliente et efficace. Avant de rejoindre l'AWID, elle a joué un rôle central dans l'avancement des initiatives technologiques des secteurs de la promotion de la santé et de l'environnement, alimentée par son engagement à tirer parti de la technologie pour le bien social.
Position
Cheffe Informatique
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Tendencias anti-derechos en los sistemas regionales de derechos humanos
Chapter 6
En la Comisión Africana y en el Sistema Interamericano, los actores antiderechos impulsan nociones esencialistas de cultura y género para impedir el avance de los derechos y socavar las responsabilidades. Como vemos, los actores anti-derechos están ejerciendo su influencia sobre los sistemas regionales de derechos humanos, así como en los espacios internacionales.
2019 JUN 27 Reunión del Grupo de Revisión de la Implementación de Cumbres en Colombia
La Comisión Africana de Derechos Humanos y de los Pueblos ha comenzado a definir a los derechos sexuales y de las mujeres como un menoscabo a su capacidad de ocuparse de los «derechos reales» y como contrarios a los «valores africanos», con lo cual se establece un precedente anti-derechos preocupante. La anulación del estatus de observador de la Coalición de Lesbianas Africanas es un ejemplo de esta tendencia y muestra la forma en que el espacio para el involucramiento feminista panafricanista está siendo restringido.
En la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA) y en el Sistema Interamericano de Protección de los Derechos Humanos, las estrategias anti-derechos incluyen la oenegización de grupos religiosos, la utilización de discursos seculares, y la cooptación de marcos de discriminación. La influencia antiderechos se ha materializado de diversas maneras, que incluyen la intimidación de activistas trans y la obstrucción de la introducción de lenguaje progresista en las resoluciones.
Índice de contenidos
- Silenciamiento de feministas en el Sistema Africano de Derechos Humanos
- Grupos anti-derechos en América Latina: Asamblea General de la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA) y el Sistema Interamericano de Protección de los Derechos Humanos
Catherine Han Montoya
Snippet FEA Get Involved Story 4 (FR)
Membership why page - Paz Romero
Cette communauté est un endroit de connexions, où l’on comprend nos combats individuels comme faisant partie de luttes mondiales, et où l’on peut même parfois danser ! Il n’existe aucun endroit de la sorte en ligne, où être en contact avec des activistes de terrain, qui viennent du monde entier, et forger de la solidarité et de la sororité..- Paz Romero, Argentina
FRMag - United against violence (FR)
Ensemble contre la violence
par Karina Ocampo
C’est dans un recoin caché du Chiapas, au Mexique, que nous sommes arrivées, femmes et dissidentes sexuelles, pour organiser nos actions. (...)
< illustration : « La muerte sale por el Oriente » [la mort se lève à l’Est], par Sonia Madrigal
Maritza Quiroz Leiva
Maritza Quiroz Leiva fue una activista social afrocolombiana, líder comunitaria y defensora de los derechos humanos de las mujeres. Como una de las 7,7 millones de colombianxs desplazadxs internamente por 50 años de conflicto armado, Maritza dedicó su trabajo de incidencia a apoyar los derechos de otras personas, en particular dentro de la comunidad afrocolombiana, que sufrían similares desplazamientos y violaciones de derechos.
Maritza era líder adjunta del Comité de Víctimas de Santa Marta, y una voz importante para quienes buscaban justicia en su comunidad, exigiendo reparaciones por las torturas, los secuestros, los desplazamientos y la violencia sexual que experimentaban las víctimas durante el conflicto armado. También trabajó activamente en el movimiento nacional por la redistribución de la tierra y la justicia agraria.
El 5 de enero de 2019 Maritza fue asesinada por dos individuos armados que irrumpieron en su casa. Tenía 60 años.
Maritza se sumó así a lxs otrxs cinco activistas y líderes sociales colombianxs que fueron asesinadxs durante la primera semana de 2019. En Colombia, ese año fueron asesinadxs un total de 107 defensorxs de derechos humanos.
Marianne Mesfin Asfaw
Biography
Marianne Mesfin Asfaw is a Pan-African feminist who is dedicated to social justice and building community. She has a BA in Gender Studies and International Relations from the University of British Columbia (UBC), and an MA in Gender Studies and Law from SOAS University of London. She has previously worked in academic administration and international student support, and has worked as a researcher and facilitator in feminist and non-profit spaces. She has also worked and volunteered at non-governmental organizations including Plan International in administrative roles. Prior to taking up her current role she worked in logistics and administrative support at AWID. She is from Ethiopia, was raised in Rwanda and is currently based in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. She enjoys reading, traveling and spending time with her family and friends. In the warmer months she can be found strolling around familiar neighborhoods in search of obscure cafés and bookstores to wander into.
Position
Coordinator, Building Feminist Economies
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Grace Mann
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.
Snippet - Intro CSW69_ES
#CongelarFascismos
#FreezeFascisms
A 30 años de la adopción de la Declaración y Plataforma de Acción de Beijing, existe una ola creciente de fascismos que ejercen gran poder e influencia en los espacios multilaterales, todo un retroceso para las conquistas de igualdad de género y la protección de los derechos humanos en el mundo entero.
En torno a la CSW69, estamos organizando, en conjunto y de forma horizontal, una serie de valientes espacios sobre el terreno y en línea a fin de compartir estrategias y forjar un poder feminista más allá de Beijing +30. Nuestra presencia colectiva trastorna las prácticas institucionales de exclusión en dichos espacios y, a la vez, apoya los procesos de organización de los movimientos en torno a las alternativas feministas a los sistemas de opresión.
Súmate a las conversaciones desde el 10 al 21 de marzo de 2025, mientras transformamos de forma colectiva la CSW69 en espacios para y sobre la resistencia y la solidaridad.
FRMag - Esmeralda takes over the Internet
Esmeralda takes over the Internet : How social media has helped Romani women to reclaim visibility
by Émilie Herbert-Pontonnier
Remember Esmeralda? The exotic "Gypsy" heroine born under the pen of the French literary giant Victor Hugo and popularized by Disney studios with their Hunchback of Notre Dame. (...)
< artwork: “Si las marronas lo permiten” by Nayare Soledad Otorongx Montes Gavilan