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

Protection of the Family

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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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Efua Dorkenoo

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Category
Droits sexuels et reproductifs
Region
Afrique
Afrique subsaharienne
Cause of death / disappearance

Naturelle

Affectueusement connue sous le nom de « Mama Efua », Efua a lutté contre les mutilations génitales féminines (MGF) pendant trois décennies et a contribué à attirer l'attention et l'action de la communauté internationale pour mettre fin à cette pratique néfaste.

En 1983, Efua a cofondé FORWARD (fondation pour la santé, la recherche et le développement des femmes), qui est devenue une organisation de premier plan dans la lutte contre les MGF. Son livre intitulé « Cutting the Rose: Female Genital Mutilation »  (couper la rose), publié en 1994, est considéré comme le premier ouvrage sur les mutilations génitales féminines. Il figure parmi « Les 100 meilleurs livres africains du XXe siècle » de l’Université de Columbia.

Originaire du Ghana et infirmière de formation, Efua a rejoint l'OMS en 1995 et a réussi à faire en sorte que les mutilations génitales féminines fassent partie des agendas politiques des États membres de l'OMS. Elle a également travaillé en étroite collaboration avec le gouvernement nigérian pour élaborer une politique nationale globale qui servirait de base légale aux lois nigérianes contre les mutilations et qui est toujours en vigueur à ce jour.

Son travail de pionnière a abouti à une campagne menée par l'Afrique intitulée « The Girl Generation », qui s'est engagée à mettre fin aux MGF en une génération. Efua a montré comment une seule personne peut devenir la voix unificatrice d'un mouvement : « Une identité partagée peut aider à rassembler des activistes d'horizons différents dans un but commun ». Ces mots, emplis de sagesse, sont plus pertinents que jamais.

 

Efua Dorkenoo, Ghana

¿Qué hay de la justicia climática? ¿Es realmente el momento adecuado para tantos vuelos internacionales?

Nos hemos hecho la misma pregunta y creemos que no hay respuestas simples. Para muchas personas, el Foro de AWID puede ser uno de los pocos viajes internacionales que realicen en su vida. La pandemia nos enseñó las posibilidades pero también las limitaciones de los espacios virtuales para la construcción de movimientos: no hay nada como la conexión en persona. Los movimientos necesitan conexiones transfronterizas para construir nuestro poder colectivo frente a las amenazas que enfrentamos, especialmente la crisis climática. Creemos que el próximo Foro de AWID puede ser un espacio estratégico para abordar estas cuestiones y explorar alternativas al viaje internacional. El formato híbrido del Foro es una parte importante de esta exploración.

Snippet - COP30 - Resistance Hubs Section Column 1 - FR

Alors que les dirigeant·es du monde se réunissent au Brésil, il est vital que les mouvements féministes, en particulier les pays de la Majorité globale, aient des espaces indépendants pour se rassembler, mettre au point des stratégies et bouleverser le cours des choses.

Ces pôles remettent en cause l’élitisme des discussions climat, se concentrent sur les expériences vécues et entendent construire le pouvoir collectif au-delà des frontières. Ils constituent un contrepoids critique aux négociations internationales verticales et souvent excluantes. Les pôles visent à encourager des solutions pilotées par la communauté, amplifier les revendications féministes et veiller à ce que les principes féministes de soin et de solidarité façonnent l’agenda climat. Il ne s’agit pas seulement d’être présentes à la COP30, il faut redéfinir la conversation sur la justice climatique, dans des termes féministes.

Ghiwa Sayegh Snippet

Ghiwa-Sayegh-visite guidee du festiva

Ghiwa Sayegh est une écrivaine anarcho-queer, éditrice indépendante et archiviste. Elle est la rédactrice fondatrice de Kohl : la Revue de Recherche sur les Corps et le Genre et la cofondatrice d’Intersectional Knowledge Publishers. Elle a une maîtrise en études de genre de l’Université Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis. Elle est passionnée par la théorie queer, les circulations transnationales et les histoires imaginaires ou inconnues. Ses influences sont Audre Lorde et Sara Ahmed.

Building Feminist Economies

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Building Feminist Economies is about creating a world with clean air to breath and water to drink, with meaningful labour and care for ourselves and our communities, where we can all enjoy our economic, sexual and political autonomy.

In the world we live in today, the economy continues to rely on women’s unpaid and undervalued care work for the profit of others. The pursuit of “growth” only expands extractivism - a model of development based on massive extraction and exploitation of natural resources that keeps destroying people and planet while concentrating wealth in the hands of global elites. Meanwhile, access to healthcare, education, a decent wage and social security is becoming a privilege to few. This economic model sits upon white supremacy, colonialism and patriarchy.

Adopting solely a “women’s economic empowerment approach” is merely to integrate women deeper into this system. It may be a temporary means of survival. We need to plant the seeds to make another world possible while we tear down the walls of the existing one.

We believe in the ability of feminist movements to work for change with broad alliances across social movements. By amplifying feminist proposals and visions, we aim to build new paradigms of just economies.

Our approach must be interconnected and intersectional, because sexual and bodily autonomy will not be possible until each and every one of us enjoys economic rights and independence. We aim to work with those who resist and counter the global rise of the conservative right and religious fundamentalisms as no just economy is possible until we shake the foundations of the current system.

Our Actions

Our work challenges the system from within and exposes its fundamental injustices:

  • Advance feminist agendas: We counter corporate power and impunity for human rights abuses by working with allies to ensure that we put forward feminist, women’s rights and gender justice perspectives in policy spaces. For example, learn more about our work on the future international legally binding instrument on “transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights” at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

  • Mobilize solidarity actions: We work to strengthen the links between feminist and tax justice movements, including reclaiming the public resources lost through illicit financial flows (IFFs) to ensure social and gender justice.

  • Build knowledge: We provide women human rights defenders (WHRDs) with strategic information vital to challenge corporate power and extractivism. We will contribute to build the knowledge about local and global financing and investment mechanisms fuelling extractivism.

  • Create and amplify alternatives: We engage and mobilize our members and movements in visioning feminist economies and sharing feminist knowledges, practices and agendas for economic justice.

“The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing”.

Arundhati Roy, War Talk

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What is included in registration fees?

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The AWID Forum registration fees for all forum participants cover:

  • Full access to all four days of the Forum
  • Lunches and coffee/tea breaks during forum days
  • Resource materials
  • Simultaneous interpretation during plenaries and some selected breakout sessions/activities (English, French, Spanish, and local language)
  • Participation in the celebration dinner/party
  • Mobile app with final program and chat function
  • Free Wi-Fi service in the forum premises
  • Airport pick ups and hotel-venue-hotel transportation

 

Snippet title Festival Articles (EN)

Festival Articles

Calls for Participation

Virtual participation at the 2016 AWID Forum

Snippet FEA Occupation’s kitchen (EN)

Photo of a wall with a graffiti which says “Luta’
Photo of people in facemasks and aprons cooking together
Photo of a black woman in a red apron and black facemask, holding a book
Photo of a group of 4 of people wearing facemasks, demonstrating food and books

Women and collaborators at the occupation’s kitchen
Photo of two black women cooking

Jobs Board

This vacancy is no longer online - Thank you

Snippet FEA Aura Roig (EN)

Meet Aura Roig, the visionary feminist activist, anthropologist, director and founder of the Metzineres cooperative.

She spent the last two decades researching, designing and implementing drug policies from the perspective of harm reduction, human rights and intersectional feminism.

Having experienced and learned from communities who use drugs around the world, she returned to Barcelona and created Xarxa de Dones que Usen Drogues (the Network of Women Who Use Drugs, XADUD). XADUD was a space of mutual support and solidarity with the struggle to secure rights for marginalized groups, which later became the Metzineres cooperative.

Aura is currently working on expanding the Metzineres model to provide support to bigger constituencies, while also extensively documenting their prolific journey and learnings.

Snippet FEA Ecofeminism (EN)

WEST AFRICA

NOUS SOMMES LA SOLUTION
We are the Solution

ECOFEMINISM:

Respect for all we have around us

Snippet FEA Audio A Caring Economy (EN)

Body

From “WID” to “GAD” to Women’s Rights: The First Twenty Years of AWID

In 2002 AWID celebrated its 20th anniversary. Given the challenging political, economic and funding environment in which women's organizations must survive, a milestone such as this is worthy of recognition.

In the past two decades the geo-political landscape has been transformed and development theories have come and gone, but approaches to ensure women benefit from development processes have endured.

In its twenty-year history, AWID grew from a volunteer organization for U.S. "Women in Development" (WID) specialists to an international network striving to support proactive and strategic gender equality research, activism and policy dialogue.

On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, this paper charts not only the changes in AWID's organizational structure and goals but also the shifts in policy approaches to gender equality in a changing global environment, through the lens of a membership organization committed to improving the lives of women and girls everywhere.

Snippet FEA Bauen Hotel (EN)

Only a year after it was founded, the members of Nadia Echazú started to work in haute couture and organized a fashion show in the historic Bauen Hotel.

They showcased five models and some workers of the textile cooperative walked down the runway with their own designs.

This was revolutionary not only because they were designing alternatives to mainstream fashion, but also because they were creating accessible, inclusive clothes for all trans and travesti bodies.

Feminist economies should also be about feeling amazing and comfortable in the clothes we are wearing.

Body

Su’ad Al-Ali

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Category
Civil & Political Rights
Region
West Asia
Cause of death / disappearance

Killed

Su’ad was a strong advocate of women’s and children’s rights, and was the head of Al-Weed Al-Alaiami - an Iraqi human rights organisation.

She participated in the July 2018 demonstrations that took place in Basra and several other Iraqi cities protesting unemployment and demanding jobs and proper public services for citizens, as well as calling for the elimination of rampant corruption.

On 25 September 2018, Su’ad was assassinated in the Al-Abbasiyah district in downtown Basra. A video of the incident showed a person approaching her as she was getting into her car, firing a bullet at the back of her head and pointing another bullet at her driver Hussain Hassan, who was injured in the shoulder. Al-Ali was 46 and the mother of four children.

 

Su'ad Al Ali, Iraq

CFA 2023 - breadcrumbs Menu _ awid-forum-es

Snippet - COP30 - Feminist Economic Alternatives Brief - FR

📖 Briefing sur les alternatives économiques féministes

Un outil destiné aux militant·es féministes présent·es à la COP30 qui luttent pour des solutions transformatrices, équitables et centrées sur les communautés afin de lutter contre la crise climatique.

Téléchargez le briefing

Também disponível em português

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Plenary | Organizing to Win

with Nazik Abylgaziva, Amaranta Gomez Regalado, Cindy Weisner, and Lucineia Freitas.

YOUTUBE

Fahmida Riaz

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Category
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Region
Asia
South Asia
Date of birth
Date of death / disappearance
Cause of death / disappearance

Natural

“Afterwards
After love the first time,
Our naked bodies and minds
A hall of mirrors,
Wholly unarmed, utterly fragile,
We lie in one another's arms
Breathing with care,
Afraid to break
These crystal figurines.” - Fahmida Riaz

Fahmida Riaz broke social taboos by writing about female desire in her poetry, creating alternative narratives about women’s bodies and sexuality, and setting new standards in Urdu literature.

Her work faced harsh criticism from conservatives, who accused her of using erotic and “pornographic” expressions in her poetic language. 

Fahimida was eventually blacklisted and charged with sedition under Section 124A of the Pakistan Penal Code) during the dictatorship of Zia Ul Haq. Forced into exile in 1981, she spent almost seven years in India before returning to Pakistan. 

As part of the preface to “Badan Dareeda” ('The Torn-Bodied'), a collection of poetry published in 1974, she wrote: 

If, indeed, I am forced to stand before this maqtal today and face the gallows, I should face them with my head held high. My poems are the trace of a mangled head: emanating sounds even as it is suspended from ropes... A Body Torn has taken the form of a razmia, or the sound of rupture. And if such rupture indeed shocks a people, then consider the poet as having achieved her purpose: she has managed to disturb them. (translation from Urdu by Asad Alvi)

The brilliance of Fahmida was in defying any singular logic or categories of gender, nation, religion or culture. She refused to be put in the role of a ‘woman poet’, breaking with traditional definitions of feminine poetry and concepts and themes (ranging from political consciousness, body, culture, desire, religion, home) and knocking down inhibitions put on her gender. 

“You have to understand that culture can have no essence. Cultures move, flowing into one another, forming new cultures. Culture is born this way. There is no clash of cultures.” 

Fahmida authored more than 15 books on poetry and fiction including her poem ‘Taaziyati Qaraardaaden’ (‘Condolence Resolutions’) that might serve as an appropriate tribute to her life and legacy and a collection of poems (Apna Jurm To Saabit He ‘My Crime Stands Proven’) published in 1988 during her time in exile. 

Fahmida Riaz was born in Meerut, India on 28 July 1946 and passed away on 21 November 2018 in Lahore, Pakistan.

CFA 2023 - Who, where, when - EN

When: 2–5 December 2024
Where: Bangkok, Thailand; and online
Who: Approximately 2,500 feminists from all over the world participating in- person, and 3,000 participating virtually

Snippet - COP30 Join thousands CTAs - ES

Súmate a los miles de personas que exigimos una verdadera justicia climática:

Sigue la campaña

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Súmate

Nuestra membresía| Nuestra comunidad

Mantente al tanto

Suscríbete para recibir las novedades

¿Tienes alguna pregunta?
Contacto: communications @ awid.org

Sexting Like a Feminist: Humor in the Digital Feminist Revolution | Title Snippet

Sexting Like a Feminist: Humor in the Digital Feminist Revolution

by Chinelo Onwualu

Navleen Kumar

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Category
Derechos económicos, sociales y culturales
Region
Asia
Asia del Sur
Date of birth
Date of death / disappearance
Cause of death / disappearance

Asesinato

"No era una persona. Era una potencia". - Así recuerda unx compañerx activista a Navleen Kumar.

Nacida el 15 de octubre de 1994, Navleen Kumar fue una ferviente activista por el derecho a la tierra y la justicia social de la India.

Con integridad y compromiso, trabajó durante más de una década para proteger y restaurar las tierras de los pueblos indígenas (adivasi) en el distrito de Thane, un área arrebatada por los propietarios y promotores inmobiliarios a través de medios como la coerción y la intimidación. Luchó contra esta injusticia y estos crímenes a través de intervenciones legales en diferentes tribunales, y descubrió que la manipulación de los registros de las tierras era una característica recurrente en la mayoría de los casos de adquisición de terrenos. En uno de los casos, el de los Wartha (una familia tribal), Navleen descubrió que la familia había sido engañada con la complicidad de funcionarixs gubernamentales.

Así, a través de su trabajo, ayudó a restituir la tierra a la familia Wartha, y siguió dedicándose a otros casos de transferencias de tierras adivasi.
 
"Su  artículo sobre el impacto de la alienación de la tierra en las mujeres y las niñas y niños adivasi traza la historia y las complejidades de la alienación tribal desde la década de los 70, cuando las familias de clase media comenzaron a trasladarse a los suburbios de Mumbai, que se extendían mientras el valor de la propiedad en la ciudad aumentaba de forma exponencial.

Los complejos de viviendas proliferaron en estos suburbios, y lxs integrantes de las comunidades tribales, que eran analfabetxs, pagaron el precio por ello. El costo de las tierras de primera, cerca de las líneas de ferrocarril, alcanzó un precio elevado y los constructores se abalanzaron sobre este cinturón como buitres, arrebatando de forma ilegal las tierras a las comunidades tribales y otrxs residentes locales ". - Jaya Menon, Comisión de Justicia y Paz.

Durante el curso de su activismo, Navleen recibió numerosas amenazas y sobrevivió a varios atentados contra su vida. A pesar de ello, siguió trabajando no sólo en lo que era importante para ella, sino que además contribuyó a cambiar la vida y la realidad de las muchas personas a las que apoyó en su lucha por la justicia social.

Navleen murió apuñalada el 19 de junio de 2002 en su edificio de departamentos. Dos gánsteres locales fueron arrestados por su asesinato.

CFA 2023 - breadcrumbs Menu _ cfa-forum-es

Clone of Clone of Snippet - CSW68 Intro - FR

Récuperer Notre Pouvoir Féministe

Cette année, aux côtés de militant.e.s féministes du monde entier, nous serons à la CSW68 à New York. Nous serons là pour contester les discours capitalistes et néolibéraux et les fausses solutions autour de la pauvreté, du développement et de la finance. À travers des événements en présentiel, des lives sur nos réseaux sociaux, un stand d'exposition et bien plus encore, nous visons à nous rassembler, amplifier et soutenir les voix et la participation de nos membres et allié.e.s.

Apprenez-en davantage sur notre programme cette année ci-dessous.

#9 - Sexting like a feminist Tweets Snippet ES

Siempre es bueno fijar las reglas básicas

Leave your biases, preconception, and your clothes at the door!

¡Deja tus prejuicios, tus preconceptos Y tu ropa de la puerta para afuera!