Anabel Flores Salazar
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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Qui sont les membres de l'AWID ?
Nos membres forment un réseau dynamique de personnes dans le monde entier. Ce sont des chercheur-euse-s, des universitaires, étudiant-e-s, éducateur-trice-s, militant-e-s, femmes et hommes d’affaires, des responsables politiques, des praticien-ne-s du développement, des bailleurs de fonds. Nos membres, de tous âges, font de l’AWID une association féministe mondiale unique.
L’adhésion à l’AWID est ouverte à toutes celles et à tous ceux qui partagent nos valeurs
Nous proposons divers types d’adhésions en fonction du niveau de revenus et selon que vous êtes une personne ou une organisation. À l’heure actuelle, nous comptons plus de 5 000 membres, individuel-lle-s et institutionel-lle-s, issu-e-s de 164 pays.
Nos membres sont essentiel-le-s à notre travail
Nous collaborons aux plaidoyers sur des problématiques spécifiques ; nos membres votent à l’élection des membres de notre conseil d’administration et peuvent également participer à nos actions prioritaires par le truchement de webinaires, d’enquêtes, d’actions urgentes, pour ne citer que quelques exemples.
Nos membres institutionnel-le-s représentent des organisations qui souhaitent faire progresser la justice de genre et les droits humains des femmes. Il s’agit d’organisations de droits des femmes, de l’échelle locale à la scène mondiale, de réseaux communautaires, de grandes institutions internationales, de ministères gouvernementaux, de programmes universitaires, et bien plus encore. Quelque 63 % de nos membres proviennent des pays du Sud et 38 % ont moins de 30 ans.
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Tenemos el placer enorme de presentarte a Carmen Silva Ferreira.
Nació en Bahía, la parte noreste de Brasil. Es inmigrante, activista social y madre de 8 hijxs.
Carmen experimentó la falta de vivienda a los 35 años, después de migrar sola a São Paulo. Esto la llevó a convertirse en una feroz defensora de las comunidades vulnerables, marginalizadas e invisibilizadas más afectadas por la crisis de la vivienda. Eventualmente se convirtió en una de las fundadoras del MSTC en 2000.
Como organizadora política visionaria y líder actual del MSTC, el trabajo de Carmen ha puesto al descubierto la crisis de la vivienda de la ciudad y ha inspirado a otrxs sobre diferentes formas de organizar y gestionar las ocupaciones.
Se mantuvo firme al frente de varias ocupaciones. Uno de ellos es la Ocupación 9 de Julho, que ahora sirve como escenario para la democracia directa y un espacio donde todxs pueden ser cuidadxs, escuchadxs, apreciadxs y trabajar juntos.
Carmen ha sido celebrada durante mucho tiempo por su audacia al devolver la vida a edificios abandonados en el corazón de São Paulo.
¡Si quieres saber más sobre Carmen, puedes seguir su cuenta de Instagram!
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Can men be members of AWID?
Yes, AWID membership is open to anyone who shares our values.
A number of men who share our commitment to feminism and women’s human rights are members of AWID.
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Soy nueva en este campo y existen muchos términos que me resultan confusos, ¿me pueden ayudar?
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When walking in the heart of the Raval district of Barcelona, you might come across Metzineres, a feminist cooperative by and for womxn2 who use drugs surviving multiple situations of vulnerability.
Imagine a place free of stigma, where womxn can be safe. A safe place that provides shelter, support and accompaniment for womxn whose rights are systematically violated by the war on drugs and those who experience violence, discrimination and repression as a result.
Right outside the entrance, passers by and visitors are greeted with a massive chalkboard that outlines tips, tricks, wishes and drawings by drug users. There is also a calendar that boasts a range of activities self-organized by the Metzineres community. Whether it’s hairdressing and cosmetics workshops, radio shows, theater, communal meals offered to the community, or self-defense classes - there is always something going on.
The cooperative provides safe consumption sites as well as utilities that cover people’s basic needs. There are beds, storage spaces, showers, toilets, washing machines and a small outdoor terrace where people can chill or have a goat gardening.
Metzineres operates within a harm reduction framework, which attempts to reduce the negative consequences of using drugs. But harm reduction is so much more than a set of practices: it is a politics anchored in social justice, dignity and rights for people who use drugs.
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Marie-Lise Semblat-Frere
Je vis une situation de violence au sein de l’une ou plusieurs relations interpersonnelles. Est-ce que l’AWID peut m’aider ?
L’AWID n’est pas une organisation de services de première ligne, ni de défense de la personne
Nous vous conseillons de demander conseil à un-e avocat-e, de communiquer avec un refuge pour femmes ou un centre d’accueil près de chez vous.
Les HotPeachPages, une ressource en ligne, contiennent des liens vers les refuges pour femmes dans le monde entier. L’AWID ne peut garantir l’exactitude ou la qualité de ces listes, mais elles peuvent constituer un bon point de départ si vous ne connaissez aucune organisation près de chez vous.
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El cuidado como base de las economías
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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.
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2008: The Doha International Conference takes place with limited achievements
Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development, Doha, Qatar
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- While the outcome of Doha went beyond Monterrey on gender equality, it did not go far enough. A statement by the WWG on FfD highlighted that the commitments to gender equality in the Doha Declaration would only be meaningful if the systemic issues that underpin poverty and the unequal distribution of power and resources in the global political economy were decisively addressed.
- In addition to the main Doha conference, during their parallel forum the Civil Society under the Doha NGO Group (DNG) for Financing for Development demanded global economic structural changes, and policies that put peoples´ rights first and respect and promote human rights.