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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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Existen numerosas razones acerca de por qué tu respuesta a la encuesta ¿Dónde está el dinero? es importante. Entre otras cosas, tienes la oportunidad de compartir tu experiencia con la movilización de financiamiento para apoyar a tu organización, afirmar tu poder como especialista en cómo se mueve el dinero y a quién le llega, y contribuir a la promoción colectiva y continua ante los donantes para movilizar más y mejor financiamiento. Durante los últimos dos decenios, la investigación de AWID ¿Dónde está el dinero? ha demostrado ser un recurso clave para activistas y donantes. Con muchísimo entusiasmo, te invitamos a sumarte a AWID en su tercera edición para poner de relieve el estado real de la dotación de recursos, impugnar las falsas soluciones y señalar cómo el financiamiento necesita cambiar para que los movimientos prosperen y hagan frente a los complejos desafíos de nuestro tiempo.

Mexican WHRDs

The data from our tribute indicate that Mexico is a particularly dangerous country for defenders. Out of the 12 Mexican Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) we commemorate in this years’ Tribute, 11 were murdered. They were journalists, women’s rights advocates, trans* rights and social activists. Join us in remembering and honoring these WHRDs, their work and legacy by sharing the memes below and tweeting by using the hashtags #WHRDTribute and #16Days. 


Please click on each image below to see a larger version and download as a file

 

Snippet FEA Objectives NSS Family Farming (ES)

AGRICULTURA FAMILIAR, AGROECOLOGÍA Y SOBERANÍA ALIMENTARIA

Circle in mustard yellow with the illustration of a rural woman with brown skin and a blue dress, with a hoe tool on her left shoulder.
Promover la agricultura familiar a través de la agroecología y la soberanía alimentaria

Nous redistribuons une partie de nos fonds à des partenaires bénéficiaires et nous identifions comme un fonds féministe et/ou de femmes, devrions-nous participer à cette enquête?

Non, nous reconnaissons l’importance cruciale de votre travail, mais nous ne collectons pas les participations de fonds féministes et de femmes à l’heure actuelle. Nous vous encourageons néanmoins à transmettre cette enquête à vos partenaires bénéficiaires et vos réseaux féministes.

Obiageli “Oby” Nwankwo

Avec une carrière juridique de plus de 30 ans à son actif, Oby était connue en Afrique et dans le monde comme une ardente défenseure de la justice de genre et des droits humains.

Elle a fondé le Centre de documentation et de développement des ressources civiles (CIRDDOC), une ONG nigériane qui sponsorise des formations et des activités de mise en réseau qui promeuvent les droits humains, la bonne gouvernance, l’accès à la justice et l’État de droit pour les membres de la société civile, les parlementaires, ainsi que d’autres parties prenantes concernées.

Au Nigeria, les activistes se souviennent d’Oby avec émotion, la qualifiant « d’activiste extraordinaire qui a fait preuve d’énergie et de passion pour lutter pour l’égalité de genre et la justice de genre au Nigéria et en Afrique »

 


 

Obiageli “Oby” Nwankwo, Nigeria

Defensoras del África subsahariana

En nuestro Tributo Virtual 2015 a las defensoras de derechos humanos que ya no están con nosotros/as recordamos a cuatro mujeres del África subsahariana, tres de las cuales fueron asesinadas por el trabajo que realizaban y/o por su identidad de género y orientación sexual. Sus muertes ponen en evidencia la violencia que suelen enfrentar las personas LGBT en la región y en  el mundo. Únete a AWID para honrar a estas defensoras de derechos humanos, su trabajo y su legado, compartiendo los memes aquí incluidos con tus colegas, amistades y redes; y tuiteando las etiquetas #WHRDTribute y #16Días.


Por favor, haz click en cada imagen de abajo para ver una versión más grande y para descargar como un archivo.  

 

Snippet FEA Get Involved Story 2 (FR)

ENGAGEZ-VOUS!

Vous pouvez suivre Nous Sommes la Solution
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What are the WITM official survey languages?

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Marielle Franco

Marielle was a Brazilian politician, feminist, lesbian and human rights activist.

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Read more about Marielle and the situation in Brazil

 


 

Marielle Franco, Brasil

Why and how to renew your AWID membership

Meet Other Members

Our individual and institutional members come from ALL regions of the world and 163 countries. Our latest members join us from France, South Sudan, the United Kingdom, and Lebanon. All of our members bring with them a rich and diverse array of perspectives, experiences, knowledge, energy and inspiration! 

Did you know about our weekly member profiles?

One of the benefits of being an AWID member, is having your story featured on awid.org, in our newsletters which go out to 35,000 subscribers, and via our social media channels which have over 60,000 followers.

Recently featured:

Meet Angila Ashitua, a young woman from Vihiga county in Western Kenya.

Meet other members


Connect, Inspire, Mobilize!

How?

  • By engaging with other members through our online members' forum and directory.
  • By learning more about AWID's work and issues concerning women's rights and social justice through our publications and resources.
  • By participating in our e-learning sessions. Take a look at highlights from our webinar on Data, Resources and Women's Rights!
  • By supporting Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) at risk

And much more!

You can renew your membership for 1, 2 or 3 years and we offer free individual and institutional membership for those with low incomes and budgets.

Renew your membership today

If you have any difficulties and require support with the sign-up process, please do not hesitate to contact us at membership@awid.org


What Our Members Say

"We have found AWID to be a very exciting network and we are involved in many of its platforms." - Engabu Za Tooro (AWID institutional member)

"I am looking forward to a fruitful engagement with the team. Feeling great. Thanks for accepting me as a member." - R. Chakraborty (AWID individual member)

"Thank you so much AWID, your work is tremendous. I really appreciated your efforts." - E. Khan (AWID individual member)

Snippet FEA Travesti (EN)

TRAVESTI

A latin-american gender identity

The term travesti is often mistakenly translated as "transvestite" in English. However, it is a Latin American gender identity with no equivalent in other languages, and exclusively female. It is a person designated male at birth who identifies as female. They may or may not undergo bodily changes, and should always be addressed with she/her pronouns.

Travesti is not only a gender identity located outside of gender binarism, it is also a cultural identity rooted in Latin American movements. The term was initially pejorative, but it was later re-appropriated as a symbol of resistance and dignity.

Every travesti is trans because she does not identify with the gender designated at birth, however not every travesti considers themselves as a trans woman, since travesti is already a gender identity on its own.

Source: Berkins, Lohana. (2006). Travestis: una Identidad Política [Travestis: a Political Identity]. Trabajo presentado en el Panel Sexualidades contemporáneas en las VIII Jornadas Nacionales de Historia de las Mujeres/ III Congreso Iberoamericano de Estudios de Género Diferencia Desigualdad. Construirnos en la diversidad, Villa Giardino, Córdoba, 25 al 28 de octubre de 2006.

¿Debería prepararme de alguna forma para responder la encuesta?

Dado que la encuesta ¿Dónde está el dinero? se centra en las realidades de la dotación de recursos para las organizaciones feministas, la mayoría de las preguntas indagan acerca del financiamiento de tu agrupación entre 2021 y 2023. Para responder la encuesta, necesitarás tener a mano cierta información como, por ejemplo, presupuestos anuales y las fuentes clave de financiamiento.