Albertina Sisulu
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
Brenda Salas Neves
Biography
Brenda Salas Neves is a feminist queer strategist born and raised in the southern Andes. They organize to shift narratives and mobilize resources to support racial and climate justice movements around the world. They have produced media projects to uplift migrant power and rise against U.S. military intervention across Latin America, with Deep Dish TV and the Portland Central America Solidarity Committee. They are a proud member of the Audre Lorde Project and a graduate of the United World Colleges (UWC) movement.
Position
Secretary
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Feminist propositions: Glossary of terms
Capitalism:
An economic system in which production and consumption patterns are based on profit using privately owned capital goods and wage labour. The system builds on individual wealth and capital accumulation at the lowest cost to the investor, with little regard for the societal costs and exploitation of the workforce - both paid and unpaid.
Commodification of land:
The conversion of land and activities related to it (like agriculture) into commodities that can be bought or sold for profit.
International Financial Institutions (IFIs):
Institutions (like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, or regional development banks) that provide loans to countries lacking sufficient money to cover funding shortfalls or to finance development projects. Historically, the lending policies of these institutions have been determined by economically powerful Western countries and private enterprises. Loans to low-income countries in particular typically include conditionalities that prompt economic reforms in these countries to support neo-liberalism.
Neoliberalism:
A set of economic and political theories in which market forces, rather than governments, determine key aspects of the economy with governments acting to support globalized markets and the interests of capital. Neo-liberal economic policies typically include promotion of free trade, privatisation, reduced government spending on social programs, subsidies and tax exemptions for business, deregulation of financial sector and foreign investments, low taxes on the wealthy and corporations, flexible labour and weak environmental protection.
Patriarchy:
Refers to systemic and institutionalized male domination embedded in and perpetuated by cultural, political, economic and social structures and ideologies. Hetero-patriarchy in addition, is a patriarchal system that is also based on the belief that heterosexuality is the only normal and acceptable sexual orientation.
Snippet - WITM Acknowledgements - AR
شكر
ان جمعية حقوق المرأة في التنمية ممتنة للعديد من الأشخاص الذين/ اللواتي ساعدت أفكارهم/ن، تحليلاتهم/ن ومساهماتهم/ن على تصميم استطلاع "أين المال" على مدار السنوات.
نشكر جزيل الشكر أعضاء/ عضوات AWID والنشطاء/ الناشطات الذين/ اللواتي شاركوا/ن في استشارات استطلاع "أين المال؟" وقاموا/ن بتجربة الاستطلاع وأعطونا بسخاء من وقتهم/ن وتحليلاتهم/ن وقلوبهم/ن.
نقدر بشكل عميق الحركات النسوية، الحلفاء/ الحليفات والصناديق النسوية بمانقدر بشكل عميق الحركات النسوية، الحلفاء/ الحليفات والصناديق النسوية وهنا بعض منها وليس جميعها: Black Feminist Fund, Pacific Feminist Fund, ASTREA, FRIDA Young Feminist Fund, Purposeful, Kosovo Women's Network, Human Rights Funders Network, CEECCNA Feminist Fund e PROSPERA, على بحثكم/ن الرائع عن وضع التمويل، تحليلكم/ن الدقيق والمناصرة المستمرة لتمويل وقوة أكبر وأفضل للحركات النسوية وتنظيمات العدالة الجندرية في جميع السياقات.
انضموا/من للمجتمع العالمي من النسويات/ين اللواتي/ اللذين يرفعن/وا صوتهم/ن ويتحدثن/وا عن التمويل، ويطالبن/وا بتمويل وبقوة أكبر وأفضل للنسويات/ين في كل مكان
María Cecilia Alfaro Quesada
Most of María’s life was devoted to incorporating a feminist and gender perspective in institutional and organizational work, and capacity building in Latin America.
As a child, María had a strong interest in art, communication, nature, literature, and the achievement of justice, especially for women and marginalized groups.
María was committed to sexual and reproductive rights and was a member of the National Board for Integral Education in Sexuality. She is remembered by those who loved her as a “passionate and restless fighter” with a strong commitment to women’s and children’s rights.
Snippet FEA Who takes care of them S4 (FR)
...QUI PREND SOIN D'ELLEUX?
Rachel Mabaudi
Biography
Rachel is a financial professional with over two decades of experience. She has overseen financial affairs and projects for private and public entities, non-profits, and international non-governmental organizations. A Chartered Accountant with a Global Master’s in Business Administration, she is also a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants. In her spare time, Rachel designs typography art, enjoys traveling and spending time with family and friends over a bottle of wine.
Position
Finance Manager
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Key opposition actors
We are witnessing an unprecedented level of engagement of anti-rights actors in international human rights spaces. To bolster their impact and amplify their voices, anti-rights actors increasingly engage in tactical alliance building across sectors, regional and national borders, and faiths.
This “unholy alliance” of traditionalist actors from Catholic, Evangelical, Mormon, Russian Orthodox and Muslim faith backgrounds have found common cause in a number of shared talking points and advocacy efforts attempting to push back against feminist and sexual rights gains at the international level.
Holy See
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Key activities: As the government of the Roman Catholic Church, the “Holy See” uses its unique status as Permanent Observer state at the UN to lobby for conservative, patriarchal, and heteronormative notions of womanhood, gender identities and “the family”, and to propagate policies that are anti-abortion and -contraception
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Based in: Vatican City, Rome, Italy.
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Religious affiliations: Catholic
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Connections to other anti-rights actors: US Christian Right groups; interfaith orthodox alliances; Catholic CSOs
Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
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Key activities: Self-described as the “collective voice of the Muslim world”, the OIC acts as a bloc of states in UN spaces. The OIC attempts to create loopholes in human rights protection through references to religion, culture, or national sovereignty; propagates the concept of the “traditional family”; and contributes to a parallel but restrictive human rights regime (e.g. the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam).
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Based in: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
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Religious affiliations: Muslim
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Connections to other anti-rights actors: Ultra conservative State missions to the UN, such as Russia
World Congress of Families
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Key activities: International and regional conferences; research and knowledge-production and dissemination; lobbying at the United Nations “to defend life, faith and family”
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Based in: Rockford, Illinois, U.S.
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Religious affiliation: Predominantly Catholic and Christian Evangelical
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Connections to other anti-rights actors: Sutherland Institute, a conservative think-tank; the Church of Latter-Day Saints; the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department of Family and Life; the anti-abortion Catholic Priests for Life; the Foundation for African Culture and Heritage; the Polish Federation of Pro-Life Movements; the European Federation of Catholic Family Associations; the UN NGO Committee on the Family; and the Political Network for Values; the Georgian Demographic Society; parliamentarians from Poland and Moldova, etc; FamilyPolicy; the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies; and HatzeOir; C-Fam; among others
Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam)
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Key activities: Lobbying at the United Nations, particularly the Commission of the Status of Women to “defend life and family”; media and information-dissemination (Friday Fax newsletter); movement building; trainings for conservative activists
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Based in: New York and Washington D.C., U.S.
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Religious affiliations: Catholic
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Connections to other anti-rights actors: International Youth Coalition; World Youth Alliance; Human Life International; the Holy See; coordinates the Civil Society for the Family; the Family Research Council (U.S.) and other Christian/Catholic anti-rights CSOs; United States CSW delegation
Family Watch International
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Key activities: Lobbying in international human rights spaces for “the family” and anti-LGBTQ and anti-CSE policies; training of civil society and state delegates (for example, ‘The Resource Guide to UN Consensus Language on Family Issues’); information dissemination; knowledge production and analysis; online campaigns
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Based in: Gilbert, Arizona, U.S.
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Religious affiliations: Mormon
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Connections to other anti-rights actors: leader of the UN Family Rights Caucus; C-Fam; Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH); the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH); World Congress of Families; CitizenGo; Magdalen Institute; Asociación La Familia Importa; Group of Friends of the Family (25 state bloc)
World Youth Alliance
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Key activities: Advocacy in international policy spaces including the United Nations, the European Union, and the Organization of American States for “the family”, against sexual and reproductive rights; training youth members in the use of diplomacy and negotiation, international relations, grassroots activities and message development; internship program to encourage youth participation in its work; regular Emerging Leaders Conference; knowledge production and dissemination
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Based in: New York City (U.S.) with regional chapter offices in Nairobi (Kenya), Quezon City (The Philippines), Brussels (Belgium), Mexico City (Mexico), and Beirut (Lebanon)
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Religious affiliations: primarily Catholic but aims for interfaith membership
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Connections to other anti-rights actors: C-Fam; Human Life International; the Holy See; Campaign Life coalition
Russian Orthodox Church
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Key Activities: The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), capitalizing on its close links to the Russian state, has operated as a “norm entrepreneur” in human rights debates. Russia and the ROC have co-opted rights language to push for a focus on “morality” and “traditional values” as supposed key sources of human rights. Russia led a series of “traditional values” resolutions at the Human Rights Council and has been at the forefront of putting forward hostile amendments to progressive resolutions in areas including maternal mortality, protection of civil society space, and the right to peaceful protest.
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Connections to other anti-rights actors: Organization of Islamic Cooperation; Eastern European and Caucasus Orthodox churches, e.g. Georgian Orthodox Church; U.S. Christian Right including U.S. Evangelicals; World Congress of Families; Group of Friends of the Family (state bloc)
Other Chapters
Adelinda Gomez
Я являюсь индивидуальной(-ым) активисткой(-том), не сотрудничающей(-им) в данный момент ни с какой группой, организацией и/или движением – могу ли я принять участие в опросе?
Нет, мы очень ценим вашу работу, но в данный момент мы не собираем информацию об отдельных активистках(-тах).
Peni Moore
Peni fue una filósofa feminista radical, poeta, escritora, dramaturga y compositora.
Como primera coordinadora del movimiento por los derechos de las mujeres de Fiji, dejó un legado atravesado por su profundo compromiso con los derechos humanos de las mujeres, la justicia y la paz. La dedicación de Peni a la justicia social, económica y ecológica y su sobresaliente trabajo le valieron el respeto local e internacional. Fue una de las primeras participantes de los movimientos feministas hegemónicos en Fiji en trabajar junto a las personas LGBTQI como una verdadera aliada y brindó asistencia práctica durante la creación del movimiento de trabajadorxs sexuales.
Sus colegas la describen como una persona formidable y una líder con visión para el cambio. Inspiró a muchxs con su creatividad y coraje. Su trabajo significó una plataforma para que las personas sean escuchadas, adquieran nuevas habilidades y abran nuevos caminos tanto personales como comunitarios.
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¿Qué labor realiza AWID?
Defendiendo nuestra tierra del poder corporativo
Estas industrias 'extraen' materias primas de la tierra: minería, gas, petróleo y madera son algunos ejemplos.
Este modelo económico explota desenfrenadamente la naturaleza e intensifica las desigualdades norte, donde sus grandes corporaciones se benefician y sur, de donde extraen los recursos.
Contaminación del agua, daño irreparable al medioambiente, comunidades forzadas a desplazarse son algunas de las consecuencias inmediatas.
Lee nuestro reporte de INDUSTRIAS EXTRACTIVAS
Hay alternativas sostenibles para el medioambiente y los derechos humanos de la mujer.
Descubre además cómo nos afecta económicamente
Farida Afridi
Carmen de la Cruz
Carmen a consacré sa carrière à la défense des droits des femmes au sein de diverses ONG, ainsi qu’au sein des Nations Unies.
Elle a enseigné dans plusieurs universités espagnoles et latino-américaines et publié de nombreux articles et rapports sur les femmes, le genre et la paix dans les pays en développement. Ses écrits et ses réflexions critiques ont touché toute une génération de jeunes femmes.
Son dernier mandat auprès du centre régional du Programme des Nations Unies pour le développement (PNUD) de l'Amérique latine, fut comme responsable du département de mise en pratique des politiques de genre, lors duquel elle a soutenu de très précieuses initiatives en faveur de l'égalité de genre et des droits fondamentaux des femmes.
Snippet FEA Meet the Solidarity Network (ES)
SINDICATO RED DE SOLIDARIDAD
Te presentamos el Sindicato Red de Solidaridad, un sindicato de servicios y salud liderado en su mayoría por mujeres. Surgiendo como respuesta a la creciente precariedad, salarios insuficientes y entornos laborales hostiles que enfrentan diariamente lxs trabajadorxs en Georgia, el Sindicato Red de Solidaridad lucha por lugares y condiciones de trabajo dignos.
¿Su objetivo? Crear un movimiento obrero democrático nacional. Para hacerlo, se ha asociado con otros sindicatos locales y regionales y ha creado lentamente una red de sindicatos, empoderando por el camino a cada vez más trabajadoras para que se conviertan en líderes sindicales.
Su enfoque político es holístico. Para el Sindicato Red de Solidaridad, los temas de derechos laborales están directamente conectados con agendas y reformas políticas y económicas nacionales más amplias. Por eso están presionando por la justicia fiscal, los derechos de las mujeres y personas LGBTQIA+, y luchando contra el desmantelamiento del estado de bienestar georgiano.
Solidarity Network también forma parte de Huelga Social Transnacional (Transnational Social Strike, TSS), una plataforma política e infraestructura inspirada en la organización de migrantes, mujeres y trabajadores esenciales que trabaja para construir conexiones entre los movimientos laborales a través de las fronteras y fomentar la solidaridad global.
Les organisations peuvent-elles devenir membres de l’AWID ?
Oui, nous encourageons l’adhésion institutionnelle.
Nous comptons actuellement parmi nos membres plusieurs centaines d’organisations parmi les plus connues et novatrices. Les critères d’adhésion sont les mêmes que pour les personnes, mais les cotisations diffèrent et les services proposés tentent de répondre à leurs besoins particuliers.