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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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Quem deve participar no inquérito?

Grupos, organizações e movimentos cujo foco específico ou principal seja os direitos das mulheres, de jovens, a justiça de género, os direitos das pessoas LBTQI+ e de aliados em todas as regiões e em todos os níveis, quer sejam novos ou já estabelecidos.

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Otros enlaces importantes para mantenerse informada/o:

Efua Dorkenoo

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

Snippet FEA Occupation’s kitchen Instagram (EN)

Campaña publicitaria de Ocupação 9 de Julho:

Photo of Cozinha Ocupação 9 de Julho team in aprons
Yellow square that says "As mulheres sustentam o cuidado" or Women sustain care in Portuguese.
Yellow square that says "O cuidado sustenta a vida" or "Care sustains life" in Portuguese.
Yellow square that says "A vida sustenta a economia" or "Life sustains the economy" in Portuguese.
Yellow square that says: "Mas quen cuida das mulheres?" or "But who is taking care of women?" in Portuguese.
A yellow square that says "Nenhuma a menos" which translates to "Not another woman less"
Yellow square that says "Juntas, Juntos, Juntes" which translates to "Together, together, together"
Yellow square announcing Sunday Lunch at the Occupation's Kitchen

Las Mujeres Sostienen el Cuidado | El Cuidado Sostiene la Vida | La vida Sostiene la Economía | ¿Quién Cuida a las Mujeres? | Ni Una Menos1 | Juntas, Juntos, Juntes | Almuerzo de Domingo

1Nenhuna a menos se traduce literalmente como "ni una menos" en español, un eslogan feminista famoso en América Latina que surgió en Argentina como respuesta a la creciente violencia de género.

هل على مجموعتنا، منظمتنا أو حركتنا تعبئة الاستطلاع مع أننا لم نحشد أو نأخذ تمويلاً من ممولين/ات خارجيين/ات؟

نعم! نلاحظ ونقدّر الأسباب المختلفة لعدم تلق الحركات النسوية التمويل الخارجي، حيث من الممكن أن تكون غير مؤهلة لتقديم الطلبات للتمويل و\ أو تلقّي المال من خارج البلاد، أو الاعتماد على المصادر التي يتم إنتاجها بشكل مستقل كاستراتيجية سياسية. نريد أن نسمع منكم/ن بعيدا عن تجربتكم/ن مع التمويل الخارجي.

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Su’ad Al-Ali

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

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Sur quoi travaillent-iels?
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Droits humains et ethno-territoriaux

Assurer la défense des droits humains et des droits de la Nature par la construction d'alliances avec des acteur·rices et organisations locales, nationales, régionales et mondiales.

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Education and training

Former les femmes et leur donner les moyens d'exercer la défense de leurs droits dans différents espaces politiques, sociaux et économiques.

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Fahmida Riaz

“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.

Snippet FEA Metzineres activists (EN)

 
A crowd of people sitting in front of a banner which says ‘support, don't punish”;
Photo of two women talking to each other, one of them is holding a handheld fan.
Crowd of people with a black banner that says Metzineres in yellow.
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Photo people with plants around them, most of them sitting and clapping to a person who is walking in the middle

Metzineres activists in action

O nosso grupo não recebeu qualquer financiamento nos três anos entre 2021 e 2023. Devemos preencher o questionário mesmo assim?

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Navleen Kumar

"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.