Fidan Dogan
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
Join Us - old 5 Apr 2023 (changed by Ritu)
Join Us
By joining AWID, you are becoming part of worldwide feminist organizing, a collective power that is rooted in working across movements and is based on solidarity.
Кому следует принять участие в опросе?
Группы, организации и движения, работающие исключительно или главным образом в интересах женщин, девочек, гендерной справедливости, прав ЛГБТКИ+ людей во всех регионах и на всех уровнях, как недавно созданные, так и давно существующие.
Nadine Ramaroson
Nadine was a role model to many for her work supporting women and the most vulnerable in her community. She was committed to helping the poor and homeless in particular.
Though her death was reported as an accident, the Ramaroson family, led by her father, André Ramaroson led an investigation that pointed to evidence that she had been murdered. She is reported to have died in a fatal accident occurred between Soanierano - Ivongo and Ste Marie - a story that has been refuted by her family.
She received numerous death threats for her bold political positions. Her case remains in court in Antananarivo (the capital of Madagascar).
Download your faciliation guide:
"A Feminist Approach to Understanding Illicit Financial Flows and Redirecting Global Wealth"
Download your facilitation guide in English
This Guide is also available in Spanish and Russian
Thanks to the co-creators of this facilitation guide:
- Daniela Fonkatz and Ana Ines Abelenda (AWID)
- Zenaida Joachim (Mesoamericanas en Resistencia - El Salvador)
- Olga Shnyrova (Ivanovo Center for Gender Studies - Russia)
- Leah Eryenyu (Akina Mama Wa Afrika - Uganda)
- Daryl Leyesa (Oriang and PKKK/National Rural Women Congress - the Philippines)
I am new to this field and there are lots of terms that I find confusing. Can you help?
Snippet FEA Striking against all odds (ES)
Luchar contra viento y marea: la historia de la victoria sin precedentes de la Red de Solidaridad
En enero de 2022, la Red de Solidaridad organizó una huelga con 400 trabajadorxs. ¿Su principal demanda? Aumentar los salarios. La huelga fue convocada después de meses de conversaciones fracasadas con el Ministerio de Asuntos Sociales de Georgia como parte de un conflicto laboral.
Después de semanas de protestar, negociar, hablar con la prensa, resistir represalias y soportar el frío del invierno georgiano, lxs trabajadorxs obtuvieron concesiones sin precedentes del gobierno: aumento de los salarios, prestaciones por maternidad, cobertura de los costos de transporte, el cese de despidos, la compensación por los días de huelga, y más.
La huelga no solo resultó en ganancias materiales, sino que también hizo que lxs trabajadorxs se sintieran unidxs y empoderadxs para defenderse y luchar por condiciones de trabajo dignas ahora y en el futuro. Se convirtieron en una fuente de inspiración para todxs lxs trabajadorxs del país.
Puedes leer más sobre su victoria aquí.
Anja Nedringhous
Reason to join 5
Expande tus fronteras. Lxs afiliadxs de AWID representan de forma creciente una intersección diversa y vibrante de feministas que trabajan, entre otras cosas, en temáticas asociadas a la tierra, los derechos de lxs trabajadorxs, los derechos sexuales y la autonomía corporal. Al afiliarte, puedes conectar tus luchas con las de otros movimientos.
O nosso grupo, organização e/ou movimento não recebeu ou mobilizou financiamento de financiadores externos. Devemos participar no inquérito?
Sim! Reconhecemos e valorizamos diferentes motivos pelos quais as feministas nos seus respetivos contextos não dispõem de financiamento externo: desde não serem elegíveis para se candidatar a subsídios e/ou receber dinheiro do exterior, até dependerem de recursos gerados autonomamente como uma estratégia política por si só. Queremos saber mais sobre vocês, independentemente da vossa experiência com financiamento externo.
Sainimili Naivalu
“I’ve witnessed discrimination on the streets, being teased on the streets and verbally abused on the streets. I have also made numerous friends and have met a lot of people. There may be dangers out there but I am a survivor and this is where I will be for now.”
- Sainimili Naivalu
Sainimili Naivalu was a feminist and disability rights activist from the village of Dakuibeqa on Beqa Island, Fiji.
She demanded policy makers and stakeholders provide disability friendly policies and services such as the construction of ramps in towns and cities to increase accessibility. Physical barriers were not the only ones she strived to change. From her own experience, she knew that more difficult changes need to take place in social and economic spheres. Many of the challenges disabled people face are rooted in attitudes that carry discrimination and stigma.
A survivor and a fighter, Sainimili contributed to co-creating feminist realities that foster inclusion and shift attitudes towards disabled people. As a member of the Spinal Injury Association of Fiji (SIA) and through Pacific Disability Forum’s Pacific Enable project she attended the International Labour Organisation “Start Your Business” training in Suva, enabling her to transform her ideas into her own business. She was an entrepreneur at the Suva Market Stall 7, offering manicure services, as well as running SIA’s women’s market stall selling handicrafts, sulus and artifacts. Sainimili’s plan was to expand her business and become a major employer of disabled people.
In addition to her activism, she was also a table tennis medalist and youth champion.
A vivacious personality, Sainimili was one of a kind. You would always know that Sainimili is in a room because her laughter and her stories would be the first thing that you would notice.
- Michelle Reddy
Sainmili passed away in 2019.
Holding up the Skies
A Film Series on Feminist Realities from Africa and the African Diaspora
by Gabrielle Tesfaye
When I created my short animation film, The Water Will Carry Us Home, my mind was plugged into a magical world of fearless resilience and ancestral mermaids who transformed their deepest scars into a new generation of life. Set during the time of the transatlantic slave trade, I was pulled to show this history of African enslavement in a different way than it has ever been told on screen. I wanted to give my ancestors the commemoration they never received. I was motivated to reclaim the history that continues to paint us as helpless victims. Essentially, I wanted to tell the truth. To reclaim and reimagine our history and perspective, means to simultaneously heal our generational traumas that exist today. It is this important work that so many women through the African continent and the African diaspora are doing today, igniting our collective Feminist Realities.
In the making of the film I researched religiously, and in what was written, I saw what was not. There were many times I felt I was hitting a wall trying to find something that was not there, and it was in those voided places that I realized the storytellers of today are filling the voids. I found the most useful stories in contemporary art, film, and African diaspora folklore.
“... a truly unique, raw and representation of feminist power in action.”
- Hers is Ours Collective, organizers of the Outsider Moving Art & Film Festival
The Water Will Carry Us Home carried itself around the world into the hearts of the Diaspora. It also led me here, as the curator of the African and Diaspora film screenings of AWID’s Co-Creating Feminist Realities initiative. Whilst curating this collection of films, I looked for stories that were completely unique, raw and representational of feminist power in action. Consisting of three shorts and one feature, they reveal stories through many communities in Africa and the diaspora, including Ethiopia, Uganda, The Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and Kenya. These films reposition African women as what they truly are- self governing and empowered through the unfiltered lens of their work.
“An incredibly beautiful, attentive, finely observed telling of the connection between Africa and its Diaspora formed form the trans Altantic slave trade. The visual universe it creates is just gorgeous… an echo of the fusion of spiritual traditions and non-linear time that speak to how we are still experiencing the moments of the past that formed 'new' worlds of diaspora blackness.”
- Jessica Horn, PanAfrican feminst strategist, writer and co-creator of the temple of her skin
Our short documentary film, Women Hold Up the Sky, created by the WoMin African Alliance, tells the story of women activists in Uganda and the Democractic Republic of Congo who are actively reclaiming their land rights, threatened by mining and other extractives in their homes. The film not only exposes the corruption of extractivism, but finally shares what we have been missing on screen - how grassroots African women are actively organizing, strategizing, and analyzing within their communities to create women-centred and community-driven alternatives. Margaret Mapondera of WoMin explains it beautifully, that they are the “custodians of lands, forests, waters, rivers and territories; the ways in which women hold and transmit the stories / herstories of our past and our futures; the powerful and transformative ways of being that women embody in their relationships to each other, to the environment and in themselves.”
“A refreshing and much-needed piece of cinema highlighting the many ways African women are coming together to create women-led and community-driven alternatives… The fight is on and
women hold the key.”
- Hers is Ours Collective, organizers of the Outsider Moving Art & Film Festival
Pumzi, created by critically acclaimed director Wanuri Kahiu, bridges Africa and science fiction around climate and environmentalism. Pumzi imagines a futuristic world where humankind has been forced to settle on another planet. While Pumzi seems afro-futuristic and new for Africa on the surface, Kahiu reveals the truth that science fiction and fantasy is something that has always existed in African storytelling, but never recognized. Kahiu creates a world where women are truth seekers and heroes who pioneer us into a new world, the opposite of images that position Africans as victims of war and destruction. Instead, Pumzi writes the narrative of African women being their own saviors and problem solvers, who stop at no cost to follow the cryptic visions they channel in their dreams.
“A pioneering African sci-fi film, situating women as scribes of the future and opening up our visions about other worlds, other universes we might occupy as Africans - always an important exercise as we imagine our way out of present crises.”
- Jessica Horn, PanAfrican feminst strategist, writer and co-creator of the temple of her skin
Our feature film of the program, Finding Sally is set in 1970’s Ethiopia during the time of The Red Terror war, documenting the striking history of director Tamara Mariam Dawit’s activist aunt, Sally Dawit. Throughout the film we learn of Sally’s incredible journey as a young and courageous woman activist navigating one of the most violent times of Ethiopian history. Sally’s story not only reveals the gravity of this time, but the reflection of her own personal evolution as a young woman. Dawit was intentional to tell the film through the lens of women, untouched by male voices. Due to so much Ethiopian history being told by men, the making of this powerful story preserved its reality of honoring the feminist perspective. Dawit explains, “Women in revolution and war are often only included as someone's spouse or someone who did cooking or typing work. I wanted to look at the activism around the revolution only through the memories and voices of women.” Finding Sally demonstrates the reclamation of history sought by current filmmakers today. It is an igniting of feminist power and our connected realities throughout time.
“The responsibility falls on us, to remember these women that came before us and their brilliant work so they are not forgotten like the thousands of women already forgotten while fighting the good fight. Sally is such a woman and may she never be forgotten.”
- Hers is Ours Collective, organizers of the Outsider Moving Art & Film Festival
Register here to watch this film from June 18-22
These films have became a part of my own psyche, empowering me to continue building powerful alternatives towards justice from within. They affirm that I am a woman among a world of women, holding up the skies and actively building indestructible Feminist Realities. These films are more than stories of African women - they are globally relatable, inspiring and set the example of Feminist Realities for all of us around the world.
Gabrielle Tesfaye:
Gabrielle Tesfaye is an interdisciplinary artist versed in painting, animation, film, puppetry and interactive installation. Her work is rooted in the African diaspora, Afro-futurism, ancient art practices and cultural storytelling.
Gabrielle Tesfaye is an interdisciplinary artist versed in painting, animation, film, puppetry and interactive installation. Her work is rooted in the African diaspora, Afro-futurism, ancient art practices and cultural storytelling.
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Estoy viviendo una situación de violencia en una o más de mis relaciones, ¿AWID puede abogar en mi nombre?
AWID no es una organización que brinde servicios directos ni que defienda casos individuales
Te recomendamos buscar asesoría legal y ponerte en contacto con un refugio para mujeres o un centro de referencia en tu área.
Las "HotPeachPages" son un recurso en línea que ofrece enlaces a albergues para mujeres en todo el mundo. AWID no puede dar fe de la exactitud o la calidad de las instituciones que aparecen en esos listados, pero podría ser un buen lugar por donde empezar si no conoces organizaciones en tu zona.
Snippet FEA Union Otras (FR)
SYNDICAT OTRAS
L’Organisation Sindicale des Travailleur·euses du Sexe (Organización Sindical de Trabajadoras del Sexo, OTRAS) est le premier syndicat de travailleur·euses du sexe de l'histoire de l'Espagne. Le syndicat est née de la nécessité de garantir les droits sociaux, juridiques et politiques des travailleur·euses du sexe dans un pays où les mouvements d'extrême droite se renforcent au jour le jour.
Après des années de lutte contre le système juridique espagnol et les groupes abolitionnistes du travail du sexe qui ont appelé à sa fermeture, OTRAS a finalement obtenu son statut légal de syndicat en 2021.
Son objectif? Décriminaliser le travail du sexe et garantir des conditions et des environnements de travail décents pour tous·tes les travailleur·euses du sexe.
Le syndicat représente plus de 600 travailleur·euses du sexe, dont beaucoup de personnes immigrantes, racialisées, trans, queer, ou de genre non-conforme.
Leonor Zamora
Our values - bodily autonomy
Autonomie, intégrité et libertés corporelles
Nous célébrons le droit de chacun·e à choisir son identité, ses relations, ses objectifs, son travail, ses rêves et ses plaisirs, et ce qu'iel fait de son esprit, de son corps et de son âme. Nous croyons qu'il est nécessaire de travailler à l'accès aux ressources, aux informations et à des environnements sûrs et favorables qui permettent d'atteindre cet objectif.
ما هي لغات استطلاع "أين المال" الرسمية؟
حالياً سيتواجد الاستطلاع على منصة KOBO باللغات العربية، الإنجليزية، الفرنسية، البرتغالية، الروسية والاسبانية. ستكون لديكم/ن الفرصة لاختيار اللغة التي تريدون تعبئة الاستطلاع بها في بداية الاستطلاع.
Sylvia Rivera
Sylvia Rivera fue activista por los derechos civiles, travesti y trabajadora sexual.
Conocida como la Drag Queen de color de Nueva York, Sylvia fue feroz e incansable en su voluntad por cambiar las cosas, y en su defensa de quienes quedaron marginadxs y excluidxs cuando el movimiento por los "derechos de la comunidad gay" se volvió predominante en los Estados Unidos, a principios de los 70.
En 1973, durante un conocido discurso por el día de Christopher Street, Sylvia gritó en medio de la multitud de integrantes de la comunidad LGBT:
"Todos ustedes me dicen, anda y esconde la cola entre las patas.
No voy a seguir aguantando esta mierda.
Me han golpeado.
Me han roto la nariz.
Me han metido en la cárcel.
He perdido mi trabajo.
He perdido mi departamento
por la liberación gay, ¿y todos ustedes me tratan así?
¿Qué carajo les pasa a todos ustedes?
¡Piensen en eso!"
En 1969, a la edad de 17 años, Sylvia participó en los emblemáticos disturbios de Stonewall, al lanzar, presuntamente, el segundo cóctel molotov para protestar por la redada policial en este bar gay de Manhattan. Siguió siendo una figura central en los levantamientos posteriores, organizando mítines y luchando contra la brutalidad policial.
En 1970, Sylvia trabajó junto con Marsha P. Johnson para establecer Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries [Acción Travesti Callejera Revolucionaria] (S.T.A.R., por sus siglas en inglés), un colectivo político y una organización que establecería proyectos de apoyo mutuo para las personas trans que vivían en la calle, aquellxs que luchaban contra la drogadicción, las que estaban encarceladas y, en particular, para las personas trans de color que vivían en la pobreza.
Desafiante de las etiquetas, Silvia vivió la vida de una manera que retaba a las personas del movimiento de liberación gay a pensar de manera diferente. Ella dijo:
"Me fui de casa a los 10 años, en 1961. Hice la calle en la 42. El inicio de los años 60 no era un buen momento para lxs drag queens, los chicos afeminados o los chicos que usaban maquillaje como nosotrxs. En ese entonces nos golpeaba la policía, y todo el mundo. Yo no salí realmente como drag queen hasta finales de los 60, cuando se arrestaba a lxs drag queens, qué degradación había. Recuerdo que la primera vez que me arrestaron, ni siquiera estaba vestida totalmente en drag. Estaba caminando y los policías me arrebataron de la calle. La gente ahora quiere llamarme lesbiana porque estoy con Julia, y yo digo: "No. Soy sólo yo. No soy lesbiana". Estoy cansada de que me etiqueten. Ni siquiera me gusta la etiqueta transgénero. Estoy cansada de vivir con etiquetas. Sólo quiero ser quien soy. Soy Sylvia Rivera.
A través de su activismo y su coraje, Sylvia ofreció un espejo que reflejaba todo lo que estaba mal en la sociedad, pero también la posibilidad de transformación. Sylvia nació en 1951 y falleció en 2002.
#MeToo in China
En China, el movimiento #MeToo [«Yo También»] se encendió en enero de 2018, empujado por el ímpetu del movimiento #MeToo de todo el planeta. Fue una respuesta a los problemas culturales y sistémicos relacionados con el género y el poder dentro de China. Las bases del movimiento habían sido establecidas durante décadas, y los muchos años de debate y promoción de la igualdad de género, finalmente, hicieron erupción con tremenda fuerza en toda la sociedad. El movimiento #MeToo fue impulsado fundamentalmente por jóvenes, que incluyen a innumerables mujeres anónimas y sus aliadxs, en busca de oportunidades para hacer realidad el principal «sueño chino»: transformar a China en un país con igualdad de género.
En China, el contexto para el movimiento #MeToo es extremadamente adverso: el Estado de derecho, la justicia y la transparencia de las acciones gubernamentales y la libertad de expresión no pueden darse por descontados, pero estos son precisamente los objetivos por los cuales lucha el movimiento. Ha sido, desde el principio, una lucha intensa, y cada víctima o activista que se visibiliza corre enormes riesgos: desde ser silenciadx o humilladx o de sufrir represalias hasta poner en peligro su seguridad. Todos los éxitos del movimiento #MeToo han sido logrados por quienes son lo suficientemente valientes como para asumir los costos de manifestarse y desafiar la censura.
La exhibición «#MeToo in China» fue inaugurada en 2019 y recorrió cinco ciudades. Su objetivo es dar mayor prominencia a las experiencias personales de lxs víctimas y lxs activistas, para inspirar al público a unirse a la lucha a través del contacto con estas historias. La exposición misma se ha convertido en parte de la lucha #MeToo: ha debido enfrentar desafíos en su itinerario por toda China y, en más de una ocasión, fue amenazada con la clausura.
2007: la participation de la société civile est renforcée par la création du WWG sur le FdD
Le Groupe de travail des femmes sur le financement du développement (Women's Working Group on Financing for Development – WWG on FfD) , une alliance composée d’organisations et de réseaux de défense des droits des femmes, a été créée en octobre 2007 pour mener, dans le cadre des processus des Nations Unies sur le FdD, des activités de plaidoyer en faveur de l’égalité de genre, de l’autonomisation des femmes et des droits humains.
Troisième Dialogue de haut niveau sur le financement du développement, 23-25 octobre 2007
- Le troisième Dialogue de haut niveau sur le financement du développement a été l’occasion d’un regain de participation de la société civile. En plus des six tables rondes, des audiences ont été consacrées à la société civile et au secteur privé.
- Lors de la séance plénière, l’AWID a prononcé une déclaration au nom de la société civile appelant les gouvernements à accorder une attention plus soutenue au rôle important en tant qu’agentes de développement que jouent les organisations de défense des droits des femmes et à la nécessité de favoriser la mise en œuvre de nouveaux mécanismes de financement destinés aux femmes dans les pays en développement et dans les pays les moins avancés. Cette déclaration exhortait les gouvernements à apporter un soutien plus important à l’architecture de genre des Nations Unies, de façon à ce que le système, dans son ensemble, puisse progresser dans son engagement en faveur de l’égalité des genres, de l’autonomisation des femmes et des droits humains, en ce qui concerne notamment les droits économiques, sociaux, culturels et environnementaux de toutes les personnes.