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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مجموعتنا، منظمتنا و\أو حركتنا غير مسجلة. هل علينا تعبئة الاستطلاع؟
نعم! نريد أن نسمع منكم/ن عن تجربتكم/ن بالتمويل.
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Al unirte a AWID, te sumas a un proceso organizativo feminista mundial, un poder colectivo surgido del trabajo entre movimientos y basado en la solidaridad.
Dilma Ferreira Silva
Dilma Ferreira Silva était une activiste de premier plan des droits amazoniens qui s’est battue durant plusieurs décennies pour les droits des personnes affectées par les barrages.
Elle faisait elle-même partie des 32 000 personnes déplacées par Tucuruí, un imposant barrage hydroélectrique, construit au Brésil sous la dictature militaire de 1964-1985.
En 2005, Dilma a été invitée à rejoindre le Mouvement des personnes affectées par les barrages (MAB) au Brésil et, en 2006, elle y a formé un collectif de femmes pour finir ensuite par devenir coordonatrice régionale du mouvement.
Évoquant son activisme, ses collègues racontent :
« Elle se distinguait très rapidement car elle n’avait jamais peur dans la lutte. »
Dilma vivait dans la localité rurale de Salvador Allenda, à 50 kilomètres de Tucuru. Elle a dédié sa vie à mieux protéger les communautés et les territoires affectés par la construction d’énormes projets. Elle était particulièrement préoccupée par l’impact de genre de ce type de projets et plaidait pour les droits des femmes.
Lors d’une réunion d’ordre national du MAB en 2011, Dilma évoqua les femmes affectées par les barrages, soulignant :
« Nous sommes les réelles Marias, guerrières, combattantes ici, nous nous confrontons au défi de la lutte quotidienne. »
Au cours des années suivantes, Dilma a organisé des groupes de terrain du MAB et travaillé avec les communautés pour former des coopératives paysannes qui permirent de mieux distribuer la nourriture au sein des communautés. Ensemble, elles ont amélioré la commercialisation de la pêche et développé un projet de citerne pour un accès à l’eau potable. Elle défendait aussi les agriculteurs·rices dont les terres étaient convoitées par les « grileiros » (personnes qui s’approprient les terres).
Le 22 mars 2019, à l’âge de 48 ans, Dilma, son mari et leur ami·e furent violemment assassiné·e·s. Ces trois meurtres s’inscrivirent dans une vague de violences en Amazonie contre les Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem (mouvements des travailleurs·ses sans terre) et les activistes écologistes et autochtones.
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Juana Olivia Hernández Pérez
Snippet FEA Striking against all odds (FR)
Lutter contre vents et marées : le récit de la victoire sans précédent du Réseau Solidarité.
En janvier 2022, le Réseau Solidarité a organisé une grève avec 400 travailleur·euses. Sa principale demande ? L’augmentation des salaires. La grève a été déclenchée après des mois de discussions sans résultats avec le ministère géorgien des Affaires Sociales.
Après avoir manifesté, négocié, parlé à la presse, résisté aux représailles et enduré le froid de l’hiver géorgien pendant des semaines, les travailleur·euses ont obtenu des concessions sans précédent de la part du gouvernement: augmentation des salaires, congés payés de maternité, couverture des frais de transport, arrêt des licenciement, indemnisation des jours de grève, et plus.
La grève a non seulement abouti à des gains matériels, mais a également permis aux travailleur·euses de se sentir uni·e·s et habilité·e·s à se défendre et à lutter pour des conditions de travail décentes, dans le présent et à l'avenir. Iels sont devenu·es une source d'inspiration pour tous·tes les travailleur·euses du pays.
Pour en savoir plus sur leur victoire, cliquez ici.
Reason to join 5
Etendez vos frontières. Les membres de l'AWID représentent de plus en plus une section transversale dynamique et variée de féministes travaillant, entre autres, sur les questions foncières, les droits des travailleures, les droits sexuels et l'autonomie corporelle. En devenant membre, vous pouvez relier vos luttes entre mouvements.
Carol Thomas
Carol Thomas was a trailblazer for women’s sexual and reproductive rights in South Africa. A gifted gynecologist and founder of the WomenSpace, she practiced and advocated for non-traditional ways of delivering healthcare to women, offering services that were high quality, empathetic and accessible.
“She entered into not only the joy of pregnancies and new babies, but the anxieties of infertility and premature deliveries and female cancers, the heartbreak of miscarriages and stillbirths.” Helen Moffett
Carol thought in new paradigms that centered the needs of women with the least access to services and rights in society:
“The prevailing socio-economic environment that we find ourselves in means that women bear a disproportionate burden of disease and unemployment…As a black, previously disadvantaged woman I have a good sense of what is happening in our communities.” - Carol Thomas
Carol’s innovative and multi-award-winning social venture “iMobiMaMa” used mobile kiosks and interactive technology to connect women directly with antenatal and reproductive health services, information and support in communities all over South Africa.
Carol supported women both in wanted and unwanted pregnancies, mentoring many nurses and doctors during her lifetime.
She was also described as the go-to gynecologist “for trans folks who could have affirming care. She got it right when so many did not have the language or pronouns. Her warm blankets, listening and saying just what you needed to hear was so comforting.” -Marion Lynn Stevens
Carol Thomas was described as being at the height of her professional career when she died on 12 April 2019 of complications following a double lung transplant.
The tributes that poured in following her unexpected death referred to her as many things:
“a role model, warrior woman, innovator, dynamic leader, mould-breaker, dynamo, brilliant scientist, compassionate doctor.”
Undoubtedly, Carol Thomas will be remembered and honored for being all of this and much more.
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Sim, é acessível para pessoas com uma variedade diversificada de capacidades auditivas, de movimento, visuais e cognitivas.
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Our values - esponsibility, Accountability, and Integrity
Responsibility, Accountability, and Integrity
We strive for transparency, responsible use of our resources, fairness in our collaborations and accountability and integrity with our members, partners, funders and the movements with(in) which we work. We are committed to reflecting on our experiences, sharing our learnings openly, and striving to change our practices accordingly.
Mereani Naisua Senibici
Mereani Naisua Senibici, también llamada "Sua", fue, durante mucho tiempo, integrante del movimiento de la Asociación Cristiana de Mujeres Jóvenes de Fiji (YWCA, por sus siglas en inglés).
Trabajó con diversos grupos de mujeres en entornos multirraciales, rurales y urbanos y se comprometió a apoyar y promover los derechos de las mujeres y las jóvenes.
En el YWCA de Lautoka, Sua trabajó con mujeres de ascendencia india, y se convirtió en una figura destacada en el desarrollo del deporte y de la participación de atletas mujeres y personas trans en Lautoka.
"Sua es muy querida por lxs integrantes del YWCA de Fiji, a causa de su dedicación y apoyo persistente a todo lo que la organización se ha esforzado por hacer". - Tupou Vere
Mereani formaba parte de House of Sarah [La Casa de Sarah] (HoS, por sus siglas en inglés ), una iniciativa de la Asociación de Mujeres Anglicanas (AAW), lanzada en 2009, que tenía por objetivos tanto sensibilizar sobre los problemas relacionados con la violencia de género, como brindar apoyo a las mujeres que sufren violencia. Mereani empezó como una voluntaria comprometida y ofreció apoyo a las mujeres de todo el Pacífico.
Mereani falleció en 2019.
"Una persona con don de gente y una trabajadora todoterreno en el empoderamiento de las mujeres y construcción de movimientos a nivel comunitario. Descansa en paz, Sua". - Tupou Vere