Pat Bellanger
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
14th AWID international Forum is cancelled (forum page)
Le Forum international de l’AWID est annulé
Étant donnée la situation mondiale, notre Conseil d’administration a pris la décision difficile d’annuler le Forum, qui devait avoir lieu en 2021 à Taipei.
Jessica Whitbread
Biography
Jessica es une artista activista queer de Toronto (Canadá), aunque actualmente reside en Bulgaria. Posee más de 15 años de experiencia de trabajo en la respuesta al VIH en las intersecciones del género y el VIH con poblaciones clave (trabajadoras/es sexuales, mujeres que usan drogas, comunidades LGBTQI, personas privadas de su libertad y, desde luego, personas que viven con el VIH). A Jessica le encanta la construcción de movimientos y pensar, organizar y trazar estrategias para intervenciones artísticas. Un divertido proyecto que comenzó en 2013 fue LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN, en el que participan más de 125 agrupaciones y organizaciones comunitarias de todo el mundo. Este tiene lugar cada año entre el 1 y el 14 de febrero para celebrar a las mujeres que viven con el VIH en sus comunidades.
Position
Responsable, Participación de la Membresía y las Bases de Apoyo
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Alternative framework for economic governance
Context
The current global economic crisis provides stark evidence that the economic policies of the last 3 decades have not been working.
The devastation that the crisis has wrought on the most vulnerable households in the Global North and Global South is a reminder that the formulation of economic policy and the realization of human rights (economic, social, political, civil and cultural) have for too long been divorced from one another. Economic policy and human rights do not have to be opposing forces, but can exist symbiotically.
Macroeconomic policies affect the operation of the economy as a whole, shaping the availability and distribution of resources. Within this context, fiscal and monetary policies are key.
Definition
- Fiscal policy refers to both public revenue and public expenditure, and the relationships between them as expressed in the government budget.
- Monetary policy includes policies on interest and exchange rates and the money supply, as well as the regulation of the financial sector.
- Macroeconomic policies are implemented using instruments such as taxation, government spending, and control over the supply of money and credit.
These policies affect key prices such as interest and exchange rates that directly influence, among other things, the level of employment, access to affordable credit, and the housing market.
Applying a human rights framework to macroeconomic policy allows States to better comply with their obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill economic and social rights. Human rights are internationally agreed-upon universal standards. These legal norms are articulated in United Nations treaties including, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Article 1 of the UDHR states that, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
Although the UDHR was written about six decades ago its relevance is enduring. Many of the ideas address concerns and critical issues that people continue to face globally. Issues regarding inhuman punishment (Art. 5), discrimination (Art. 7), property ownership (Art. 17), equal pay for equal work (Art. 23/2), and access to education (Art. 26/1) are pertinent matters in countries South and North of the equator.
More specifically, States have an obligation under international law to respect, protect and fulfill human rights, including the economic and social rights of people within their jurisdiction. This is particularly relevant now given the financial crisis. In the U.S., regulation is skewed in favor of certain interests. The failure to extend government’s supervisory role in the context of social and economic change is a failure with regard to the obligation to protect human rights.
Feminist perspective
States should abide by key human rights principles to achieve economic and social rights. Some of the principles have potentially important implications for governance of financial institutions and markets, yet these possibilities have been underexplored.
Economic and social rights have a concrete institutional and legal grounding. Global declarations, international treaties, covenants, and, in a number of cases, national constitutions have incorporated aspects of the economic and social rights framework—providing an institutional infrastructure in national and international law.
Some have suggested that a consideration of global justice may not be a useful pursuit because of the institutional complexities involved. However, this does not get around that fact that global institutions already have an impact on social justice, both positive and negative.
It is useful to tease out the implications that elements of alternative frameworks have for economic governance, specifically those supported by existing institutions. Economic and social rights represent one such concrete framework. The framework is an evolving one, and ongoing discussion and deliberation is necessary to address underdeveloped areas and potential deficiencies.
Learn more about this proposition
- How to Apply a Human Rights Framework to Macroeconomic Strategies by Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL)
This section is based on CWGL’s blog “Applying a Human Rights Framework to Macroeconomic Policies” (2012).
Part of our series of
Feminist Propositions for a Just Economy
Sarah Maldoror
«No adhiero al concepto de “Tercer Mundo”. Hago películas para que las personas (no importa de qué raza o color sean) puedan entenderlas. Para mí, solamente existen explotadores y explotadxs, eso es todo. Hacer una película significa tomar una posición.» - Sarah Maldoror
Sarah Maldoror, una cineasta francesa descendiente de una familia de las Indias Occidentales, fue una pionera del cine panafricano. Sus inquietudes políticas ocupaban el centro de su trabajo, junto con su permanente involucramiento en los movimientos de descolonialización.
La innovadora Sambizanga (1972), su «película revolucionaria», sigue la lucha de liberación anticolonial de lxs militantes de Angola y capta la perspectiva de una mujer en el momento histórico en que se encuentra.
«Para muchxs cineastas africanxs, el cine es una herramienta revolucionaria, una educación política para crear consciencia. Se inscribe en la evolución de un Tercer Cine, que se orienta a descolonizar el pensamiento y promover cambios radicales en la sociedad.» - Sarah Maldoror
A lo largo de su carrera, Sarah (junto con otrxs artistas africanxs y caribeñxs) cofundó, en 1956, la primera troupe de teatro negra de Francia. Realizó alrededor de cuarenta películas, incluidos importantes documentales que difundieron la vida y la obra de artistas negrxs, entre lxs cuales se encuentra su amigo y poeta, Aimé Césaire, quien le escribió:
«A Sarah Maldo
que, cámara en mano,
lucha contra la opresión, la alienación
y se planta de cara
frente a la estupidez humana.»
Sarah estaba también dedicada a lograr que las mujeres africanas se apropiaran más del proceso de filmación. En una entrevista, señaló:
«Las mujeres africanas deben estar en todos lados. Deben estar en las imágenes, detrás de la cámara, en la sala de edición, y participar en todas las etapas de la realización de una película. Ellas deben ser quienes hablen sobre sus problemas.»
Sarah dejó un legado formidable para que sea continuado.
Nacida el 19 de julio de 1929, Sarah falleció el 13 de abril de 2020 debido a complicaciones por el coronavirus.
Mira Sambizanga y lee una reseña de la película en un artículo del New York Times de 1973 (solo en ingles)
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TRANSPARENCY
Contributors of toolkit (WITM landing page)
We would like to thank the contributors and advisors of this toolkit:
- Angelika Arutyunova
- Cindy Clark
- Kamardip Singh
- Martin Redfern
- Pei Yao Chen
- Srilatha Batliwala
- Veronica Vidal
Vuyisa Dayisi
Ȃurea Mouzinho
Biography
Âurea Mouzinho est une organisatrice féministe dans le domaine de la justice économique. Originaire de Louanda en Angola, elle compte 10 ans de carrière dans la recherche, le subventionnement, le plaidoyer et le renforcement de mouvement pour les droits des femmes et la justice économique en Afrique et dans le Sud global. Actuelle responsable des programmes pour l’Afrique chez Thousand Currents, elle participe également au comité de rédaction de Feminist Africa et est membre d’Ondjango Feminista, un collectif féministe qu’elle a co-fondé en 2016. Tout juste maman d’un petit garçon Gémeaux, urea aime les journées tranquilles avec sa petite famille et les longues promenades sur la plage. Il lui arrive parfois de tweeter via son compte @kitondowe.
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Building on our 20-year history of mobilizing more and better funding for feminist-led social change, AWID invites you to complete the new iteration of our flagship survey, WITM.
Key impacts on the international human rights system
Anti-rights actors have had a substantive impact on our human rights framework and the progressive interpretation of human rights standards, especially rights related to gender and sexuality.
When it comes to the impact of conservative actors in international policy spaces, the overall picture today is of stasis and regressions.
We have witnessed the watering down of existing agreements and commitment; deadlock in negotiations; sustained undermining of UN agencies, treaty review bodies and Special Procedures; and success in pushing through regressive language in international human rights documents.
Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
The CSW, held annually in March, has long been one of the most contested sites in the UN system. In March 2015, conservative efforts set the tone before events or negotiations even began; the outcome document of the Commission was a weak Declaration negotiated before any women’s rights activists even arrived on the ground.
At 2016’s CSW, the new Youth Caucus was infiltrated by large numbers of vocal anti-abortion and anti-SRHR actors, who shouted down progressive youth organizations. Again, intensive negotiations resulted in a lacklustre text, which included regressive language on ‘the family.’
Precisely when addressing women’s human rights is of urgent importance, the CSW has been rendered a depoliticized and weakened space. Using it to advance rights has become harder and harder since progressives’ energy is taken up trying to hold the ground against conservative backlash.
Human Rights Council (HRC)
As the intergovernmental body responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe, the HRC is a key entry point for conservative actors. In recent years, this mechanism has been the scene for a number of damaging anti-human rights moves.
In conversation with other anti-rights actors, one strategy of conservative states, and blocs of states, is to aggressively negotiate out positive language and to introduce hostile amendments to resolutions, most often resolutions focusing on rights related to gender and sexuality.
To take one example, during the June 2016 session of the HRC, opposition was mounted towards a resolution on discrimination against women by the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and allies. During contentious negotiations, multiple provisions were removed, including women’s and girls’ right to have control over their sexuality, sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive rights; and the need to repeal laws which perpetuate the patriarchal oppression of women and girls in families, and those criminalizing adultery or pardoning marital rape.
The HRC has also been the site of pernicious conservative initiatives to co-opt human rights norms and enact conservative “human rights” language, such as that of the Russia-led “traditional values” resolutions, and more recently the “Protection of the Family” agenda.
Human Rights Committee
In 2015, moving their sights to another front, a number of religious right organizations began to target the Human Rights Committee, the treaty monitoring body for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a pivotal human rights instrument.
Anti-human rights groups mobilized in hopes of cementing their anti-abortion rhetoric into the treaty.
When the Committee announced it was drafting a new authoritative interpretation of the right to life, over 30 conservative non-state actors sent in written submissions, advocating their misleading discourse on ‘right to life’ - that life begins at conception and that abortion is a violation of the right - be incorporated in the Committee’s interpretation of article 6.
Conservative groups targeting the Human Rights Committee was a shift considering that historically anti-human rights actors have repeatedly attempted to undermine and invalidate the essential work of the treaty monitoring bodies, including the Human Rights Committee.
SDG negotiations and Agenda 2030
Anti-human rights actors were involved in lobbying towards the development of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, focusing again on rights relating to gender and sexuality. These efforts had limited traction in their attempts to embed regressive language in Agenda 2030.
However, after successfully pushing back against progressive language in the final text, conservative actors then pivoted to another strategy. In an attempt to evade state accountability and undermine the universality of rights, several states have repeatedly made reservations to the Goals.
On behalf of the African Group, Senegal claimed that African states would only “implement the goals in line with the cultural and religious values of its countries.”
The Holy See also made a number of reservations, stating it was “confident that the related pledge ‘no one will be left behind’ would be read” as meaning “the right to life of the person, from conception until natural death.”
Saudi Arabia went one step further, declaring that the country would not follow any international rules relating to the SDGs that reference sexual orientation or gender identity, describing them as running “counter to Islamic law.”
General Assembly (GA)
Anti-rights actors have made increasing headway at the UN General Assembly (GA). Most recently, during the 71st session in 2016, the GA was the scene of feverish anti-rights organizing in opposition to the new mandate created by the Human Rights Council resolution on sexual orientation and gender identity in June 2016: the Independent Expert on SOGI. Four separate attempts were made to undercut the mandate in GA spaces.
One approach was to introduce a hostile resolution at the Third Committee[1], led by the African Group, which in essence aimed to indefinitely defer the new mandate. While this approach was not successful, such an attempt in the GA to retroactively block the creation of a mandate brought forward by the Human Rights Council represented a new and troubling tactic - anti-right actors are now working to directly undermine the HRC’s authority respective to the General Assembly.
Another approach targeted the Fifth Committee (responsible for administration and budgetary matters) as an entry point to attack the mandate. In an unprecedented move a number of States attempted (again, unsuccessfully) to block the funding of UN human rights experts, including the new IE on SOGI[2],.
While these multiple efforts were unsuccessful in blocking the creation and continuation of the new mandate, the significant support they received, the novel strategizing employed, and the strong alliances built along regional lines through negotiations point to difficulties ahead.
[1] The Third Committee of the GA deals with agenda items relating to a range of social, humanitarian affairs, and human rights issues. Each year it discusses and issues resolutions on issues including the advancement of women, the protection of children, family, and youth.
[2] While UN Special Procedures experts (i.e. Special Rapporteurs, Working Group members and Independent Experts) work pro bono, some funds are generally allocated to facilitate country visits on the invitation of the national government, and support staff.
Other Chapters
María Digna Montero
María Digna Montero était une défenseuse Garifuna (d’origine africaine et autochtone) du droit à la terre et membre de l’Organisation fraternelle noire hondurienne (OFRANEH), une organisation communautaire oeuvrant à protéger les communautés Garifunas, leurs droits, leur culture, leurs ressources et leur territoire ancestraux.
María a également enseigné dans l'école locale et été membre du groupe de travail sur l'éducation bilingue interculturelle de l'OFRANEH.
Le 12 octobre 2019, jour de la Résistance autochtone, des inconnus ont tiré à plusieurs reprises sur María, alors qu’elle se trouvait dans l’arrière-cour de sa maison.
Elle est l'une des six défenseuses Garifunas à avoir été assassinées entre septembre et octobre 2019 et selon OFRANEH, ces crimes n’ont fait l’objet d’aucune enquête de la part des autorités. Dans une déclaration officielle, l'organisation a également souligné le lien entre la violence à l’encontre des dirigeants Garifunas et le développement des industries extractives qui exploitent les ressources naturelles de leurs communautés, affirmant que cette violence s’inscrivait dans une "stratégie d'intimidation et d'expulsion systématique" menée par l'État hondurien.
“La tension accrue et les risques croissants pour la sécurité et les droits humains des dirigeants des communautés et des territoires ancestraux sont le résultat de la dépossession, du déplacement et de la criminalisation des communautés et des mégaprojets d'extraction promus par l'État en collaboration avec les entreprises nationales et internationales". - Communiqué de l'OFRANEH, 12 octobre 2019
FRMag - United against violence (ES)
Juntas contra la violencia
por Karina Ocampo
A un rincón escondido de Chiapas, México, llegamos mujeres y disidencias sexuales para organizar nuestras acciones. (...)
< arte: «Proyecto fotográfico: La muerte sale por el Oriente», de Sonia MadrigalMargarita Pisano
Fatima Qureshi
Biography
Una nómada de las culturas, nacida en Hong Kong y con raíces turco-paquistaníes, el amor de Fatima por la narración, ya sea su lectura o su creación conjunta, le infundió la pasión por el activismo de las comunicaciones. Formada en periodismo, ha trabajado durante siete años en los ámbitos de la comunicación digital y los medios de comunicación con ONG que brindan oportunidades educativas y asistencia jurídica a personas refugiadas y solicitantes de asilo, así como con el movimiento feminista musulmán, que aplica un enfoque feminista y de derechos para comprender y buscar la igualdad y la justicia en la tradición jurídica musulmana. Escribe con habitualidad artículos de opinión sobre asuntos feministas en el Sur Global.
Mediante la narración en esta era hiperdigital de las redes sociales, Fatima sigue colaborando con organizadores comunitaries y activistas de base para crear contenido audiovisual, a fin de tender puentes de comprensión hacia la liberación colectiva y la descolonización. Durante los días en que no trabaja, mira atentamente largometrajes feministas independientes de Irán, Marruecos y Pakistán, e interpreta poesía oral con sus camaradas de Kuala Lumpur.
Position
Responsable de Comunicaciones Digitales y Alianzas de ICM
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AWID en los medios
Compilación de noticias sobre la organización y/o el trabajo de AWID
- Presentan disco con canciones para reír y reivindicar. La Nación, may 2018
- Día Internacional de la Mujer: la realidad de las mujeres latinoamericanas. La opinión digital, mar 2018
- Para fortalecer la resistencia global, hay que dar recursos a lxs jóvenes feministas. Open Global Rights, nov 2017
- Llamado mundial a las mujeres frente a la reunión de la OMC. Bilaterals, nov 2017
- Tejiendo la resistencia a través de la acción: Las estrategias de las Defensoras de Derechos Humanos contra las industrias extractivas. Movimiento 4, sep 2017
- Romani: banca internacional habilita a que se “lave olímpicamente” el dinero del narcotráfico. La diaria, ago 2017
- Global: Nueva guía y reporte sobre acciones de defensoras de derechos humanos ante proyectos extractivos empresariales. Business and human rights resources, ago 2017
- Cumbre sobre el Mundo del Trabajo: Un futuro mejor para las mujeres en el trabajo. Organización Internacional del Trabajo, jun 2017
- “Los Movimientos Importan”, arte visual colectivo en favor de las mujeres. El heraldo de Saltillo, mar 2017
- Violencia de género contra las mujeres en los medios, y la necesidad del activismo cotidiano. IFEX, dic 2016
- Ahora más que nunca. La razón, sep 2016
- Brasil: Cerró ayer la mayor conferencia sobre derechos de las mujeres. Fondo indígena, sep 2016
- Alerta Máxima Feminista ante involución de derechos de las y los migrantes en la 46 ª Conferencia de Población y Desarrollo. Calala, may 2015
- Todas las personas podemos ser defensoras de los Derechos Humanos de las mujeres. ALC noticias, ene 2015
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Lorena Borjas
Lorena Borjas, a trans Latina woman and activist, lived and worked in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, New York City. In those streets, she looked after her community for years, advocating for trans and immigrant rights, supporting survivors of human trafficking and abuse, campaigning for sex workers’ rights and those of people living with HIV and AIDS.
Lorena was strong and tireless in her fight to support, defend, and have the back of those most marginalized and discriminated by transphobia, misogyny and racism.
“She pushed us to shine authentically, to become a scream of subversion that says, ‘I am here, and I deserve happiness, too.’” - Cecilia Gentili, a trans activist and Lorena’s friend
Having faced numerous traumas and hardships herself, as a trans immigrant woman and victim of human trafficking, Lorena pulled knowledge and emotional memory from the well of her experiences in order to help build and strengthen the community she was part of and which was part of her. Some of the ways she did this was to organize and mobilize support ranging from providing condoms and connecting trans women to different services, to setting up an HIV testing clinic in her own home.
"She was such a beautiful soul who helped others when her journey was difficult and painful as an immigrant, as a trans immigrant. She believed the trans community needed love, acceptance, and compassion, and she gave it all.” - Luchia Dragosh, QPTV Supervising producer of a documentary about Lorena
In more than 25 years of activism, she also founded the Lorena Borjas Community Fund together with Chase Strangio (lawyer and trans rights activist). The Fund helps the many different members of her community (and especially trans persons) dealing with immigration challenges to avoid the cycle of arrest-jail-deportation.
Lorena passed away in March 2020 of complications from COVID-19.
Her enormous and beautiful legacy will be taken forward through the streets of Queens by the network and community she co-created.
“We will pick up her work where she left it, work that is essential to the well-being of “mis pajaras” as she called the trans girls of Queens under her wing.” - Cecilia Gentili
Tributes:
"Lorena brought light to us when we were living through a very dark time here in New York. She brought us light when we were dealing with the crack epidemic, when we were dealing with the AIDS crisis, dealing with changes in immigration policies." - Cristina Herrera, founder and CEO of Translatina Network and Lorena’s friend
"Lorena has done more than anyone else I know to shine a light on the epidemic of trafficking in transgender communities and to help other trans women escape exploitation." - Lynly Egyes (represented Borjas on behalf of the Transgender Law Center)
Watch a documentary about Lorena Borjas
Read a postscript in The New Yorker about Lorena Borjas
Read an opinion piece in the New York Times by Cecilia Gentilin
