Women Human Rights Defenders
WHRDs are self-identified women and lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LBTQI) people and others who defend rights and are subject to gender-specific risks and threats due to their human rights work and/or as a direct consequence of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
WHRDs are subject to systematic violence and discrimination due to their identities and unyielding struggles for rights, equality and justice.
The WHRD Program collaborates with international and regional partners as well as the AWID membership to raise awareness about these risks and threats, advocate for feminist and holistic measures of protection and safety, and actively promote a culture of self-care and collective well being in our movements.
Risks and threats targeting WHRDs
WHRDs are exposed to the same types of risks that all other defenders who defend human rights, communities, and the environment face. However, they are also exposed to gender-based violence and gender-specific risks because they challenge existing gender norms within their communities and societies.
By defending rights, WHRDs are at risk of:
- Physical assault and death
- Intimidation and harassment, including in online spaces
- Judicial harassment and criminalization
- Burnout
A collaborative, holistic approach to safety
We work collaboratively with international and regional networks and our membership
- to raise awareness about human rights abuses and violations against WHRDs and the systemic violence and discrimination they experience
- to strengthen protection mechanisms and ensure more effective and timely responses to WHRDs at risk
We work to promote a holistic approach to protection which includes:
- emphasizing the importance of self-care and collective well being, and recognizing that what care and wellbeing mean may differ across cultures
- documenting the violations targeting WHRDs using a feminist intersectional perspective;
- promoting the social recognition and celebration of the work and resilience of WHRDs ; and
- building civic spaces that are conducive to dismantling structural inequalities without restrictions or obstacles
Our Actions
We aim to contribute to a safer world for WHRDs, their families and communities. We believe that action for rights and justice should not put WHRDs at risk; it should be appreciated and celebrated.
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Promoting collaboration and coordination among human rights and women’s rights organizations at the international level to strengthen responses concerning safety and wellbeing of WHRDs.
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Supporting regional networks of WHRDs and their organizations, such as the Mesoamerican Initiative for WHRDs and the WHRD Middle East and North Africa Coalition, in promoting and strengthening collective action for protection - emphasizing the establishment of solidarity and protection networks, the promotion of self-care, and advocacy and mobilization for the safety of WHRDs;
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Increasing the visibility and recognition of WHRDs and their struggles, as well as the risks that they encounter by documenting the attacks that they face, and researching, producing, and disseminating information on their struggles, strategies, and challenges:
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Mobilizing urgent responses of international solidarity for WHRDs at risk through our international and regional networks, and our active membership.
Related Content
Je suis activiste à titre individuel, je ne travaille avec aucun groupe, organisation et/ou mouvement à l’heure actuelle, est-ce que je devrais participer à cette enquête?
Non, nous reconnaissons l’importance de votre travail, mais nous ne collectons pas les réponses fournies à titre individuel à l’heure actuelle.
透過CfA提交活動提案後續?
- 活動提案最初將由AWID工作人員進行篩選。
- 然後,入圍的提案企劃者受邀參加票選,在入圍的活動中進行選擇。票數最高者會納入論壇活動。AWID可能會在決選做一些調整,以確保我們的活動議程在各個地區、擁護族群、議題和方法之間具適當平衡。
- 我們的論壇內容與方法委員會將與獲選的提案企劃者聯繫,協助他們進一步規劃活動。
我們屆時會於網站上公告徵選結果。
Elisa Badayos
También era organizadora de comunidades urbanas empobrecidas de la Provincia de Cebú, y trabajaba con Desaparecidos, una organización de familiares de personas desaparecidas.
Elisa y dos de sus colegas fueron asesinadxs el 28 de noviembre de 2017 por dos hombres no identificados en Barangay San Ramón, en la ciudad de Bayawan de la Provincia de Negros Oriental, durante una misión que investigaba presuntas violaciones de derechos territoriales en la zona.
La sobreviven cuatro hijxs.
Snippet FEA Agroecology And Food (EN)
AGROECOLOGY AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AS RESISTANCE |
Today, large-scale industrial food production uses single-crop plantations, genetically modified organisms and other pesticides that destroy the land and knowledge of local communities. |
Agroecology is a resistance to corporate-driven agriculture. It prioritizes smaller scale agriculture, multiple crops and diversified food production, and the centering of local knowledge and practices. Agroecology goes hand-in-hand with demands for food sovereignty, or the “right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems”(Via Campesina, Declaration of Nyéléni).
The role of women, indigenous and rural communities and people of color from the Global South is absolutely essential when it comes to food systems. Feminist agroecologists are working to dismantle oppressive gender roles and systems of patriarchy embedded within food production. As shown by the heroines of NSS, they are generating a liberatory agroecology by strengthening community resilience, empowering women peasants and farmers, and preserving local traditions, territories, and knowledge of food-producing communities.
Can I fill the survey outside KOBO and share my responses with you via email?
Unless there are accessibility issues and/or you are filling the survey in other languages, we strongly encourage you to use KOBO for WITM standardized data collection and analysis.
About the AWID International Forum
More than an event!
The AWID International Forum is a truly global space that gives participants an opportunity to network, build alliances, celebrate, and learn in a stimulating, emotive and safe atmosphere.

More and more, we are trying to bring the Forum process outside of the convening’s borders. Engaging with partners and deepening relationships all year round, connecting with local movements to better understand problems and co-create solutions. The Forum event itself, held every three to four years in a different region of the world, is just a crystallization of all these alliances that we are building as part of our work.
The AWID Forum dissolves our inner and external boundaries, fosters deep discussion, personal and professional growth, and strengthens our movements for gender justice and women’s rights.
As a convening, it is a response to the urgency to promote stronger and more coordinated engagement and action by feminists, women’s rights and other social justice advocates, organizations and movements. We also believe that the Forum is more than just an event – it can facilitate a process to influence thinking and set agendas for feminist movements and other related actors.
Evolving from a national conference of around 800 people, the event now brings together around 2000 feminists, community leaders, social justice activists, and donor agencies from around the world.
The 14th AWID International Forum will take place 11-14 January 2021 in Taipei, Taiwan.
The past Forums
2016 - Feminist Futures: Building Collective Power for Rights and Justice (Costa de Sauipe, Brazil)

Given the complex world that we face today, the 2016 AWID Forum did not focus on a particular “issue”, but rather on creating more effective ways of working together!
Despite the challenging contexts in which the 2016 Forum took place (the Zika epidemic, a strike by Brazilian foreign-service workers, the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and subsequent turmoil), it succeeded in bringing together over 1800 participants from 120 countries and territories across all regions of the world.
What happened at the 13th AWID international Forum:
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For 96% of participants who responded to the post Forum evaluation survey, the Forum was a major source of inspiration and energy.
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98% of participants considered it an important convening space for feminist movements and expressed hope that AWID continues to organize forums.
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59% of Forum evaluation survey respondents declared to be very satisfied with the Forum and 34% somewhat satisfied.
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Over 150 sessions were delivered in different formats on a variety of topics ranging from bodily integrity and freedoms, to gender-based violence in the workplace, to strategies for building collective power.
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The first-time Black Feminisms Forum (BFF), held just before the main AWID Forum, brought together 250 Black feminists from all over the world to co-create a powerful space to build and strengthen ongoing, intergenerational, transnational connections
Read more about what the 2016 AWID Forum achieved:
Download the Forum evaluation report
2012 - Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women's Rights and Justice (Istambul, Turkey)

The 12th AWID Forum was the largest and most diverse AWID Forum to date, bringing together 2239 women’s rights activists from 141 countries. Of these participants, around 65% were from the Global South and close to 15% were young women under 30, and 75% attended an AWID Forum for their first time.
The Forum program focused on transforming economic power to advance women’s rights and justice and featured over 170 different kinds of sessions including feminist economics toolbox skills-building sessions, breakout sessions representing all 10 Forum themes, in-depth sessions, and solidarity roundtables.
Building on the momentum of the 2012 Forum, we transformed the website into a resource and learning Hub, which builds on the content generated by participants by featuring multi-media resources on all Forum components.
Visit the 2012 Forum web archive
All AWID Forums
- 2016: Feminist Futures: Building Collective Power for Rights and Justice (Costa de Sauipe, Brazil). Read the 2016 Forum Evaluation report
- 2012: Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women's Rights and Justice (Istanbul, Turkey)
- 2008: The Power of Movements (Cape Town, South Africa). Read our 2008 Forum Report
- 2005: How does change happen? (Bangkok, Thailand)
- 2002: Reinventing Globalization (Guadalajara, Mexico)
- 1999: Leading Solutions for Equality and Justice (US)
- 1996: Beyond Beijing From Words to Action (US)
- 1993: Joining Forces to Further Shared Visions (US)
- 1991: Working Together/Learning Together: A South North Dialogue (US)
- 1989/1990: Global Em-Powerment for Women (US)
- 1987: Moving Forward: Innovations in Development Policy, Action and Research (US)
- 1985: Women Creating Wealth; Transforming Economic Development (US)
- 1983: ‘Women in Development’ (Washington D.C, US)
去台北參加論壇需要簽證嗎?
您若持有下列國家的護照,可免簽入境台灣到台北參與論壇活動(請留意持免簽可停留的天數各國不同):
安道爾、澳大利亞、奧地利、比利時、保加利亞、汶萊、加拿大、智利、克羅埃西亞、賽普勒斯、捷克、丹麥、愛沙尼亞、 史瓦濟蘭、芬蘭、法國、德國、希臘、瓜地馬拉、海地、宏都拉斯、匈牙利、冰島、愛爾蘭、以色列、義大利、日本*、韓國、拉脫維亞、列支頓斯登、立陶宛、盧森堡、馬爾他、馬歇爾群島、摩納哥、荷蘭、紐西蘭、尼加拉瓜、挪威、帛琉、巴拉圭、菲律賓、波蘭、葡萄牙、羅馬尼亞、俄國、聖馬利諾、斯洛伐克、斯洛維尼亞、西班牙、瑞典、瑞士、吐瓦魯、英國、美國、梵蒂岡城國、貝里斯、多明尼加、馬來西亞、諾魯、聖克里斯多福及尼維斯、聖塔露西亞、聖文森和格瑞納丁、新加坡。
未持有上述國家護照的人士來台北須申請簽證。
請留意:
在您完成論壇註冊手續後,無論您國籍為何,應會收到與論壇參與相關的一組號碼,用於申請來台灣的電子簽證。
論譠開放報名的時間我們會另行通知。
Cynthia Nicole
Guadalupe Campanur Tapia
Guadalupe était une activiste environnementale impliquée dans la lutte contre le crime à Cherán, au Mexique.
En 2011, Guadalupe a aidé à renverser le gouvernement local. Elle participait à des patrouilles de sécurité locale, notamment dans les forêts municipales et faisait partie des dirigeant-e-s autochtones de Cherán qui ont appelé les gens à défendre leurs forêts contre l’abattage implacable et illégal. Son travail pour les aînés, les enfants, les travailleurs-euses a fait d'elle une icône dans sa communauté.
Elle a été assassinée à Chilchota, au Mexique, à environ 30 kilomètres au nord de Cherán, sa ville natale.
Snippet FEA Bio fertilizer and Sum-Pack (ES)

¿Cuántas preguntas contiene la encuesta?
La encuesta contiene 47 preguntas en total, de las cuales 27 son de respuesta obligatoria* y las 20 restantes son opcionales. La mayoría de las preguntas de la encuesta son de opción múltiple. Invitamos a responder la totalidad de las preguntas.
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Dora Alicia Recinos Sorto
Ursula K Le Guin
Ursula was an American novelist who worked mainly in the genres of fantasy and science fiction.
She found fame with The Left Hand Of Darkness, which imagines a future society where people are ambisexual – they have no fixed sex. It explores the effects of gender and sex in society, and was one of the first major feminist science fiction books. Ursula was inspiring in her subversive and original writing, and also for the themes of feminism and freedom she held so dearly.
In a 1983 address at Mills College in California, she told graduates: “Why should a free woman with a college education either fight Macho-man or serve him? Why should she live her life on his terms? I hope you live without the need to dominate, and without the need to be dominated.”
Snippet FEA FEMINIST COOPERATIVISM (FR)
Coopérativisme
Féministe
Quand le travail et
la solidarité vont de pair
Dois-je répondre à toutes les questions en même temps, ou puis-je y répondre en plusieurs fois?
Au besoin, vous avez la possibilité de sauvegarder vos réponses en cours d’enquête, pour y revenir plus tard. KOBO enregistrera vos brouillons de réponses dans le coin supérieur gauche de la page de l'enquête et rechargera votre dossier lorsque vous reviendrez à l'enquête. Assurez-vous simplement de continuer à partir du même ordinateur et du même navigateur.
Defending LGBTQI Rights
Student, Writer, Leader, Advocate. Each of the four women honored below had their own way of activism but what they had in common is that they all promoted and defended Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer and Intersex rights. Join us in remembering and honoring these Women Human Rights Defenders, their work and legacy by sharing the memes below and tweeting by using the hashtags #WHRDTribute and #16Days.
Please click on each image below to see a larger version and download as a file



