Philippe Leroyer | Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Special Focus

AWID is an international, feminist, membership organisation committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development and women’s human rights

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.

  • 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.

  • 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;

  • 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:

  • Mobilizing urgent responses of international solidarity for WHRDs at risk through our international and regional networks, and our active membership.

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Sobre Upasana Agarwal

Upasana Agarwal
Upasana es unx ilustradorx y artista no binarie de Calcuta, India. Su obra explora narrativas identitarias y personales, que empean restos o evidencias visuales de los contextos con los que trabaja. Le atraen especialmente los diseños en patrones que, para ellx, comunican verdades complejas sobre el pasado, el presente y el futuro. Cuando Upasana no está ilustrando, organiza y dirige un centro de arte comunitario queer y trans de la ciudad.

Madiha El Safty

Madiha was a prominent Professor of Sociology who actively engaged with civil society as an advocate for women’s rights in the Arab region.

She chaired the Alliance for Arab Women and was a member of the Committee on Civil Society and the Committee on the Development of Minia Governorate with the National Council for Women. She produced numerous papers that shed light on, and analyzed, gender inequalities and discrimination against women.

She is remembered fondly by colleagues, students and friends.


 

Madiha El Safty, Egypt

Snippet FEA Financial Precarities (EN)

This image represents a faceless person with dark hair, yellow glasses, and V-neck navy blue colored shirt that is writing on a burgundy piece of paper with a yellow pencil
FINANCIAL PRECARITIES
is constant

Snippet - WITM Acknowledgements - AR

شكر

ان جمعية حقوق المرأة في التنمية ممتنة للعديد من الأشخاص الذين/ اللواتي ساعدت أفكارهم/ن، تحليلاتهم/ن ومساهماتهم/ن على تصميم استطلاع "أين المال" على مدار السنوات.

نشكر جزيل الشكر أعضاء/ عضوات AWID والنشطاء/ الناشطات الذين/ اللواتي شاركوا/ن في استشارات استطلاع "أين المال؟" وقاموا/ن بتجربة الاستطلاع وأعطونا بسخاء من وقتهم/ن وتحليلاتهم/ن وقلوبهم/ن.

نقدر بشكل عميق الحركات النسوية، الحلفاء/ الحليفات والصناديق النسوية بمانقدر بشكل عميق الحركات النسوية، الحلفاء/ الحليفات والصناديق النسوية وهنا بعض منها وليس جميعها: Black Feminist Fund, Pacific Feminist Fund, ASTREA, FRIDA Young Feminist Fund, Purposeful, Kosovo Women's Network, Human Rights Funders Network, CEECCNA Feminist Fund e PROSPERA, على بحثكم/ن الرائع عن وضع التمويل، تحليلكم/ن الدقيق والمناصرة المستمرة لتمويل وقوة أكبر وأفضل للحركات النسوية وتنظيمات العدالة الجندرية في جميع السياقات.

انضموا/من للمجتمع العالمي من النسويات/ين اللواتي/ اللذين يرفعن/وا صوتهم/ن ويتحدثن/وا عن التمويل، ويطالبن/وا بتمويل وبقوة أكبر وأفضل للنسويات/ين في كل مكان

Comprendre le contexte des menaces antidroits

Chapitre 2

Bien plus de la moitié de la population mondiale est aujourd’hui dirigée par l’extrême droite. C’est sur cette toile de fond que défenseur·e·s des droits humains et féministes luttent pour « tenir bon », protéger le multilatéralisme et le système international des droits humains, alors que leurs engagements les exposent à de violentes répressions. Ces institutions sont cependant de plus en plus soumises aux intérêts du secteur privé. Les grandes entreprises, surtout les sociétés transnationales, siègent à la table des négociations et occupent des fonctions de leadership dans plusieurs institutions multilatérales, l’ONU notamment. Le lien entre ultranationalisme, restriction de l’espace civique et emprise des entreprises a un impact considérable sur la réalisation ou non des droits humains pour tout le monde.

Protester holding a flyer that reads "Danger - Trump and the Far Right."
© Alisdare Hickson / Flickr
Danger - Trump and the Far Right.

Sommaire

  • Nationalisme et ultranationalisme
  • Emprise des entreprises : le pouvoir débridé des entreprises met nos droits en danger
  • Répression et restriction des espaces civiques pour les activistes féministes et les défenseur·e·s des droits humains des femmes et des personnes LGBTIQ+
  • Histoire du mouvement de la résistance. L’Article 16 de la CEDAW : vers une réforme des codes de la famille discriminatoires dans les contextes musulmans
     

Lire le chapitre complet >

Teresia Teaiwa

Retratada en The Guardian como uno de los íconos nacionales de Kiribati, Teresia fue una valiente activista.

Trabajó estrechamente con los grupos feministas en Fiji y que puso sus investigaciones al servicio de las cuestiones feministas y de género en el Pacífico. Además, fue coeditora de la publicación International Feminist Journal of Politics. Su influencia se extendió desde la frontera académica hasta los movimientos por la justicia social en la región de Oceanía.


 

Teresia Teaiwa, Fiji

Snippet FEA Get Involved Story 3 (ES)

¡INVOLÚCRATE!

¡Sigue el trabajo de la cooperativa en Facebook e Instagram, comparte sus campañas y mantente al tanto de sus acciones y eventos de recaudación de fondos!

Я являюсь индивидуальной(-ым) активисткой(-том), не сотрудничающей(-им) в данный момент ни с какой группой, организацией и/или движением – могу ли я принять участие в опросе?

Нет, мы очень ценим вашу работу, но в данный момент мы не собираем информацию об отдельных активистках(-тах).

The Crear, Résister, Transform Story by Coumba Toure

A magical experience of feminist story telling led by pan-African feminist Coumba Toure, performing in the age old tradition of West African griots.

And we gathered again 
We gathered our stories our strength 
our songs
our tears 
our rage 
our dreams 
our success
our failures
And we pull them all together 
In one big bowl to share 
for a moon of thoughts 
And we stay in touch 
We shake each others minds 
we caress each other souls
While our hands still are tied 
And our kisses and hugs are banned 
Yet we grow stronger by the hour 
Weaving together our voices
Crossing the sound barriers 
as we speak in tongues 

We are getting louder and louder 
We know about differences from others 
and from each other so we are stitching our beauties into patchwork or thoughts
From our deepest learnings from our powers 
Sometimes we are surrounded by terror 
by confusions by dishonesty
But we wash out in the Ocean of love 
We are weavers of dreams 
To clothes or new world 
Thread after thread
As small as we are
Like little ants building our movement
Llike little drops building our rivers
 We take steps forward and steps backward 
Dancing our way back to sanity 
Sustain to the rhythm of our hearts keep 
Beating please don't not stop
And we are here transmitter of forgotten generosity 
drop after drop growing like the ocean 
growing like the river flowing from our souls .
showing our strength  to be  the  water 
that will clean this world
and we are gathering again can you feel us 
I would lie if I say I said I am 
Ok not to see you I do miss my people 
I miss your touch and
You unfiltered and unrecorded voices 
I miss our whispers and our screams 
Our cries of the aborted revolution 
We only want to give birth to new worlds 
 So fight to erase the borders between us 


And we gathered again 
We gathered our stories our strength 
our songs
our tears 
our rage 
our dreams 
our success
our failures
And we pull them all together In one big bowl to share 
For a moon of thoughts 
And we stay in touch 
We shake each others minds 
we caress each other souls
While our hands still are tied 
And our kisses and hugs are banned 
Yet we grow stronger by the hour 
Weaving together our voices
Crossing the sound barriers 
as we speak in tongues 
We are getting louder and louder 
We know about differences from others 
and from each other so we are stitching our beauties into patchwork or thoughts
From our deepest learnings from our powers Sometimes we are surrounded by terror by Confusions by dishonesty
But we watch out in the Ocean of love 
We are weavers of dreams 
To clothes or new world 
Thread after thread 
As small as we are like little ants building our movements
 like little drops building our rivers We take steps forward and steps backward 
dancing our way back to sanity 
Sustain to the rhythm of our hearts
keep beating please don't not stop
And we are here transmitter of forgotten generosity 
Drop after drop growing like the ocean 
growing like the river flowing from our souls 
showing our strength to be  the  water 
that will clean this world  
and we are gathering again can you feel us 
I would lie if I I said I am Ok
not to see you
I do miss my people
I miss your touch and
You unfiltered and unrecorded voices  
I miss  our  whispers  and  our screams 
Our cries over the aborted revolutions 
We only want to give birth to new worlds 
So fight to erase the borders between us 
Please don’’t stop

Stella Mukasa

Stella a commencé sa carrière au ministère du Genre et du Développement communautaire en Ouganda. Elle œuvrait auprès des décideurs-euses politiques, pour encourager des réformes législatives, dont celle de la Constitution ougandaise en 1995 qui a entériné certaines des réformes les plus progressives pour les femmes dans la région.

Elle était adorée dans la région tout entière pour ses incessants efforts pour la création et l’application de lois et politiques sensibles au genre. Elle a joué un rôle clé dans l’ébauche de la loi sur les violences domestiques en Ouganda. Elle a aussi contribué à une mobilisation importante en faveur de Constitutions sensibles au genre à la fois en Ouganda et au Rwanda.

Par son travail au Centre international de recherches sur les femmes (International Center for Research on Women, ICRW), elle a abordé les thématiques de la violence à l’égard des enfants. Stella s’est attachée à renforcer les organisations locales qui luttent contre les violences basées sur le genre. Conférencière en Droits genrés et loi à l’université Makerere, elle a également siégé aux conseils d’administration d’Akina Mama wa Afrika, ActionAid International Uganda et l’Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa.


 

Stella Mukasa, Uganda
Body

Snippet FEA Who takes care of them S4 (FR)

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