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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.

Related Content

Demo WYSIWYG page for testing

In a context like Colombia’s, the work of imagining, dreaming and even creating processes of transformation so we can live in worlds that are decent, just, careful, and affectionate is worthy of admiration. It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.

  1. It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.

Privacy is a fundamental right not just for the most powerful and privileged

In a context like Colombia’s, the work of imagining, dreaming and even creating processes of transformation so we can live in worlds that are decent, just, careful, and affectionate is worthy of admiration. This is an emboldened paragraph.

We are thinking of them and of all the women leaders who are continuing the fight, having gained consciousness, from their respective ethnic, political, cultural, and identity locations and from their work, of their selves and the social problems facing their communities.

This link goes somewhere, but this sentence doesn't, it only exists to show how a link works. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.

£2600 is an amount of money that I've wrapped some <strong> tags around, while 4 weeks – a length of time – also has had the same treatment for the purposes of just testing how typography appears on the page. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Find out how links are made into buttons

Header Level 2

In a context like Colombia’s, the work of imagining, dreaming and even creating processes of transformation so we can live in worlds that are decent, just, careful, and affectionate is worthy of admiration.

We are thinking of them and of all the women leaders who are continuing the fight, having gained consciousness, from their respective ethnic, political, cultural, and identity locations and from their work, of their selves and the social problems facing their communities.

Header Level 3

Women leaders and human rights defenders in Colombia: A legacy of dreams, struggles and affection that we will not silence

It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.

These are hyperlinks in paragraphs where they're needed the most, right in a demo page.

£2600 is an amount of money that I've wrapped some <strong> tags around, while 4 weeks – a length of time – also has had the same treatment for the purposes of just testing how typography appears on the page. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Header Level 4

It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated. These are hyperlinks in paragraphs where they're needed the most, right in a demo page.

£2600 is an amount of money that I've wrapped some <strong> tags around, while 4 weeks – a length of time – also has had the same treatment for the purposes of just testing how typography appears on the page. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Header Level 5

It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated. These are hyperlinks in paragraphs where they're needed the most, right in a demo page.

£2600 is an amount of money that I've wrapped some <strong> tags around, while 4 weeks – a length of time – also has had the same treatment for the purposes of just testing how typography appears on the page. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Header Level 6

It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.

These are hyperlinks in paragraphs where they're needed the most, right in a demo page. £2600 is an amount of money that I've wrapped some <strong> tags around, while 4 weeks – a length of time – also has had the same treatment for the purposes of just testing how typography appears on the page.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Blockquotes

Standard

It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.

Master Quotation Writer, Head of Placeholder Typography

Short (Big)

It is an attack on life itself.

Master Quotation Writer, Head of Placeholder Typography

Long (Small)

It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated. It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated. It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.

Master Quotation Writer, Head of Placeholder Typography

Bordered

It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.

Master Quotation Writer, Head of Placeholder Typography

Boxed (white)

It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.

Master Quotation Writer, Head of Placeholder Typography

Boxed (primary theme)

It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.

Master Quotation Writer, Head of Placeholder Typography

Boxed (secondary theme)

It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.

Master Quotation Writer, Head of Placeholder Typography

 

Snippet FEA No feminist economies without feminist unions (EN)

No feminist economies without feminist unions!

Through labor and union organizing, Sopo, Sabrina and Linda are not only fighting for the rights of essential workers, women workers, migrant workers and sex workers, but the rights of all workers.

The fight to end workers’ exploitation is a feminist struggle, and shows us that there are no feminist economies without feminist unions.

FRMag - The Triple

The Triple Cripples: Let’s talk about sex, baby!

by Nandini Tanya Lallmon 

Olajumoke ‘Jay’ Abdullahi and Kym Oliver are revolutionary feminists in more ways than one. (...)

Read

artwork: “Bloomed” by Titash Sen >

Snippet - WITM Our objectives - EN

Our research objectives

1

Provide AWID members, movement partners and funders with an updated, powerful, evidence-based, and action-oriented analysis of the resourcing realities of feminist movements and current state of the feminist funding ecosystem.

2

Identify and demonstrate opportunities to shift more and better funding for feminist organizing, expose false solutions and disrupt trends that make funding miss and/or move against gender justice and intersectional feminist agendas.

3

Articulate feminist visions, proposals and agendas for resourcing justice.

#MeToo in China


The #MeToo movement in China was ignited in January 2018, impelled by the momentum of the #MeToo movement around the globe. The movement was a response to cultural and systemic problems in relation to gender and power within China. The foundation of the movement was laid over decades, with many years of debate and advocacy for gender equality finally erupting into a tremendous force across society. #MeToo has been driven mainly by young people, among whom are countless anonymous women and their allies, and they search for opportunities to realize the ultimate “Chinese Dream”: to transform China into a country with gender equality.
 
The environment for #MeToo movement is extremely adverse in China: the rule of law, the fairness and transparency of government action, and freedom of speech cannot be taken for granted by the movement in China but are the very goals it fights for. From the beginning, it has been an intense struggle, with every victim or activist who comes forward running tremendous risks. From being silenced, humiliated, or retaliated against, to having their safety jeopardized, every success of the #MeToo movement has been won by those who are courageous enough to bear the costs of speaking out and defying censorship.
 
#MeToo in China Exhibition was first held in 2019 and toured in 5 cities. The aim of the exhibition is to bring the personal experiences of the victims and activists to greater prominence and, through engagement with these stories, to inspire our audience to join in the fight. The exhibition has itself become a part of the #MeToo struggle—the exhibition has been beset by challenges on its tour throughout China, on more than one occasion even facing closure.

#MeToo China Image
#MeToo China Image
#MeToo China Image

Snippet FEA We are living in a world left (ES)

Vivimos en un mundo donde la destrucción de la naturaleza alimenta nuestra economía global actual.

FRMag - Roots of Love and Resilience

Kunyit asam: Las raíces del amor y la resiliencia

por Prinka Saraswati

El ciclo menstrual habitualmente abarca entre 27 y 30 días. En ese lapso, el período en sí dura de 5 a 7 días. La fatiga, los cambios de humor y los espasmos son el resultado de la inflamación durante la menstruación. 

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< arte: «Movimiento feminista», Karina Tungari

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Why should I consider responding to the survey?

There are many reasons why your response to the WITM survey matters. The survey offers the opportunity to share your lived experience of mobilizing funding to support your organizing; claim your power as an expert on how money moves and who it reaches; and contribute to collective and consistent advocacy to funders moving more and better funding. Over the last two decades, AWID’s WITM research has proven to be a key resource for activists and funders. We wholeheartedly invite you to join us in its third iteration to highlight the actual state of resourcing, challenge false solutions, and point out how funding must change for movements to thrive and meet the complex challenges of our times.

Nicole Barakat

nicole barakat -verge exhibition april 2018
“We transcend time and place” [«Trascendemos el tiempo y el lugar»], papel recuperado cortado a mano (2017)
nicole barakat -verge exhibition april 2018
“We will remember who we are and we will persist” [«Recordaremos quiénes somos y persistiremos»], lamé cortado a mano bordado en algodón sobre seda de lana (2018)
nicole barakat -verge exhibition april 2018
“We will return home” [«Regresaremos a casa»], lamé cortado a mano bordado en seda sobre terciopelo de algodón (2018)
verge march 18 - document photography
“We will heal in the now” [«Sanaremos en el ahora»], seda cortada a mano, lana, lamé, algodón, impresión digital directa de satén sobre tela de lino (2018)

somos infinitxs 

Una exposición de Nicole Barakat que encarna su reconexión con los objetos de la diáspora de sus tierras ancestrales en la región del Sudoeste Asiático y África del Norte (SWANA, por sus siglas en inglés).
 
Barakat presenta una colección de obras textiles como manifestaciones de su práctica de conectarse con los objetos desplazados, y a menudo robados, que son exhibidos en colecciones de museos occidentales que incluyen  el Museo del Louvre de París, el Museo Británico de Londres y el Nicholson Museum de Sydney.
 
Para burlar a los guardianes y fisurar las vitrinas que retienen estos objetos ancestrales, Barakat recupera formas de conocimiento precoloniales, no lineales y receptivas que son, a menudo, devaluadas y desestimadas por las instituciones coloniales y patriarcales, utilizando la adivinación con la borra del  café, el trabajo con los  sueños, la escucha intuitiva y las conversaciones con los objetos mismos (fuente).

Sobre Nicole Barakat

Nicole Barakat portrait
Nicole Barakat es una artista femme queer de SWANA, que nació y vive en las tierras de Gadigal (llamadas Sydney) en Australia. Trabaja con procesos intuitivos y de escucha profunda, con la intención de transformar las condiciones de la vida cotidiana. Su obra se desarrolla a través de métodos artísticos no convencionales, creando objetos intrincados que plasman el amor y la paciencia característicos de las prácticas textiles tradicionales.
 
Sus trabajos incluyen dibujos en papel y en tela cortados y cosidos a mano, esculturas realizadas con su propio cabello, tela y materiales vegetales, así como obras en vivo en las que utiliza su voz como material.
 
La práctica creativa de Nicole está arraigada en el re-cuerdo y la re-colección de sus conocimientos ancestrales, incluyendo la adivinación con la borra del café y, más recientemente, el trabajo con esencias de plantas y flores para el cuidado y la sanación comunitaria.

Nicole’s creative practice is rooted in re-membering and re-gathering her ancestral knowing, including coffee divination and more recently working with plants and flower essences for community care and healing. 

Snippet - Podcast Playlist Season 1 (FR)

FRMag - Mainstreaming The Invisible

Intégrer les réalités féministes invisibles

par Dr. Pragati Singh

En 2019, j’étais invitée par le réseau BBC pour intervenir lors de la conférence intitulée 100 women (100 femmes) à Delhi, en Inde, à propos de « L’avenir de l’amour, des relations et des familles ». (...)

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illustration : « Les anges aussi sortent la nuit », par Chloé Luu >

En nuestro caso, reorientamos dinero a nuestros socios beneficiarios y nos identificamos como fondo de mujeres/feminista, ¿deberíamos responder la encuesta?

No. Valoramos muchísimo su trabajo, pero no estamos buscando respuestas de fondos de mujeres/feministas por el momento. Alentamos a compartir la encuesta con sus socios beneficiarios y con sus redes feministas.