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

Read in: English French Spanish

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

Type

Snippet2 - WCFM Explore and share - EN

Explore and share the databases with your network now!

Leticia Eulalia Mary Mukasa- Kikonyogo

Read in: English French Spanish
Category
Droits civils et politiques
Region
Afrique
Afrique subsaharienne
Cause of death / disappearance

Crise cardiaque

Leticia était une avocate et juge ougandaise.

Avant de prendre sa retraite, elle a occupé de nombreux postes de haut niveau, notamment celui de membre de la cour d’appel et juge en chef adjointe de l’Ouganda. Elle a été la première femme ougandaise à occuper le poste de magistrat en chef entre 1973 et 1986 et la première femme à être nommée juge à la Haute Cour de justice en 1986.

Elle fut l'une des premières femmes à recevoir le titre de chevalier pontifical de l'histoire de l'Église catholique en Afrique. Elle est morte d'une crise cardiaque.

 

 

Leticia Eulalia Mary Mukasa- Kikonyogo, Uganda

Snippet Opening Dance Performance EN

Número de baile de apertura

Por Pia Love

dancer with angel wings

Ver la apertura

Fatima Qureshi

Read in: English French Spanish
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
Add to stories
Off

Clone of Snippet - Intro WITM - FR

Where is the Money for Feminist Organizing? Survey Results

Thanks to our global feminist community! From May to August 2024, nearly 1,200 organizations working for Women's rights, gender justice, and LBTQI+ equality shared their experiences in the WITM survey. The results offer a unique picture of how feminist movements are resourced and where gaps remain.

Stay tuned for the upcoming report for more analysis!
 

Learn more about the insights

Asma Jahangir

Read in: English French Spanish
Category
Civil & Political Rights
Region
Asia
South Asia
Date of birth
Date of death / disappearance

Asma was a leading Pakistani rights activist, fearless critic of the military’s interference in politics and a staunch defender of the rule of law.

She was the founding chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent group, and was a trustee of the International Crisis Group. She won international awards and served as the United Nations rapporteur on human rights and extrajudicial killings.

She is remembered fondly by colleagues and friends at AWID

“With her life, Asma rewrote the history that many of us were told as women. Asma changed the world. She changed it in Pakistan, and she changed it in our imaginations."

 

 

Asma Jahangir, Pakistan

Snippet She is on her way_Fest (FR)

Session plénière:

"Elle est en chemin":
alternatives, féminismes et monde alternatif

Felogene Anumo, AWID
Dr. Vandana Shiva, India
Dr. Dilar Dirik, Kurdistan
Nana Akosua Hanson, Ghana

regarder la session plénière

 

Nana Abuelsoud

Read in: English French Spanish
Biography

Nana est militante féministe et chercheuse spécialisée dans les droits reproductifs et les politiques démographiques. Elle exerce ses activités en Égypte. Elle collabore avec Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice (RESURJ), siège au conseil consultatif de l’A Project au Liban et fait partie du comité communautaire de Mama Cash. Nana est diplômée d’un master en santé publique de l’Institut KIT et de l’Université Vrije d’Amsterdam. Son travail consiste à analyser et contextualiser les politiques démographiques nationales tout en documentant les questions liées à l’eugénisme contemporain, aux programmes d’aide internationale régressifs et aux régimes autoritaires. Auparavant, elle a collaboré avec la Fondation genevoise pour la formation et la recherche médicales, l’Initiative égyptienne pour les droits de la personne, ainsi qu’avec le Collectif féministe Ikhtyar au Caire.

Add to stories
Off

Snippet - COP30 Intro

Join the feminist movement reclaiming climate action from corporate capture

With 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists at last year's COP29, we're heading alongside other feminists to Belém, Brazil for COP30, from 10 November – 21 November 2025, where we will continue to denounce false solutions, call out corporate capture, demand that States uphold their commitments under the Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities and push for feminist economic alternatives.

$2.7 trillion for the military. $300 billion for climate justice. We're here to flip the script.

Actions Hubs Tools

Follow the campaign

Olivia Arévalo Lomas

Read in: English French Spanish
Category
Medioambiente
Region
América Latina
Date of death / disappearance
Cause of death / disappearance

Asesinada

Olivia era la líder espiritual del pueblo indígena Shipibo Konibo.

Sabia mujer indígena y abuela, era conocida por practicar la medicina tradicional y cantar las canciones sagradas de su pueblo (Íkaros). Olivia Arévalo fue una activa defensora de los derechos culturales y ambientales de su pueblo. Su asesinato tuvo lugar en un contexto de conflicto territorial entre la comunidad shipibo y las empresas que quieren apropiarse de sus tierras para cultivar palma aceitera.

Integrantes de su comunidad han dicho: «Su muerte es una agresión contra toda la comunidad shipibo. Ella era la memoria viviente de su pueblo».

 

 

Olivia Arévalo Lomas, Peru

Snippet "un"Inclusive Feminism_Fest (EN)

"un"Inclusive Feminism:
The voiceless girls in the Haitian feminist movement

Naike Ledan
Semi Kaefra Alisha Fermond, Trans Rights Activist ACIFVH
Natalie Desrosiers
Fédorah Pierre-Louis

watch panel

divider

Comment l’AWID a-t-elle débuté ?

Read in: English French Spanish

L’AWID a fait ses débuts en 1982 et s’est transformée au fil du temps.

Pour mieux connaître notre histoire

Lire « From WID to GAD to Women's Rights: The First 20 Years of AWID » (disponible uniquement en anglais).

Snippet - COP30 - International Eco-Socialist Encounter - EN

International Eco-Socialist Encounter

Panels, workshops, plenaries and spaces for exchange between collectives, activists and organizations in struggle to collectively walk the path towards an agenda and a program of struggle for ecosocialism.

📅 November 8 - November 11, 2025
📍 Buenos Aires, Argentina

Register here

Janette Sunita

Read in: English French Spanish
Category
Droits sexuels et reproductifs
Region
Asie
Asie centrale et du nord
Date of death / disappearance
Cause of death / disappearance

Naturelle

Originaire d'Inde, Janette était une personne formidable, fougueuse, bienveillante et aimante.

Son intolérance à l’égard de l’injustice et sa ferme volonté de défendre les droits de toutes les personnes l’ont amenée à travailler pour TARSHI (une ONG qui travaille sur la sexualité et la santé sexuelle et reproductive) pendant plus de 15 ans. Janette a géré et dirigé avec compétence les aspects financiers, les ressources humaines et les aspects opérationnels de TARSHI, naviguant adroitement dans la bureaucratie labyrinthique à laquelle sont soumises les ONG indiennes.

Son équipe se souvient « elle assurait nos arrières pour que nous puissions naviguer en eaux libres. Femme aux multiples talents, Janette nous a non seulement aidés à acquérir nos propres bureaux, mais elles les a également aménagés pour leur utilisation optimale. Elle aimait les voyages et les animaux et s'intéressait à la thérapie assistée par les animaux ».

 

Janette Sunita, India

Snippet Festival In Review - Presentation (ES)

Crear | Résister | Transform: ¡un festival de movimientos feministas!

¿Quieres inspirarte con las estrategias de resistencia creativas de feministas de todo el mundo? ¿Quieres descubrir iniciativas feministas que nos muestran las maneras en que todxs podemos vivir en un mundo más justo? ¿Quieres aprender sobre modelos de cuidado y sanación feministas para aplicarlos en tu propia comunidad?¿Eso que escuchamos es un estruendoso sí? ¡SÍ!

Entonces explora Crear | Résister | Transform: un festival de movimientos feministas. Este festival se llevó a cabo en línea durante todo el mes de septiembre de 2021 en todas las plataformas de AWID, y ahora puedes experimentarlo en tu propio tiempo.

Las sesiones a continuación son para ti y todas lxs increíbles activistas feministas y por la justicia social que conoces. Unámonos para compartir nuestras estrategias de resistencia, co-crear magia feminista y transformar este mundo juntxs.

El Festival fue una experiencia multicultural y multilingüe.

Lxs expositorxs participaron en su idioma de preferencia y en AWID incluimos subtítulos en los videos para tu accesibilidad.

Can AWID provide funding for my development project?

Read in: English French Spanish

No, we regret that AWID is not a funding organization.

We and cannot review funding proposals or requests.

We encourage you to browse our list of donors that may potentially fund your women's rights organizing.

View our list of donors

More resources are available from the Priority Area “Resourcing Feminist Movements”