Young Feminist Activism
Organizing creatively, facing an increasing threat
Young feminist activists play a critical role in women’s rights organizations and movements worldwide by bringing up new issues that feminists face today. Their strength, creativity and adaptability are vital to the sustainability of feminist organizing.
At the same time, they face specific impediments to their activism such as limited access to funding and support, lack of capacity-building opportunities, and a significant increase of attacks on young women human rights defenders. This creates a lack of visibility that makes more difficult their inclusion and effective participation within women’s rights movements.
A multigenerational approach
AWID’s young feminist activism program was created to make sure the voices of young women are heard and reflected in feminist discourse. We want to ensure that young feminists have better access to funding, capacity-building opportunities and international processes. In addition to supporting young feminists directly, we are also working with women’s rights activists of all ages on practical models and strategies for effective multigenerational organizing.
Our Actions
We want young feminist activists to play a role in decision-making affecting their rights by:
-
Fostering community and sharing information through the Young Feminist Wire. Recognizing the importance of online media for the work of young feminists, our team launched the Young Feminist Wire in May 2010 to share information, build capacity through online webinars and e-discussions, and encourage community building.
-
Researching and building knowledge on young feminist activism, to increase the visibility and impact of young feminist activism within and across women’s rights movements and other key actors such as donors.
-
Promoting more effective multigenerational organizing, exploring better ways to work together.
-
Supporting young feminists to engage in global development processes such as those within the United Nations
-
Collaboration across all of AWID’s priority areas, including the Forum, to ensure young feminists’ key contributions, perspectives, needs and activism are reflected in debates, policies and programs affecting them.
Related Content
Snippet - CSW68 - Feminist Community Evening - FR
🎤Soirée communautaire féministe :
un rassemblement pour les militantes féministes participant à la CSW68
(avec des invités spéciaux!)
📅Mardi 12 mars
🕒18 h - 21 h 30 HNE
🏢 Blue Gallery, 222 E 46th St, New York
Entrée par RSVP uniquement
Notre vision : La justice économique dans un monde féministe
En tant que féministes luttant pour la justice de genre, la paix, la justice économique, sociale et environnementale, nous savons qu'il n'existe pas de recette miracle, mais plutôt un éventail de possibilités qui peuvent faire changer les choses, et qui les font changer.
Cet éventail d’options est aussi diversifié que nos mouvements et les communautés dans lesquelles nous vivons et nous luttons.
Avant de vous présenter quelques-unes de ces propositions féministes pour un autre monde, voici les principes qui encadrent nos propositions :
1. Un développement autodéterminé, du local au global
Nous croyons qu'il ne doit pas y avoir un seul modèle pour tous, et que chacun-e doit avoir le droit de revendiquer et de contribuer à la construction d'un autre monde possible, comme le formule le slogan du Forum social mondial.
Cela inclut le droit de participer à la gouvernance démocratique et d'influer sur son avenir, politiquement, économiquement, socialement et culturellement.
L'autodétermination économique permet aux peuples de prendre le contrôle de leurs ressources naturelles et d'utiliser ces ressources pour atteindre leurs propres objectifs ou pour un usage collectif. En outre, le pouvoir d’agir des femmes dans la sphère économique est fondamental pour atténuer le caractère souvent cyclique de la pauvreté, le déni de l'éducation, de la sécurité et de la sûreté.
2. Les droits, l'égalité réelle et la justice au cœur de l'économie
Le principe de l'égalité réelle est énoncé dans la Convention sur l'élimination de toutes les formes de discrimination à l'égard des femmes (CEDAW) et d'autres instruments internationaux relatifs aux droits humains. Ce principe est fondamental pour le développement et la transformation vers une économie juste, car il affirme que tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux.
La non-discrimination fait partie intégrante du principe d'égalité, qui veille à ce que personne ne soit privé de ses droits en raison de facteurs tels que la race, le sexe, la langue, la religion, l'orientation sexuelle, l'identité sexuelle, une opinion politique ou autre, l’origine nationale ou sociale, la fortune ou la naissance.
La dignité inhérente à toute personne sans distinction doit être maintenue et respectée. Alors que les États doivent veiller à l'utilisation d’un maximum de ressources disponibles pour la réalisation des droits humains, le fait d’exiger ces droits et la dignité est un enjeu clé pour la lutte de la société civile et la mobilisation populaire.
3. Une redistribution juste pour tous et toutes, sans monopolisation ou accaparement (le principe d’anti-avidité)
Ce principe, mis en œuvre par les efforts coordonnés visant à transformer les institutions injustes, soutient le rétablissement de l’équilibre entre la « participation » (entrées) et la « distribution » (sorties), lorsque celui-ci est rompu.
Il permet de poser des limites à l'accumulation monopolistique de capital et d'autres abus liés à la propriété. Ce concept est fondé sur un modèle économique qui repose sur l'équité et la justice.
4. La solidarité féministe et inter-mouvements est fondamentale
Pour changer les choses, nous avons besoin de réseaux féministes solides et diversifiés. Nous avons besoin de mouvements qui renforcent la solidarité du niveau personnel au niveau politique, du niveau local au niveau global, et inversement.
Construire le pouvoir collectif grâce aux mouvements permet de convertir la lutte pour les droits humains, l'égalité et la justice en une force politique pour le changement qui ne peut être ignorée.
« Seuls les mouvements sont en mesure de créer des changements durables à des niveaux que la politique et les lois seules ne permettraient pas d’atteindre. »
Pour en savoir plus sur ce sujet, consulter S. Batliwala, 2012 Changer leur monde. Mouvements féministes, concepts et pratiques.
Voir également
Maria Luisa Posa Dominado
Snippet Love Letters Intro (FR)
Lettres d’amour Aux Mouvements Féministes
Peut-être savez-vous déjà que l’AWID fête ses 40 ans en 2022. Mais saviez-vous que nous avons retenu pour thèmes « Rassembler, semer et perturber » ? Pour célébrer cette occasion comme il se doit, nous avons invité des membres, des partenaires et du personnel de l’AWID à écrire leur propre « lettre d’amour aux mouvements féministes ». Ensemble, nous avons créé une constellation de mouvements féministes. Restez près de nous alors que nous poursuivons notre chemin, pour rassembler, semer et perturber !
Une remarque sur notre collection de lettres d'amour :
Toutes ces lettres ont été écrites par des activistes qui font part de leurs expériences diverses au sein des mouvements féministes. Certaines peuvent inclure du contenu difficile ou éprouvant à propos d’abus, de violence sexuelle, de conflit, d’exclusion ou d’autres éléments potentiellement déclencheurs ou perturbants. Ces lettres sont emplies d’amour, mais restez néanmoins attentifs·ves à vos émotions lorsque vous les lirez.
Snippet - WITM survey is focused on - EN
The WITM survey is focused on the feminist resourcing realities of the last 3 years (2021 to 2023), and has five key sections:
- Group information
- Financial status
- Shifting power
- Sustainability
- Key aspirations
It consists of mandatory* and optional questions, most of which are multiple-choice. You will have a chance to share more on issues that are important to you by responding to the open question(s) at the end of the survey.

To respond to the questions quickly and easily, we advise that you have your key financial information at hand (e.g., your annual budgets from 2021 to 2023). However, if you wish to save your responses and come back to the survey later, you are able to do this whenever needed.
Griselda Tirado Evangelio
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
Mai Ghoussoub
Snippet FEA FIGHT LIKE SOMEONE WHO CARES (EN)
São Paulo, Brazil
COZINHA OCUPAÇÃO 9 DE JULHO
FIGHT LIKE SOMEONE
WHO CARES
Snippet - WITM To make - EN

To make the complexity of resourcing diverse forms of feminist organizing visible
Orouba Barakat
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
Matilde Lindo Crisanto
Snippet FEA Ocupação 9 de Julho is more than just a building (ES)
Pero Ocupação 9 de Julho es más que un edificio..
Es un centro comunitario, donde unx puede tomar cursos y capacitarse en actividades creativas que generan ingresos como peluquería local, cocina y creación artística. Lxs niñxs también pueden disfrutar de actividades culturales y educativas.
El MSTC no trabaja solo. Colabora con instituciones y colectivos de arte para producir experiencias culturales, deportivas y educativas, junto con el acceso crítico a la atención médica. Desde su inicio, este proyecto participativo ha sido liderado y llevado a cabo principalmente por mujeres, bajo el liderazgo de la activista afro-brasileña Carmen Silva, quien alguna vez fue una persona sin hogar.
Snippet - WITM Why now_col 2 - FR
Le financement des mouvements féministes est indispensable à la mise en place d’une présence plus juste et pacifique et d’un avenir libéré. Au cours de la dernière décennie, les bailleurs de fonds se sont engagés à verser bien plus d’argent en faveur de l’égalité des genres, mais 1 % seulement des financements philanthropiques et de développement a réellement été destiné à financer directement les changements sociaux menés par des féministes (ressource en anglais).
Pour viser l’abondance, et rompre ce cycle d’insuffisance chronique, l’enquête WITM est une invitation pour les activistes féministes et défenseur·ses de la justice de genre à se lancer dans l’aventure de la collecte de données probantes et d’arguments en faveur de la mobilisation de davantage d’argent, de meilleure qualité, et de réappropriation du pouvoir au sein de l’écosystème actuel du financement. En solidarité avec les mouvements qui continuent à être invisibilisés, marginalisés et empêchés d’accéder à des financements de base, à long terme, flexibles et reposant sur la confiance, l’enquête WITM souligne l’état actuel de la mobilisation de ressources, remet en question les fausses solutions, et identifie les changements à opérer au sein des modèles de financement afin que les mouvements s’épanouissent et relèvent les défis complexes de notre époque.
Hala Salaam
Sala de prensa
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
Notas de prensa
Notas de prensa, dosieres y kits
Kits de social media
Nasreen Pervin Huq
Snippet FEA ASOM (FR)
Association des Femmes Afro-Descendantes du Cauca du Nord
L'organisation communautaire des femmes noires dans le Cauca du Nord en Colombie remonte au passé colonial du pays, marqué par le racisme, le patriarcat et le capitalisme qui ont soutenu l'esclavage comme moyen d'exploiter les riches sols de la région. Ces organisatrices sont les héroïnes d'un vaste mouvement pour l'autonomie des personnes noires, luttant pour la gestion durable des forêts et des ressources naturelles de la région, vitales pour leur culture et leur subsistance.
Depuis 25 ans, la Asociación de Mujeres Afrodescendientes del Norte del Cauca (l’Association des Femmes Afro-Descendantes du Cauca du Nord, ASOM) se consacre à la promotion de l'organisation des femmes afro-colombiennes du Cauca du Nord.
L’association a été créée en 1997 en réponse aux violations continues des droits humains, à l'absence de politiques publiques, à la gestion inadéquate des ressources naturelles et au manque d'opportunités pour les femmes dans le territoire.
Elles ont forgé la lutte pour garantir les droits ethno-territoriaux, pour mettre fin aux violences contre les femmes et pour faire reconnaître le rôle des femmes dans la construction de la paix en Colombie.