FRIDAY FILE: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has established an Office of the Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders to address the increasing violence against those who defend human rights in the region. Women's rights and human rights organizations welcome the news as a progressive step towards protecting women human rights defenders.

By Analía Penchaszadeh

FRIDAY FILE: From March 5-8, 2011, the 6th Continental Meeting of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA in Spanish) took place in the Hueyapan Community, in Morelos, Mexico. AWID spoke to two of the participants, Cecilia Velasque and Tania Pariona Tarqui, about the event and their insights on the status of indigenous women’s rights in the region.

By Gabriela De Cicco

The importance of sharing, learning and growing as leaders

FRIDAY FILE: “The Colombian armed conflict has been going on for over 50 years and has developed alongside the situation of poverty in the country. Forced displacements, massacres of the Colombian people and other acts violating international humanitarian law are taking place, principally affecting women”.

By Gabriela De Cicco

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The collective Sentimos Diverso defines itself as a “feminist collective that mobilizes to create and to develop projects and actions aimed at empowering women, young people and people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, to demand their human, sexual and reproductive rights.”