The 37th session of the HRC is taking place in Geneva from 23 February to 23 March 2018, where the HRC will be presented with thematic and country reports from UN experts and where Member States will debate and pass resolutions on cross-cutting human rights issues and human rights situations in particular countries.

The AWID International Forum brings together feminist and women’s rights leaders and activists from diverse movements, development practitioners, and donors from around the world. This global convening consistently proves to be a critical space to collectively energize and shape the analyses, agendas and alliances that drive strategies to make gender justice and human rights lived realities.

The growing dominance of international financial markets and institutions in defining global economic policies has resulted in the capture of people’s power in the interest of global elites and big corporations.

The Women’s Rights in Transitions to Democracy: Achieving Rights Resisting Backlash (Pre-Meeting and Strategy Sessions Report) is based on the pre AWID 2012 Forum consultation devoted to strategizing around women’s rights and transitions to democracy, attended by almost 100 women’s rights leaders from over 18 countries in the MENA region, as well as activists from Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.

The Transitional Justice category examines different case studies showcasing the impact of addressing injustice on the degree to which women’s rights were achieved in various democratization processes. Women have often been referred to as “weapons of war” in all kinds of conflicts across and within borders, in different cultures, times and regions. Mechanisms used to bring those crimes committed before, during, and after conflicts and wars to justice are critical for laying the foundation for the new democracies.

The Transitions to Democracy category mirrors the title of the mapping by including pieces that provide a more general historic geopolitical overview of specific countries or situations in transition from a broad cross-cutting perspective, thus setting a contextual tone for more specific categories of resources.

Trade has the potential to advance gender equality and realise women’s rights by expanding decent work opportunities for women and contributing to sustainable and equitable economic development. However, in many cases this potential has not been fulfilled; trade, and the agreements that establish its rules, have impacted negatively on the lives of many women. 

This report is the first of a series on human rights trends produced by the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) initiative, a collaborative and multi-organizational project that aims to monitor, analyze, and share information on anti-rights initiatives.

Violence against Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) continues to grow. WHRDs confronting unfettered corporate power in pursuit of human rights face particular situations of risk and threats.

It is our hope that this report will open a dialogue and space for further unpacking of the provided data and results and will provide actionable guidance in how funding trends and donor recommendations can support Indigenous Women’s Organizations in a meaningful and effective way, ensuring a sustainable planet for our future generations.