FRIDAY FILE: Palestinians, and people globally who stand in solidarity with Palestine, commemorate Land Day every March 30. On this day in 1976 thousands of Palestinians embarked on a general strike and protests against the Israeli government’s announcement to confiscate large portions of Palestinian lands for new Israeli settlements. The protests resulted in six Palestinians being killed, and hundreds injured and arrested by Israeli forces. Land Day has been commemorated every year since. 

By Mégane Ghorbani

AWID recently spoke with a representative from the Myanmar/Burma Women’s Network and the Women’s League of Burma about the proposed ‘Law On the Protection of Race and Religion’.

FRIDAY FILE: AWID spoke with Mirna Cunningham, President of the Center for the Autonomy and Development of Indigenous Peoples, about the recent UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the importance of participating substantively in this and other preparatory processes towards the World Conference of Indigenous People (WCIP) in September 2014.

FRIDAY FILE – Women’s unequal access to resources in any given economy is widely recognized as a major source of gender inequality. Privatization and State appropriation of what was otherwise common land, affects those who depend most on this resource to sustain their livelihoods.

By Ana Abelenda

FRIDAY FILE - Threats against the local leaders and women human rights defenders (WHRDs) continue to form part of a strategy of intimidation used by the actors of the armed conflict in Colombia.

By Katherine Ronderos

FRIDAY FILE: Idle No More (INM) is a Canadian resistance and protest indigenous people’s movement that kicked off last year. AWID spoke with Dr. Lynn Gehl* (Gii-Zhigaate Mnidookwe), an indigenous human rights advocate, about the movement.

By Gabriela De Cicco

FRIDAY FILE - Murders of indigenous women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in the Philippines have caused worldwide condemnation. Defending indigenous communities’ rights to sustainable livelihoods, and protecting ancestral lands from mining interests has become an increasingly dangerous struggle.

FRIDAY FILE: On June 22, 2012, almost three years after the coup d’etat in Honduras, the Paraguayan Senate removed President Fernando Lugo from office after finding him guilty of impeachment in a 39 to 4 vote.

AWID talked with Paraguayan political scientist and feminist lawyer Line Bareiro about this situation.

By Gabriela De Cicco

On 7April 2012 Joyce Banda made history by becoming the first female President of Malawi and the first in the Southern African Development Community (SADC)[1] following the sudden death of former President, Bingu wa Mutharika. The new President has an enormous undertaking to address the serious economic crisis in the country, and with a strong activist track record, civil society is hopeful that she will champion women rights.

FRIDAY FILE: The 2012 AWID Forum aims to explore how economic power is impacting on women and planet, and to facilitate connections among diverse groups working on these issues from human rights and justice approaches so that together we contribute to stronger, more effective strategies to advance women’s rights and justice.