Known for its sun, sea, and sand, The Bahamas has a dirty little secret. Sexism lives and thrives in this chain of islands, supported by the constitution and laws of the land.

Stress, burn out, uncontrollable emotional outbursts, depression, anxiety, migraines and cancer, are some of the effects that human rights defense work has on WHRDs around the world, and the ones that often make them quit their important work. AWID spoke with Jessica Horn, Senior Advisor for the African Institute for Integrated Responses to Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS (AIR) about the politics of self-care and well being for women human rights defenders (WHRDs). 

AWID spoke with Argentinian feminist popular educator Claudia Korol, member of Pañuelos en Rebeldía about how PE is used as a tool to create feminist knowledge and open up discussions in mixed-gender organizations.

WOMANTRA is a Caribbean based feminist organization focused on woman and female centred scholarship, activism and social programs. In 2008, the first incarnation of the ‘Silent Silhouettes’ project was launched by Stephanie Leitch and Michelle Isava to commemorate the lives of women who died as a result of domestic violence.

Four years after the popular uprising that led to the removal of the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, Tunisia held its first free and democratic presidential election in the country's history in December 2014. AWID spoke to Khadija Cherif, one-time contender for the position of Minister of Women, Family and Children to learn about some of the challenges to women’s political participation in the country.

On Saturday, 25th April 2015, the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) was granted Observer Status at the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACPHR). AWID interviewed Fikile Vilakazi, founding Executive Director of CAL, and Fadzai Muparusta, Regional Advocacy Officer for CAL to hear more about the decision to seek observer status at the ACHPR and the movement building that led to the final success.

For economic justice to be realized, the current draft outcome (released on May 7th 2015)  proposed towards this high level conference needs to change to be transformative and work towards redressing the imbalances between corporate and public power, as well as inequalities resulting from  ‘North – South’ relations.

For decades, the women’s rights movement and women’s rights organizations have been severely underfunded. AWID research in 2010 revealed that the median budget for 740 women’s organizations all over the globe was a miserly US$20,000. In the same year, as a point of reference, the income for Save the Children International and World Vision International was US$1.442 billion and US$2.611 billion respectively.

What would a truly inclusive and egalitarian world look like? AWID invited LGBTIQ activists to answer these two questions - What would a queer-positive world be like? What is needed to achieve it?  Read their responses, and tell us what YOU think a queer positive world would look like.

AWID spoke to Zarizana Abdul Aziz and Janine Moussa, co-directors of the Due Diligence Project to learn more about their recent publication.