When States Use Legislation Against Women Human Rights Defenders

FRIDAY FILE - With the upsurge in the criminalization of civil society, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders2012 report discusses how States use legislation to regulate the activities of human rights defenders (HRDs).

The Proposed Fifth World Conference on Women – A Time to Take Stock and Demand Implementation

FRIDAY FILE: Discussion about the implications of the proposed United Nations (UN) Fifth World Conference on Women in 2015 reveals diverse opinions on the challenges, opportunities, purpose and conditions for the proposed conference, but with some common threads.

By Susan Tolmay[1]

The World Urban Forum – Bringing Grassroots Women to the Urban Planning Table

FRIDAY FILE: The World Urban Forum 6 (WUF6) took place in Naples from 1-7 September 2012.

AWID spoke to Carmen Griffiths, Executive Director of the Construction Resource and Development Center (CRDC), and leader and organizer of GROOTS Jamaica[1]about grassroots women’s participation at this important global urban planning event.

By Susan Tolmay

A Fifth UN World Conference on Women in 2015? Learn More and Share your Opinion!

We invite you to share your opinion in the comments box below.

FRIDAY FILE: A discussion about the implications of the proposed UN Fifth World Conference on Women in 2015 is urgently needed among feminists and women’s rights activists from all regions of the world.

There are diverse opinions about the organization, hosting and purpose of the proposed conference, which have not been broadly debated.

By Susan Tolmay[i]

The proposed 5th World Conference on Women

From monitoring to demanding women’s rights in Latin America. The time is now.

FRIDAY FILE: In December 2011, the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CLADEM) launched the campaign For a State that fulfills its duties towards women’s human rights[1]

UN Women at its First Birthday: Systems and visibility growing, more funding and civil society engagement needed

FRIDAY FILE: In 2011 the United Nations consolidated all four UN bodies working on gender equality - OSAGI, UNIFEM, INSTRAW, and DAW - to create one UN agency working on women's rights. On behalf of the Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign, Charlotte Bunch, founding member of the GEAR campaign reflects on the first year of UN Women.

Africa’s Latest Land Rush: The Effect of Land Grabs on Women’s Rights

FRIDAY FILE: In Africa land rights are critical to economic power. In recent history, there have been three waves of land grabs: colonization, post-independence and present-day land grabs for commercial and apparently environment preservation purposes . Governments and corporations continue to wield their power to the detriment of women in Africa

Bringing the Pope to account for widespread and systematic crimes against humanity

FRIDAY FILE: On September 13, 2011, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)[1] and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)[2] filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC)[3] to investigate and prosecute the Pope, the Vatican Secretary of State and two Cardinals for rape, other forms of sexual violence, and torture as crimes against humanity.

African Women’s Organizing for the Ratification and Implementation of the Maputo Protocol

The Maputo Protocol is a ground-breaking women’s rights legal instrument that expands and reinforces the rights provided in other human rights instruments. The Protocol provides a broad range of economic and social welfare rights for women. Importantly it was produced by Africans and pays attention to the concerns of African women.

Sexual and Reproductive Rights: More than just health

FRIDAY FILE: Four years ago, in 2007, a Brazilian judge prosecuted 1,500 women for procuring abortions.[i] That same year, a twenty-year-old woman, Ana María Acevedo, died in Argentina of cancer-related complications because her doctors refused to treat her; she was pregnant and an abortion might have saved her life.