FRIDAY FILE - Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) who promote the rights; health and safety of sexual workers are being persecuted, harassed and arrested.
Although sexual work is illegal in Uganda, providing services and support for sex workers is not.
By Katherine Ronderos
FRIDAY FILE - Threats and violence against women journalists are on the rise in many regions of the world. In their work exposing injustices and bearing witness to human rights violations, women journalists are women human rights defenders and as such are in need of better security and protection mechanisms.
By Katherine Ronderos
FRIDAY FILE: Feminists have started to consider self-care and security as a political tool to ensure the survival of our movement as well as our personal wellness. But, the patriarchal legacy mandating women as “care-givers of the world”, creates contradictions in balancing the demand of caring for others with needing to care for ourselves.
By Katherine Ronderos
Friday File: This week the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD IC) launched its Global Report on the Situation of Women Human Rights Defenders to advance the recognition of WHRDs, the violence and human rights violations they face, and the contexts that enable these violations.
By Katherine Ronderos
FRIDAY FILE: Land, labour and livelihoods were the themes of the 2011 Gender Festival in the East African nation of Tanzania. Organized by the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), the Festival brought together about 4000 predominantly grassroots women’s rights and gender equality advocates over four days.
By Kathambi Kinoti
FRIDAY FILE: Understanding the inherent contradictions in using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to promote and protect women’s rights is an important starting point for women human rights defenders (WHRDs) who face risks of violence and intimidation on a daily basis because of who they are and the work they do.
By Susan Tolmay
AWID spoke to Jennifer Radloff, Senior project coordinator at Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP)
FRIDAY FILE: Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) in Zimbabwe are routinely arrested, unlawfully detained and subjected to ill-treatment whilst in prison, all for engaging in peaceful protest. AWID tries to unravel the complexities of the context in which they work to understand how WHRDs are affected by politically motivated violence, the land reform process and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
By Amanda Shaw
FRIDAY FILE: Women have been at the forefront of demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the recent popular uprisings, which have received much media and international attention. In contrast, coverage of attacks on women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in Iraq’s Tahrir Square demonstrations has been limited, AWID asks why.
FRIDAY FILE: A new network of women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in Papua New Guinea (PNG) brings together women leaders in the Eastern Highlands, the country’s most isolated region. AWID spoke with Indai Sajor, Gender Advisor for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) about the new network and what it hopes to achieve.
By Analía Penchaszadeh
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