AWID took to Geneva this June to participate in the 35th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC).   The HRC is the key intergovernmental body within the United Nations system responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe.

A short poem to remember an honour WHRDs and activists who are no longer with us.

The WHRD IC is deeply concerned about the recent detention of eight Turkish human rights defenders and two IT trainers and calls for their immediate and unconditional release. Among those who were detained from a human rights workshop are prominent members of the women’s rights movement, which is a clear attempt to destabilize and demoralize women who engage in legitimate and important activism to defend and promote human rights.

The WHRD-IC calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Ebtisam Al-Saegh, and the end to the harassment, intimidation, violence and threats towards her and her family. We ask the Bahraini authorities to end their campaign against all human rights defenders.

With the global surge to the right and the attacks on civic space, many hope that powerful corporations can be allies for the civil society. Among them, the panelists of  “The Business Case for Civic Space”, a public event organized by CIVICUS, on 14 June 2017, in the headquarters of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The panelists included high level UN leadership and a Microsoft representative.

The book Código Rosa. Relatos sobre abortos [Pink Code. Narratives about abortions] is a collective creation emerging out of testimonies from women who’d had medical abortions and who had been accompanied in that decision by the Colectiva. AWID spoke to  Dahiana Belfiori, feminist activist, member of the Pink Relief Network and author of the book.

Environmental degradation is deliberate, violent and patriarchal. From Turkey to Guatemala, women are on the frontlines of resistance.

Bondita Acharya is an activist and a member of Women in Governance (WinG) Assam. She received death threats after condemning the arrest of three people for the possession of beef on 4 April 2017. The attacks on her include trolling on her Facebook account and other social media with sexually laden, criminal and defamatory posts.

Question marks over support for short-term projects run by UN population fund prompt concern over future of programmes in Syria, east Africa and beyond.

Last Saturday, on 25 March 2017, AWID alongside other international organizations, attended a special Right Livelihood Award ceremony in Cairo where Mozn Hassan was  honoured  "for asserting the equality and rights of women in circumstances where they are subject to ongoing violence, abuse and discrimination."