Anja Nedringhous
Protection of the Family
The Issue
Over the past few years, a troubling new trend at the international human rights level is being observed, where discourses on ‘protecting the family’ are being employed to defend violations committed against family members, to bolster and justify impunity, and to restrict equal rights within and to family life.
The campaign to "Protect the Family" is driven by ultra-conservative efforts to impose "traditional" and patriarchal interpretations of the family, and to move rights out of the hands of family members and into the institution of ‘the family’.
“Protection of the Family” efforts stem from:
- rising traditionalism,
- rising cultural, social and religious conservatism and
- sentiment hostile to women’s human rights, sexual rights, child rights and the rights of persons with non-normative gender identities and sexual orientations.
Since 2014, a group of states have been operating as a bloc in human rights spaces under the name “Group of Friends of the Family”, and resolutions on “Protection of the Family” have been successfully passed every year since 2014.
This agenda has spread beyond the Human Rights Council. We have seen regressive language on “the family” being introduced at the Commission on the Status of Women, and attempts made to introduce it in negotiations on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Our Approach
AWID works with partners and allies to jointly resist “Protection of the Family” and other regressive agendas, and to uphold the universality of human rights.
In response to the increased influence of regressive actors in human rights spaces, AWID joined allies to form the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs). OURs is a collaborative project that monitors, analyzes, and shares information on anti-rights initiatives like “Protection of the Family”.
Rights at Risk, the first OURs report, charts a map of the actors making up the global anti-rights lobby, identifies their key discourses and strategies, and the effect they are having on our human rights.
The report outlines “Protection of the Family” as an agenda that has fostered collaboration across a broad range of regressive actors at the UN. It describes it as: “a strategic framework that houses “multiple patriarchal and anti-rights positions, where the framework, in turn, aims to justify and institutionalize these positions.”
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Join Us - old 5 Apr 2023 (changed by Ritu)
Join Us
By joining AWID, you are becoming part of worldwide feminist organizing, a collective power that is rooted in working across movements and is based on solidarity.
Desejam recolher quantas respostas ao questionário?
O nosso objetivo é alcançar um total de 2000 respostas, quase o dobro do último questionário WITM em 2011.
Juana Ramírez Santiago
Ayant co-fondé le réseau Red de Mujeres Ixiles de Nebaj, une organisation de défense des droits des femmes autochtones, membre de l’Initiative mésoaméricaine des femmes défenseur-e-s des droits humains (IM-Defensoras en espagnol), Juana était actuellement membre de son conseil d’administration.
Elle était également sage-femme et mère de 7 enfants. Juana avait reçu des menaces de mort qui avaient été signalées au bureau du procureur. Juana est la troisième défenseure autochtone assassinée dans la région en 2018. L'Ombudsman pour le Guatemala a signalé qu'au total 20 défenseur-e-s ont été tué-e-s dans le pays cette année.
Juana Ramírez Santiago a été abattue par des assaillants non identifiés alors qu'elle traversait un pont à Nebak, Quiché, au Guatemala. Les enquêtes visant à identifier les auteurs sont en cours.
Snippet FEA Striking against all odds (ES)
Luchar contra viento y marea: la historia de la victoria sin precedentes de la Red de Solidaridad
En enero de 2022, la Red de Solidaridad organizó una huelga con 400 trabajadorxs. ¿Su principal demanda? Aumentar los salarios. La huelga fue convocada después de meses de conversaciones fracasadas con el Ministerio de Asuntos Sociales de Georgia como parte de un conflicto laboral.
Después de semanas de protestar, negociar, hablar con la prensa, resistir represalias y soportar el frío del invierno georgiano, lxs trabajadorxs obtuvieron concesiones sin precedentes del gobierno: aumento de los salarios, prestaciones por maternidad, cobertura de los costos de transporte, el cese de despidos, la compensación por los días de huelga, y más.
La huelga no solo resultó en ganancias materiales, sino que también hizo que lxs trabajadorxs se sintieran unidxs y empoderadxs para defenderse y luchar por condiciones de trabajo dignas ahora y en el futuro. Se convirtieron en una fuente de inspiración para todxs lxs trabajadorxs del país.
Puedes leer más sobre su victoria aquí.
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In a context like Colombia’s, the work of imagining, dreaming and even creating processes of transformation so we can live in worlds that are decent, just, careful, and affectionate is worthy of admiration. It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.
- It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.
Privacy is a fundamental right not just for the most powerful and privileged
In a context like Colombia’s, the work of imagining, dreaming and even creating processes of transformation so we can live in worlds that are decent, just, careful, and affectionate is worthy of admiration. This is an emboldened paragraph.
We are thinking of them and of all the women leaders who are continuing the fight, having gained consciousness, from their respective ethnic, political, cultural, and identity locations and from their work, of their selves and the social problems facing their communities.
This link goes somewhere, but this sentence doesn't, it only exists to show how a link works. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
£2600 is an amount of money that I've wrapped some <strong> tags around, while 4 weeks – a length of time – also has had the same treatment for the purposes of just testing how typography appears on the page. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Find out how links are made into buttons
Header Level 2
In a context like Colombia’s, the work of imagining, dreaming and even creating processes of transformation so we can live in worlds that are decent, just, careful, and affectionate is worthy of admiration.
We are thinking of them and of all the women leaders who are continuing the fight, having gained consciousness, from their respective ethnic, political, cultural, and identity locations and from their work, of their selves and the social problems facing their communities.
Header Level 3
Women leaders and human rights defenders in Colombia: A legacy of dreams, struggles and affection that we will not silence
It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.
These are hyperlinks in paragraphs where they're needed the most, right in a demo page.
£2600 is an amount of money that I've wrapped some <strong> tags around, while 4 weeks – a length of time – also has had the same treatment for the purposes of just testing how typography appears on the page. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Header Level 4
It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated. These are hyperlinks in paragraphs where they're needed the most, right in a demo page.
£2600 is an amount of money that I've wrapped some <strong> tags around, while 4 weeks – a length of time – also has had the same treatment for the purposes of just testing how typography appears on the page. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Header Level 5
It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated. These are hyperlinks in paragraphs where they're needed the most, right in a demo page.
£2600 is an amount of money that I've wrapped some <strong> tags around, while 4 weeks – a length of time – also has had the same treatment for the purposes of just testing how typography appears on the page. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Header Level 6
It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.
These are hyperlinks in paragraphs where they're needed the most, right in a demo page. £2600 is an amount of money that I've wrapped some <strong> tags around, while 4 weeks – a length of time – also has had the same treatment for the purposes of just testing how typography appears on the page.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
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It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.
Short (Big)
It is an attack on life itself.
Long (Small)
It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated. It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated. It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.
Bordered
It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.
Boxed (white)
It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.
Boxed (primary theme)
It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.
Boxed (secondary theme)
It is an attack on life itself. Not just on the life of one official, but an attack on the soul, on the spirit of an entire people who feels frustrated.
Reason to join 5
Expande tus fronteras. Lxs afiliadxs de AWID representan de forma creciente una intersección diversa y vibrante de feministas que trabajan, entre otras cosas, en temáticas asociadas a la tierra, los derechos de lxs trabajadorxs, los derechos sexuales y la autonomía corporal. Al afiliarte, puedes conectar tus luchas con las de otros movimientos.
Leonor Zamora
Diakite Fatoumata Sire
Diakite was actively involved in advocating for women in political and public life in Mali.
She worked to support training of women candidates in elections, and spoke out against the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). She was a strong proponent of reproductive health and rights.
Snippet FEA Union Otras (FR)
SYNDICAT OTRAS
L’Organisation Sindicale des Travailleur·euses du Sexe (Organización Sindical de Trabajadoras del Sexo, OTRAS) est le premier syndicat de travailleur·euses du sexe de l'histoire de l'Espagne. Le syndicat est née de la nécessité de garantir les droits sociaux, juridiques et politiques des travailleur·euses du sexe dans un pays où les mouvements d'extrême droite se renforcent au jour le jour.
Après des années de lutte contre le système juridique espagnol et les groupes abolitionnistes du travail du sexe qui ont appelé à sa fermeture, OTRAS a finalement obtenu son statut légal de syndicat en 2021.
Son objectif? Décriminaliser le travail du sexe et garantir des conditions et des environnements de travail décents pour tous·tes les travailleur·euses du sexe.
Le syndicat représente plus de 600 travailleur·euses du sexe, dont beaucoup de personnes immigrantes, racialisées, trans, queer, ou de genre non-conforme.
#MeToo in China
The #MeToo movement in China was ignited in January 2018, impelled by the momentum of the #MeToo movement around the globe. The movement was a response to cultural and systemic problems in relation to gender and power within China. The foundation of the movement was laid over decades, with many years of debate and advocacy for gender equality finally erupting into a tremendous force across society. #MeToo has been driven mainly by young people, among whom are countless anonymous women and their allies, and they search for opportunities to realize the ultimate “Chinese Dream”: to transform China into a country with gender equality.
The environment for #MeToo movement is extremely adverse in China: the rule of law, the fairness and transparency of government action, and freedom of speech cannot be taken for granted by the movement in China but are the very goals it fights for. From the beginning, it has been an intense struggle, with every victim or activist who comes forward running tremendous risks. From being silenced, humiliated, or retaliated against, to having their safety jeopardized, every success of the #MeToo movement has been won by those who are courageous enough to bear the costs of speaking out and defying censorship.
#MeToo in China Exhibition was first held in 2019 and toured in 5 cities. The aim of the exhibition is to bring the personal experiences of the victims and activists to greater prominence and, through engagement with these stories, to inspire our audience to join in the fight. The exhibition has itself become a part of the #MeToo struggle—the exhibition has been beset by challenges on its tour throughout China, on more than one occasion even facing closure.
Our values - bodily autonomy
Autonomie, intégrité et libertés corporelles
Nous célébrons le droit de chacun·e à choisir son identité, ses relations, ses objectifs, son travail, ses rêves et ses plaisirs, et ce qu'iel fait de son esprit, de son corps et de son âme. Nous croyons qu'il est nécessaire de travailler à l'accès aux ressources, aux informations et à des environnements sûrs et favorables qui permettent d'atteindre cet objectif.
Claudia House Morcom
What Our Members Say - En
What Our Members Say
Andaiye
Andaiye in Swahili means ‘a daughter comes home’. Born Sandra Williams on 11 September 1942 in Georgetown, Guyana, she changed her name to ‘Andaiye’ in 1970 as the Black Power movements swept her country and the wider Caribbean region.
Andaiye was seen as a transformative figure on the frontlines of the struggles for liberation and freedom. She was an early member and active in the leadership of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), a socialist party in Guyana which fought against authoritarian rule and continued throughout her life to focus on justice for the working-class and rural women’s rights and on bridging ethnic barriers between Indo and Afro-Guyanese women.
Andaiye was a founding member of Red Thread Women, an organization that advocated for women’s care work to be fairly remunerated, worked at the University of the West Indies and with CARICOM. Never afraid to challenge governments, she pointed out gender imbalances in state boards, laws that discriminated against sex workers, called for abortion rights in Jamaica and spoke out against trade agreements such as the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allowed for the free movement of women domestic migrant workers but did not give their children the same rights.
Andaiye published several scholarly essays, wrote newspaper columns and also edited the last books of Walter Rodney, the Guyanese political activist and fellow WPA leader, who was assassinated in 1980. A cancer survivor, Andaiye was one of the founders of the Guyana Cancer Society and the Cancer Survivors’ Action Group. She also served on the executive of the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA), as a Director of Help and Shelter and as Board Member of the Guyana National Commission on Women. She received a number of awards, including the Golden Arrow of Achievement in Guyana (the fourth highest national award).
Andaiye passed away on 31 May 2019 at the age of 77. The subsequent tributes that flowed in from activists, friends and those inspired by her life spoke eloquently to her amazing legacy and her beautiful humanity.
Here are but a few:
“Andaiye had a profound effect on me...she was so many things, an educator, fighter, she taught me to be self-critical, to think more clearly, she taught me about survival, about incredible courage, about compassion, about going beyond external appearances and treating people as people and not being distracted by status, class, race...anything.”
- Peggy Antrobus, Feminist Activist, Author, Scholar, Barbados
“The kind of confident idealism Andaiye expressed, this willingness to confront the world and a stubborn belief that you could actually change it... That politics of hope...How else to honour her life, legacy and memory but to keep doing the work ethically and with ongoing self-critique? And to put women’s caring work at the center of it.”
- Tonya Haynes, Barbados
“I can hear her quip at our collective keening. So through the tears I can laugh. Deep bows to you beloved Andaiye, thank you for everything. Love and light for your spirit’s journey. Tell Walter and all the ancestors howdy.” - Carol Narcisse, Jamaica
Snippet FEA Union Otras Photo 5 (EN)
