Flickr/Leonardo Veras (CC BY 2.0)

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.”

 

Related Content

Snippet FEA ASOM Challenges Story 1 (EN)

CHALLENGES:

  • Climate Change
  • Access to financial credit Intermediaries
  • Cultivation for illicit usage

Snippet - WITH - Reflects - EN

Reflects on the funding ecosystem and trends impacting feminist, women’s rights, gender justice, LBTQI+ and allied movements regionally and globally

Mayo 2015: tienen lugar las consultas sobre el Borrador del Documento Final

Sesiones adicionales de consulta sobre el Borrador del Documento Final

  • El 7 de mayo, los facilitadores dieron a conocer la versión revisada del Documento Final de la tercera Conferencia Internacional sobre la FpD a realizarse en Adís Abeba.
  • A fin de continuar avanzando hacia el Documento Final hubo sesiones adicionales para realizar consultas en torno al mismo los días 12 al 15 y 26 al 29 de mayo de 2015 en la sede de la ONU en Nueva York.

Snippet FEA Mano Cambiada (ES)

Two hands shaking - lighter skinned hand with a yellow shirt and darker skinned hand with a burgundy shirt. The words "Mano cambiada" are written over in cursive.

MANO CAMBIADA

Término de las comunidades negras del Norte del Cauca para la minga, el trabajo colaborativo en fincas, basado en el apoyo mutuo y la solidaridad.

Snippet - WITM To Strengthen - ES

Para fortalecer nuestra voz y poder colectivos para obtener más y mejor financiamiento para las organizaciones feministas, por los derechos de las mujeres y de las personas LBTQI+ y demás organizaciones aliadas de todo el mundo.

Snippet FEA Environments Of Shelter (FR)

Metzineres fournit les types de soutien suivants, connus sous le nom de

Environnements d'abri :

Snippet - WITM Survey will remain open - FR

Regardez le webinaire « Où est l'argent?» maintenant !

Le 11 juillet 2024, nous avons eu une conversation étonnante avec de grandes féministes sur l'état de l'écosystème du financement et le pouvoir du recherche « Où est l'argent ? ».

Un merci spécial à Cindy Clark (Thousand Currents), Sachini Perera (RESURJ), Vanessa Thomas (Black Feminist Fund), Lisa Mossberg (SIDA) et Althea Anderson (Fondation Hewlett).

N'oubliez pas que l'enquête restera ouverte jusqu'au 31 août 2024 !

Regardez le webinaire

I am not able to submit a written proposal, are you accepting any other formats?

As part of our commitment to accessibility in all aspects of the AWID Forum we are accepting audio/video formats for those individuals/organizations/groups who can't submit a written application. 

If you choose to send your proposal in an audio/video format, kindly follow the same order to answer the questions as detailed in the Activity Proposal Form.

To submit an audio/video file please Contact us, selecting Forum Call for Activities as the subject of your email.

Contact us

Snippet FEA Clemencia Video (EN)

Snippet - WITM RESOURCES - ES

Recursos

What is included in registration fees?

The AWID Forum registration fees for all forum participants cover:

  • Full access to all four days of the Forum
  • Lunches and coffee/tea breaks during forum days
  • Resource materials
  • Simultaneous interpretation during plenaries and some selected breakout sessions/activities (English, French, Spanish, and local language)
  • Participation in the celebration dinner/party
  • Mobile app with final program and chat function
  • Free Wi-Fi service in the forum premises
  • Airport pick ups and hotel-venue-hotel transportation

 

Snippet FEA EoS The Bold (EN)

Yellow and pink cog wheels

The Bold
Production and entrepreneurship