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

Type

Snippet FEA Nadia Echazu (FR)

La Coopérative Textile Nadia Echazú porte le nom d'une pionnière dans la lutte pour les droits des personnes trans en Argentine. À bien des égards, le travail de la coopérative célèbre la vie et l'héritage de Nadia Echazú, qui a eu une carrière militante remarquable.

La Coopérative Textile Nadia Echazú porte le nom d'une pionnière dans la lutte pour les droits des personnes trans en Argentine. À bien des égards, le travail de la coopérative célèbre la vie et l'héritage de Nadia Echazú, qui a eu une carrière militante remarquable.

Peu de temps après sa mort, ses collègues militantes ont fondé la coopérative en son nom, pour honorer la marque profonde qu'elle a laissée sur l'activisme trans et travesti en Argentine.

Snippet - WITM about research - RU

Об исследовании «Где же деньги для феминистских объединений?»

Глобальный опрос «Где деньги для феминистских объединений?» является ключевым элементом третьего этапа нашего исследования, ориентированного на конкретные действия: «Где деньги для феминистских объединений» (короткое название – «Где деньги?»). Результаты опроса будут доработаны и обстоятельно изучены в ходе бесед с активистами и донорами, а также сопоставлены с другими имеющимися аналитическими материалами и исследованиями о состоянии ресурсов феминистских движений и инициатив по достижению гендерного равенства во всем мире.

Полный отчет организации «Где деньги для феминистских объединений?» будет опубликован в 2026 году.

Чтобы узнать больше о том, как AWID освещает вопросы финансирования феминистских движений, ознакомьтесь с историей инициативы «Где деньги?» и нашими предыдущими отчетами здесь.

Media Centre

AWID in the media

News compilation regarding AWID's work and organization.

 

 

Press releases

Press kits and statements

Social Media Kits

Videos

Conferences, talks, seminars video recordings

Impunity for violence against women defenders of territory, common goods, and nature in Latin America
March 16, 2018		 Rural women's resistance to closing civic space
March 15, 2018		  
Empowering rural women in mining affected environments
March 13, 2018		 Feminist Perspectives on Accountability
March 13, 2018		 Gender Perspectives on Corporate Accountability
March 12, 2018

 

 

Media contact

Contact email

+1 416 594 3773

Body

Snippet FEA Map of Georgia (EN)

This image is a close-up of Georgia in coral pink with a yellow pin indicating “Georgia Solidarity Network”

Почему мне стоит принять участие в опросе?

Есть много причин, по которым ваше участие в опросе очень важно. Это возможность поделиться своим опытом привлечения финансирования для деятельности вашей организации; заявить о себе как об эксперте в вопросах движения денежных средств и их получателей; внести свой вклад в коллективную и последовательную адвокацию среди доноров, чтобы привлечь более объемное и эффективное финансирование. За последние два десятилетия исследования AWID в этой области зарекомендовали себя как ключевой ресурс для активисток(-тов) и доноров. Мы приглашаем вас присоединиться к нам в реализации третьей части инициативы «Где деньги?», чтобы осветить реальное состояние ресурсного обеспечения, оспорить ошибочные решения и указать на то, как необходимо изменить финансирование, чтобы движения процветали и реагировали на сложные вызовы нашего времени.

Obiageli “Oby” Nwankwo

Category
Civil & Political Rights
Region
Africa
Sub Sahara Africa

With a legal career spanning more than 30 years, Oby was known across Africa and around the world as a champion for gender justice and human rights.

She founded and served as Executive Director of the Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC), a Nigerian NGO which sponsors trainings and network-building activities for members of civil society, parliamentarians and other key stakeholders to promote human rights, good governance and access to justice and rule of law.

Oby is remembered fondly by activists in Nigeria as an “extraordinary activist who displayed energy and passion towards the fight for gender equality and gender justice in Nigeria and across Africa.” 

 

 

Obiageli “Oby” Nwankwo, Nigeria

Merci d'avoir téléchargé la Boîte à outils des réalités féministes

Body

Snippet FEA collaborator and allies Photo 1 (ES)

La foto muestra a Sopo Japaridze, uno de los cofundadores de Union Solidarity Network. Sopo tiene cabello castaño largo, con flequillo, ojos marrones y usa una máscara roja del Sindicato de la Red de Solidaridad. La foto está tomada de noche.

Nós redistribuímos recursos para os nossos parceires beneficiários e identificamo-nos como um fundo feminista e/ou de mulheres. Devemos participar no inquérito?

Não, apreciamos muito o vosso trabalho, mas atualmente não solicitamos respostas de fundos feministas e de mulheres. Encorajamos-vos a partilhar o inquérito com os vossos parceires beneficiários e as vossas redes feministas.

Laura Lee

Category
Derechos sexuales y reproductivos
Region
Europa
Europa Occidental

Laura fue una abogada y líder activista que luchó valientemente por la descriminalización del trabajo sexual en Irlanda.

Es recordada como «una combatiente por la libertad de lxs trabajadorxs sexuales, una feminista, una madre para su hija y una amiga necesaria para mucha gente».

Laura promovió el reconocimiento de las personas de la industria del sexo como trabajadorxs merecedorxs de derechos. Presentó demandas por la descriminalización, e inició una revisión judicial en la Corte Suprema de Belfast respecto de las provisiones que criminalizan la compra de servicios sexuales. Declaró que su intención era llevar el caso a la Corte Europea de Derechos Humanos.

 

 

Laura Lee, Ireland

Disclaimer: Communications with AWID staff

If you have received emails from any staff members at AWID, we would like you to understand the following:

  • The information contained in this communication is confidential and is intended solely for the addressee. 

  • This communication may contain information proprietary to the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), and may not be reproduced or disseminated in whole or in part without AWID's written consent. 

  • AWID does not warrant that any information contained herein is complete or correct. This communication is not an offer to enter into any agreement and is not a confirmation of any agreement described herein unless the context clearly indicates the contrary. 

  • AWID is not acting as your adviser in any agreement that may be proposed herein, and this communication does not constitute a recommendation, guidance or proposal to enter into any agreement. 

  • AWID does not guarantee or otherwise assure the expected results of any agreement. This communication may contain views or opinions that are not necessarily those of AWID. 

  • You shall not be entitled to place any reliance on the information contained in this communication for the purposes of entering into any proposed agreement or otherwise.

Body

Snippet FEA Workers demonstrations in Georgia 2 (FR)

La photo montre une manifestation où une foule de personnes tient une bannière en géorgien qui se lit comme suit : « Le 8 mars pour les femmes travailleuses ».