Elaine Rosa Salo
Women Human Rights Defenders
WHRDs are self-identified women and lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LBTQI) people and others who defend rights and are subject to gender-specific risks and threats due to their human rights work and/or as a direct consequence of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
WHRDs are subject to systematic violence and discrimination due to their identities and unyielding struggles for rights, equality and justice.
The WHRD Program collaborates with international and regional partners as well as the AWID membership to raise awareness about these risks and threats, advocate for feminist and holistic measures of protection and safety, and actively promote a culture of self-care and collective well being in our movements.
Risks and threats targeting WHRDs
WHRDs are exposed to the same types of risks that all other defenders who defend human rights, communities, and the environment face. However, they are also exposed to gender-based violence and gender-specific risks because they challenge existing gender norms within their communities and societies.
By defending rights, WHRDs are at risk of:
- Physical assault and death
- Intimidation and harassment, including in online spaces
- Judicial harassment and criminalization
- Burnout
A collaborative, holistic approach to safety
We work collaboratively with international and regional networks and our membership
- to raise awareness about human rights abuses and violations against WHRDs and the systemic violence and discrimination they experience
- to strengthen protection mechanisms and ensure more effective and timely responses to WHRDs at risk
We work to promote a holistic approach to protection which includes:
- emphasizing the importance of self-care and collective well being, and recognizing that what care and wellbeing mean may differ across cultures
- documenting the violations targeting WHRDs using a feminist intersectional perspective;
- promoting the social recognition and celebration of the work and resilience of WHRDs ; and
- building civic spaces that are conducive to dismantling structural inequalities without restrictions or obstacles
Our Actions
We aim to contribute to a safer world for WHRDs, their families and communities. We believe that action for rights and justice should not put WHRDs at risk; it should be appreciated and celebrated.
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Promoting collaboration and coordination among human rights and women’s rights organizations at the international level to strengthen responses concerning safety and wellbeing of WHRDs.
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Supporting regional networks of WHRDs and their organizations, such as the Mesoamerican Initiative for WHRDs and the WHRD Middle East and North Africa Coalition, in promoting and strengthening collective action for protection - emphasizing the establishment of solidarity and protection networks, the promotion of self-care, and advocacy and mobilization for the safety of WHRDs;
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Increasing the visibility and recognition of WHRDs and their struggles, as well as the risks that they encounter by documenting the attacks that they face, and researching, producing, and disseminating information on their struggles, strategies, and challenges:
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Mobilizing urgent responses of international solidarity for WHRDs at risk through our international and regional networks, and our active membership.
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Ghiwa Sayegh es una anarcoescritora queer, editora independiente y archivista. Es la editora fundadora de Kohl, una revista para la investigación sobre cuerpo y género, y la cofundadora de Intersectional Knowledge Publishers. Posee una maestría en estudios de género de Université Paris 8 Vincennes, Saint-Denis. Le apasionan la teoría queer, las circulaciones transnacionales y las historias imaginadas o desconocidas. Sus influencias son Audre Lorde y Sara Ahmed.
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Resistencia a los ecofascismos: Un diálogo entre movimientos en la COP30
Cómo los movimientos resisten las agendas fascistas en relación con el cambio climático.
📅 Martes 11 de noviembre de 2025
📍 Hotel Beira Rio, Belém, Pará
Calendrier féministe AWID 2025
Ce calendrier est un cadeau que nous vous faisons à vous et aux 8 000 membres de notre communauté féministe mondiale. C’est notre promesse de moments d’activisme et de connexion pour l’année à venir. Ces derniers mois ont porté leur lot d’injustices indescriptibles. Cette année encore, continuons à cultiver la puissance du collectif, à établir des stratégies et à trouver des solutions porteuses d’espoir. Pour un monde plus juste pour toustes.
En feuilletant les pages de ce calendrier, vous remarquerez la diversité des œuvres de nos membres artistes, qui se servent de leur travail pour amplifier et relier nos différents mouvements sous le parapluie féministe. Vous retrouvez-vous dans ces pages ? Y retrouvez-vous votre mouvement, vos communautés ? Nous vous encourageons à utiliser ce calendrier utile pour marquer le temps, l’espace, mais aussi pour inscrire les possibilités d’établir des connexions avec les féministes et les activistes.
Utilisez-le, imprimez-le, partagez-le. Que ce calendrier soit votre partenaire quotidien dans votre parcours, un rappel constant de notre interconnexion et de nos visions partagées pour un monde meilleur. Laissez-le vous inspirer, tout comme il nous inspire, afin d’avancer ensemble.
Obtenez-le dans votre langue préférée!
Featured
Le calendrier féministe 2023
ours 2021 - chapter 2 en
Chapter 2
Understanding the Context of Anti-Rights Threats
The rising power of anti-rights actors is not happening in a vacuum. Understanding the rise of ultra-nationalism, unchecked corporate power, growing repression, and diminishing civic space is key to contextualize the anti-rights threats we face today.
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Avec Dre Vandana Shiva, Dre Dilar Dirik et Nana Akosua Hanson..
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Rencontre internationale éco-socialiste
Panels, ateliers, sessions plénières et espaces d’échanges entre collectives, activistes et organisations en lutte pour prendre collectivement le chemin vers un agenda et un programme de lutte pour l’éco-socialisme.
📅 Du 8 au 11 novembre 2025
📍 Buenos Aires, Argentine
En espagnol et en portugais
Advancing Universal Rights and Justice
Uprooting Fascisms and Fundamentalisms
Across the globe, feminist, women’s rights and gender justice defenders are challenging the agendas of fascist and fundamentalist actors. These oppressive forces target women, persons who are non-conforming in their gender identity, expression and/or sexual orientation, and other oppressed communities.
Discriminatory ideologies are undermining and co-opting our human rights systems and standards, with the aim of making rights the preserve of only certain groups. In the face of this, the Advancing Universal Rights and Justice (AURJ) initiative promotes the universality of rights - the foundational principle that human rights belong to everyone, no matter who they are, without exception.
We create space for feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements and allies to recognize, strategize and take collective action to counter the influence and impact of anti-rights actors. We also seek to advance women’s rights and feminist frameworks, norms and proposals, and to protect and promote the universality of rights.
Our actions
Through this initiative, we:
- Build knowledge: We support feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements by disseminating and popularizing knowledge and key messages about anti-rights actors, their strategies, and impact in the international human rights systems through AWID’s leadership role in the collaborative platform, the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs)*.
- Advance feminist agendas: We ally ourselves with partners in international human rights spaces including, the Human Rights Council, the Commission on Population and Development, the Commission on the Status of Women and the UN General Assembly.
- Create and amplify alternatives: We engage with our members to ensure that international commitments, resolutions and norms reflect and are fed back into organizing in other spaces locally, nationally and regionally.
- Mobilize solidarity action: We take action alongside women human rights defenders (WHRDs) including trans and intersex defenders and young feminists, working to challenge fundamentalisms and fascisms and call attention to situations of risk.
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CFA 2023 - Hubs - EN
New
Hubs: Cross-Border Space Travel
Participants will physically gather at a number of sites outside the Bangkok venue, in different parts of the world, on each day of the Forum. All of these self-organized sites will be virtually connected to the Forum venue in Bangkok. As with individuals connecting online, Hub participants will be able to facilitate activities, participate in conversations and enjoy a rich and diverse program.
Hub locations to be announced in 2024!
Teresita Navacilla
Snippet Kohl - Intro Arabic
التجسيدات العابرة للحدود
قضايا تتعلق بالجسد والجندر ومختلف أنواع الجنسانية، واستكشف الروابط المتشابكة بين القضايا هذه وكونها تجاربَ مجسّدة بعمق ومكانًا يُعترض فيه على الحقوق تكون فيه الأخيرة مهدّدة في المجتمع.
تكمن قوّة الحركات النسوية في طريقة تنظيمنا وتنسيق نشاطنا، ليس ضمن مجتمعاتنا وحركاتنا فحسب إنما بالتعاون مع قضايا ومجموعات حليفة في مجال العدالة الاجتماعية. وفّرت المساحة هذه فرصًا للحركات لمشاركة طرق التنظيم واستراتيجيات تكتيكية مع بعضنا البعض وتعزيزها.
لقد أوضحت جائحة كوفيد-١٩ العالمية فشل الرأسمالية النيوليبرالي فبدا أكبر من قبل وكشفت عن التفكك الموجود في أنظمتنا أكثر من أي وقت سابق، فشددت على ضرورة بناء أنواع واقع جديد وفرص بنائها. يتطلّب التعافي النسوي الاقتصادي والاجتماعي منّا جميعًا أن ننجح كلّنا معًا. نصدر النسخة هذه من المجلة بالشراكة مع «كحل: مجلة لأبحاث الجسد والجندر»، وسنستكشف عبرها الحلول والاقتراحات وأنواع الواقع النسوية لتغيير عالمنا الحالي وكذلك أجسادنا وجنسانياتنا.
يمكنك تصفح المقالات عبر الإنترنت أو
قم بتنزيل ملف PDF
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CFA 2023 - Suggested Activities Format - EN
Suggested Activity Formats
Panel: In Panel discussions, explore an issue or challenge from different perspectives, or share a learning or experience, followed by audience questions if time allows.
Talk Show: Have a more spontaneous conversation in Talk-Show style. Talk Shows can be a conversation among several people, facilitated by a talk-show host. Audience questions can determine the conversation’s direction.
Discussion: These can take the form of world cafes, fishbowls, and other methodologies that facilitate participants’ active involvement in conversations. Highly participatory.
Workshop: Interactive sessions that invite participants to build new skills in any and all areas of life and activism.
Strategy Session: This is an invitation to think through an issue or strategy, in depth, with others. A space to learn from each other: what works, what doesn’t, and how do we develop new and collective strategies to create the worlds we dream of.
Sharing Circle (also known as “Birds of a Feather”): Ideal for small groups, in a more intimate setting, to hear from each other, spark discussion and carefully address topics that may be specific, sensitive and complex.
Arts – Participatory Workshop: Participatory activities involving arts and creative expression. Whether through visual art, theater, film, mural, dance, music, collective craft or artmaking, etc., we welcome all ideas celebrating feminist art and creativity as forms of social change, healing, expression and transformation.
Arts – Performances, Installations and Exhibitions: We welcome submissions that offer Forum participants new experiences and perspectives, expand our horizons, and challenge and inspire us to think, feel and organize in new ways.
Healing: Diverse activities tailored both for groups and individuals, from learning relaxation techniques to discussing burnout prevention, from trauma-informed practices of care for our body, mind and soul to healing rifts within our movements.
Rosalinda Pérez
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I love me some poetry…
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This collaborative zine originated from a series of sharing circles that brought together feminists from around the world throughout 2022. The purpose was to exchange ideas and mutually learn how communities are responding to the climate crisis in various local contexts.
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Hybrid like never before
For the first time, the AWID Forum offers three modes of participation
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¡Está siempre dispuestx a explorar nuevas experiencias!
Yo: Señor, ¿probó por el culo?
Él: No, no probé.
Yo: Piénselo, porque me gustaría cogérmelo / joderlo tal como a lxs trabajadorxs nos cogen / joden en los trabajos cuando lo que nos pagan no alcanza para vivir.
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Where is the Money for Feminist Organizing? Survey Results
Thanks to our global feminist community! From May to August 2024, nearly 1,200 organizations working for Women's rights, gender justice, and LBTQI+ equality shared their experiences in the WITM survey. The results offer a unique picture of how feminist movements are resourced and where gaps remain.