Suzette Jordan
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.
Related Content
Snippet FEA Union Otras Photo Panel (FR)
Membres du syndicat OTRAS
Join the Feminist Realities journey (Forum page)
Rejoignez l'aventure des réalités féministes
Le Forum de l’AWID n’est qu’une étape dans l’aventure des Réalités féministes. Parcourons ce chemin ensemble et explorons notre pouvoir en action !
Upasana Agarwal
Sobre Upasana Agarwal
Upasana es unx ilustradorx y artista no binarie de Calcuta, India. Su obra explora narrativas identitarias y personales, que empean restos o evidencias visuales de los contextos con los que trabaja. Le atraen especialmente los diseños en patrones que, para ellx, comunican verdades complejas sobre el pasado, el presente y el futuro. Cuando Upasana no está ilustrando, organiza y dirige un centro de arte comunitario queer y trans de la ciudad.
هل يمكنني التواصل مع أي أحد إن كانت لدي أسئلة أو أمور تثير قلقي؟
إن كانت لديكم/ن أسئلة أو أمور تثير قلقكم/ن، الرجاء التوجه الينا عن طريق هذا النموذج وكتابة "استطلاع أين المال" في العنوان أو راسلنا على witm@awid.org
Jaitun
Jaitun, souvent appelée « Amma », œuvrait à la protection des droits reproductifs des femmes et des filles en Inde. Son travail s’est particulièrement centré sur la défense des personnes pauvres et marginalisées, dont les filles et femmes dalits et musulmanes.
Jaitun était la force vitale derrière l’affaire Jaitun contre Janpura Maternity Home & Ors. Sa persévérance à obtenir justice a permis d’aboutir à un jugement sans précédent rendu par la Cour Suprême de Delhi. Le gouvernement indien a ainsi été tenu responsable de n’avoir pas rempli plusieurs de ses obligations juridiques, telles que les soins de santé reproductive et le droit à l’alimentation.
Sa fille Fatema, qui vivait sous le seuil de pauvreté, s’était vu refuser l’accès à des services de santé reproductive et avait dû accoucher en public, sous un arbre. Jaitun et Fatema étaient à cette époque sans domicile, car le gouvernement avait démoli leur maison dans le cadre d’un projet de réaménagement et de gentrification à New Delhi.
« Depuis, le jugement a fait jurisprudence pour de nombreux·euses avocat·e·s et activistes du monde entier, et notamment l’ancien Rapporteur spécial des Nations Unies sur le droit à la santé, non seulement comme source d’inspiration, mais comme solide tremplin pour obtenir la justice. » - Jameen Kaur
Jaitun a inspiré de très nombreuses autres femmes vivant dans la pauvreté à réclamer leurs droits. Elle s’est éteinte en 2017.
« Avec le décès de Jaitun, nous venons de perdre une inimitable guerrière pour la justice, mais son esprit de résistance perdure. » - Jameen Kaur
« Je n’ai, au cours de mes 18 années de plaidoyer pour les droits humains, jamais rencontré de femme qui m’ait tant inspirée et émue qu’Amma. Son courage féroce, son humour inimitable - nous la comparions à l’actrice de Bollywood Hema Malini -, ses colères lorsque l’on passait trop de temps sans venir la voir : elle nous disait, une étincelle dans le regard, « Tu as oublié Amma, Amma ne te parle plus », puis faisait volte-face de manière mélodramatique, pour se retourner en riant et tendre les bras pour une embrassade. Sa gentillesse, et en fin de compte son amour, sa joie d’aimer et sa volonté que chacun·e ait le droit de vivre dignement en faisaient un être à part . Elle me manque terriblement. » - Jameen Kaur
Snippet FEA Principles of Work Antiracism (EN)
ANTIRACISM
Publications - Homepage - eng
Publications
Kindle for your feminist fire! Browse AWID’s research on funding, WHRDs, movement building, fundamentalisms, economic justice, feminist monitoring & evaluation and more
Francela Mendez
Comprendre le contexte des menaces antidroits
Chapitre 2
Bien plus de la moitié de la population mondiale est aujourd’hui dirigée par l’extrême droite. C’est sur cette toile de fond que défenseur·e·s des droits humains et féministes luttent pour « tenir bon », protéger le multilatéralisme et le système international des droits humains, alors que leurs engagements les exposent à de violentes répressions. Ces institutions sont cependant de plus en plus soumises aux intérêts du secteur privé. Les grandes entreprises, surtout les sociétés transnationales, siègent à la table des négociations et occupent des fonctions de leadership dans plusieurs institutions multilatérales, l’ONU notamment. Le lien entre ultranationalisme, restriction de l’espace civique et emprise des entreprises a un impact considérable sur la réalisation ou non des droits humains pour tout le monde.
Danger - Trump and the Far Right.
Sommaire
- Nationalisme et ultranationalisme
- Emprise des entreprises : le pouvoir débridé des entreprises met nos droits en danger
- Répression et restriction des espaces civiques pour les activistes féministes et les défenseur·e·s des droits humains des femmes et des personnes LGBTIQ+
- Histoire du mouvement de la résistance. L’Article 16 de la CEDAW : vers une réforme des codes de la famille discriminatoires dans les contextes musulmans
AWID Community Jobs board - EN
Community Jobs Board
Are you job hunting? One of the perks of joining the AWID Community, is getting access to our community curated jobs board. You'll get to explore new opportunities, and you will also have the chance to share vacancies and call for proposals with all members.
Rosa Candida Mayorga Muñoz
Rosa Candida Mayorga Muñoz was a Guatemalan social worker, union leader and labor rights defender. She was affectionately called Rosita and she inspired change.
In the 1980’s, Rosa became the first female member of the Executive Committee of the Union of Workers of the Institute of National Electrification (STINDE), a union she first joined to advocate for women’s labor rights. For her, this meant fighting for equal opportunities in a company where many women faced a discriminatory and violent system created by company authorities. Rosa had also suffered sexual harassment in her workplace, both by co-workers and managers. She was not to be kept quiet though.
Rosa continued fighting and was part of the effort to mould the struggle into a more specific form, that of the INDE-STINDE Collective Pact of Working conditions. This pact was a pioneer, the first in Guatemala to typify the concept of (sexual) harassment. It serves as a reference for the Guatemalan legislation on labor matters and is an encouragement for other unions.
“She had no fighting tools other than her own ideals... Many times she was intimidated, harassed to put the fight aside, but her courage generated the image of hope for grassroots unionists. Rosita created an image of respect, not only within her union, but before the authorities of the institution, before the women's movement; she was recognized as a pioneer of the trade union women's movement, in a space that had been more dominated by men.” - Maritza Velasquez, ATRAHDOM
Rosa passed away on 4 April 2018 at the age of 77.
Snippet FEA Audio Story 4 (ES)
Escucha esta historia aquí:
FRMag - Anatomy of a survivor's story
Anatomía de la historia de una sobreviviente
por Maryum Saifee
Cuando se hace una búsqueda en Internet sobre «mutilación genital femenina» o «MGF», junto a la entrada de Wikipedia, aparece una imagen de cuatro dibujos lineales de la anatomía femenina, que ilustran cuatro tipos de violencia. (...)
arte: «Dreams» [Sueños], Neesa Sunar >
Heike Jensen
The Crear, Résister, Transform Story by Coumba Toure
A magical experience of feminist story telling led by pan-African feminist Coumba Toure, performing in the age old tradition of West African griots.
And we gathered again
We gathered our stories our strength
our songs
our tears
our rage
our dreams
our success
our failures
And we pull them all together
In one big bowl to share
for a moon of thoughts
And we stay in touch
We shake each others minds
we caress each other souls
While our hands still are tied
And our kisses and hugs are banned
Yet we grow stronger by the hour
Weaving together our voices
Crossing the sound barriers
as we speak in tongues
We are getting louder and louder
We know about differences from others
and from each other so we are stitching our beauties into patchwork or thoughts
From our deepest learnings from our powers
Sometimes we are surrounded by terror
by confusions by dishonesty
But we wash out in the Ocean of love
We are weavers of dreams
To clothes or new world
Thread after thread
As small as we are
Like little ants building our movement
Llike little drops building our rivers
We take steps forward and steps backward
Dancing our way back to sanity
Sustain to the rhythm of our hearts keep
Beating please don't not stop
And we are here transmitter of forgotten generosity
drop after drop growing like the ocean
growing like the river flowing from our souls .
showing our strength to be the water
that will clean this world
and we are gathering again can you feel us
I would lie if I say I said I am
Ok not to see you I do miss my people
I miss your touch and
You unfiltered and unrecorded voices
I miss our whispers and our screams
Our cries of the aborted revolution
We only want to give birth to new worlds
So fight to erase the borders between us
And we gathered again
We gathered our stories our strength
our songs
our tears
our rage
our dreams
our success
our failures
And we pull them all together In one big bowl to share
For a moon of thoughts
And we stay in touch
We shake each others minds
we caress each other souls
While our hands still are tied
And our kisses and hugs are banned
Yet we grow stronger by the hour
Weaving together our voices
Crossing the sound barriers
as we speak in tongues
We are getting louder and louder
We know about differences from others
and from each other so we are stitching our beauties into patchwork or thoughts
From our deepest learnings from our powers Sometimes we are surrounded by terror by Confusions by dishonesty
But we watch out in the Ocean of love
We are weavers of dreams
To clothes or new world
Thread after thread
As small as we are like little ants building our movements
like little drops building our rivers We take steps forward and steps backward
dancing our way back to sanity
Sustain to the rhythm of our hearts
keep beating please don't not stop
And we are here transmitter of forgotten generosity
Drop after drop growing like the ocean
growing like the river flowing from our souls
showing our strength to be the water
that will clean this world
and we are gathering again can you feel us
I would lie if I I said I am Ok
not to see you
I do miss my people
I miss your touch and
You unfiltered and unrecorded voices
I miss our whispers and our screams
Our cries over the aborted revolutions
We only want to give birth to new worlds
So fight to erase the borders between us
Please don’’t stop
Snippet - Join CSW69 Conversations Intro_ES
Súmate a través de nuestras conversaciones #CongelarFascismos
Mientras atravesamos las múltiples crisis globales, los movimientos infatigablemente construimos el poder más allá de las estructuras de poder tradicionales. La ola de órdenes ejecutivas que ha emitido la presidencia de los EE.UU. tiene la intención de amedrentarnos, pero no hay ideología fascista capaz de borrar nuestra existencia y resistencia.
Te invitamos a formar parte de la campaña de construcción de solidaridad para poner al descubierto y resistir a las fuerzas fascistas que socavan los movimientos feministas y por la justicia de género en tu contexto.
- Provoca conversaciones en espacios valientes: Comparte historias de lucha y resistencia a los fascismos en tu contexto en la plataforma de la Comunidad de AWID. ¿No te has afiliado aún? Únete aquí.
- Apoya a los movimientos que se han visto afectados: Amplifica las iniciativas de recaudación de fondos, las oportunidades de dotación de recursos y los esfuerzos de ayuda mutua mediante la etiqueta #CongelarFascismos (estamos en X, Instagram, LinkedIN, y también en Bluesky)
- Organízate alrededor de distintas alternativas: Hemos construido nuestra comunidad de práctica sobre alternativas económicas feministas y recursos autónomos. Inscríbete para participar aquí. (en inglés)
Mirna Teresa Suazo Martínez
Mirna Teresa Suazo Martínez era parte de la comunidad garífuna (afrodescendiente e indígena) de Masca, en la costa norte del Caribe de Honduras. Era una líder comunitaria, y una ferviente defensora del territorio indígena, tierra que fue vulnerada cuando el Instituto Nacional Agrario de Honduras otorgó licencias territoriales a gente ajena a la comunidad.
Este acto deplorable derivó en repetidos acosos, abusos y violencia contra la comunidad de Masca, dado que los intereses económicos de diferentes grupos se unieron a los de las fuerzas armadas y las autoridades hondureñas. Según la Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH), la estrategia de estos grupos es expulsar y exterminar a la población indígena.
«Masca, la comunidad Garífuna localizada junto al valle del Cuyamel, forma parte de la zona de influencia de una de las supuestas ciudades modelo, situación que ha disparado las presiones territoriales a lo largo de la costa Garífuna.» - OFRANEH, 8 de septiembre de 2019
Mirna Teresa, presidenta del Patronato de la comunidad de Masca en Omoa, también rechazaba con firmeza la construcción de dos plantas hidroeléctricas sobre el río que lleva el mismo nombre que su comunidad, Masca.
«La comunidad garífuna atribuye el agravamiento de la situación en su región a su oposición contra la explotación turística, el monocultivo de palma africana y el narcotráfico, al mismo tiempo que busca construir una vida alternativa a través del cultivo del coco y de otros productos de autoconsumo.» - Voces Feministas, 10 de septiembre de 2019
Mirna Teresa fue asesinada el 8 de septiembre de 2019 en su restaurante «Champa los Gemelos».
Fue una de las seis defensoras garífunas asesinadas solo entre septiembre y octubre de 2019. Según OFRANEH, las autoridades no han investigado estos crímenes.
«En el caso de las comunidades Garífunas, buena parte de los homicidios están relacionados con la tenencia y el manejo de la tierra. No obstante, las rencillas entre el crimen organizado han tenido como resultado asesinatos, como los recientemente ocurridos en Santa Rosa de Aguán.» - OFRANEH, 8 de septiembre de 2019
