Nadine Shams
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.
-
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.
-
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;
-
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:
-
Mobilizing urgent responses of international solidarity for WHRDs at risk through our international and regional networks, and our active membership.
Related Content
Snippet - CSW68 - March 13 - FR
Jour 3
13 Mars
Selon quels critères sélectionnez-vous les activités ?
Ces informations sont disponibles dans notre Appel à activités, et notamment sa section intitulée « Ce qu’il faut savoir ».
2018: Supporting feminist movements to thrive and disrupt
This report looks back and celebrates the first year of AWID’s new strategic plan as we took our first steps towards our desired outcomes of supporting feminist movements to thrive, challenging anti-rights agendas and co-creating feminist realities.
We worked with feminists to disrupt anti-rights agendas, achieving important victories fought and won within the United Nations system when ground-breaking language on structural discrimination, sexual rights, and states’ obligations were included in a number of resolutions. Yes, the multilateral system is in crisis and in need of serious strengthening but these victories are important as they contribute to the legitimacy of feminist demands, providing feminist movements with more pressure points and momentum to advance our agendas.
We tried and tested different ways to build knowledge with feminist movements through webinars, podcasts and ‘live’ conversations. We developed facilitation guides with popular educators to reclaim knowledge in the interest of social and gender justice, even about a topic as seemingly opaque as illicit funding flows. We commissioned blogs and opinions about how feminist groups fund and resource themselves and threw light on the threats facing our human rights systems.
Within AWID, we practiced and learned from our shared leadership approach, and told the story of the trials and tribulations of co-leading a global, virtual organization. We don’t have a definitive answer to what feminist leadership looks like, but we know, a year on, that a continued commitment to collective experimentation and learning has enabled us to keep building an organization that we are all excited to contribute to.
As we look back on this year, we want to thank all our friends and supporters, colleagues and companions, who have given their time and shared their wealth of knowledge and wisdom with us. We want to thank our members who helped frame our strategic plan and joined us to make feminist demands. We could not do this work without you.
Clone of Mariam Mekiwi | Snippet AR
مريم مكيوي مخرجة أفلام ومصورة من الإسكندرية تعيش وتعمل في برلين.
Marie Noelle Nyangwile Musuna
Snippet - Intro WITM - FR
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.
Stay tuned for the upcoming report for more analysis!
Will there be support for sign language interpretation other than ISL?
If your activity is accepted, you will be contacted by the AWID team to assess and respond to interpretation and accessibility needs.
2022: Transitions, Inspiration & Collective Power
Our strategic plan “Feminist Realities” completed its final year at the end of 2022. For the past five years, this bold framework pushed us to go beyond feminist futures and to recognize the feminist solutions and ways of life that already exist in the here and now. Realities that must be uplifted, celebrated, and popularized. The Feminist Economies We Love multimedia story project and Our:Resource knowledge hub on autonomous ways to resource feminist activism are just two examples of this visionary work, always deeply collective with diverse feminist movements.
Download the full 2022 Annual review
2022 was a year of transitions in AWID.
With this reflection on the year, we invite you to celebrate with us beautiful closures and promising beginnings. Change and transitions are an inseparable part of life and movements, which we seek to embrace with intention and care.
Mango | Small Snippet ES
Mango
Lo voy a admitir: cuando Angélica y Fabi me invitaron a ser curadora de una colección de textos eróticos de mujeres negras, no sabía qué era la curaduría. Entendía bien lo erótico, pero la curaduría…
Vicky HernaÌndez Amador
Snippet - WITM To build - EN
To build feminist-realities centered evidence on how money moves and who it is reaching
Inna Michaeli
Biography
Inna is a feminist queer activist and sociologist with many years of deep engagement in feminist and LGBTQI+ struggles, political education and organizing by and for migrant women, and Palestine liberation and solidarity. She joined AWID in 2016 and served in different roles, most recently as Director of Programs. She is based in Berlin, Germany, grew up in Haifa, Palestine/Israel, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and carries these political geographies and resistance to colonial past and present into her feminism and transnational solidarity.
Inna is the author of “Women's Economic Empowerment: Feminism, Neoliberalism, and the State” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), based on the dissertation which earned her a doctoral degree from the Humboldt University of Berlin. As an academic, she taught courses on globalization, knowledge production, identity and belonging. Inna holds an MA in Cultural Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a Board Member of the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East (Germany), and previously of +972 Advancement of Citizen Journalism. Previously Inna worked with the Coalition of Women for Peace and she is passionate about mobilizing resources for grassroots activism.
Position
Co-Executive Director
Add to stories
Off
Hospital | Small snippet ES
Hospital
Los hospitales son instituciones, espacios vivientes del capitalismo, y lo que se manifiesta cuando alguien está supuestamente haciendo reposo allí es un microcosmos del sistema en que vivimos.
Nevena Kostic
Snippet - WITM About the survey - FR
À propos de cette enquête
- MONDIALE ET DIVERSE: Elle se penche sur les réalités du financement de l’organisation des mouvements féministes à l’échelle mondiale, et par région.
- CONTEXTUALISÉE: Elle place au centre les voix, points de vue et expériences vécues des mouvements féministes dans toute leur richesse, leur audace et leur diversité, en fonction de leur contexte respectif.
- COCRÉÉE: Elle est élaborée et dirigée en consultation étroite avec les membres de l’AWID et les partenaires du mouvement.
- COMPLÉMENTAIRE: Elle contribue aux, et vient enrichir les données probantes existantes sur l’état du financement de l’organisation des mouvements féministes, de défense des droits des femmes et pour la justice de genre collectées par des activistes, des bailleurs de fonds féministes et des allié·es.
- PLURILINGUE: L’enquête est disponible en français, anglais, arabe, espagnol, portugais et russe.
- CONFIDENTIELLE: La confidentialité de votre vie privée et votre anonymat sont nos priorités. L’AWID ne publiera en aucun cas des informations relatives à une organisation donnée ni ne divulguera d’informations qui permettraient d’identifier une organisation par le biais de son emplacement ou de caractéristiques qui lui sont propres. Notre politique de confidentialité est disponible ici.
- ACCESSIBLE: Elle est accessible aux personnes ayant une diversité de capacités d’audition, de mouvement, de vision et cognitives, et répondre aux questions prend en moyenne 30 minutes.
- REPRODUCTIBLE: Elle peut être reproduite par des mouvements dans leur contexte respectif. Les outils et séries de données de l’enquête seront publiés pour soutenir de nouvelles recherches et efforts de plaidoyer collectifs.
Margo Okazawa-Rey
Biography
Dr. Margo Okazawa-Rey ocupa la Cátedra Distinguida Barbara Lee en Liderazgo de Mujeres y es Profesora visitante de Estudios de Mujeres, Género y Sexualidad, y de Políticas Públicas en Mills College, en Oakland, California. También es Profesora Emérita en la Universidad Estatal de San Francisco.
Sus principales áreas de investigación y activismo durante los últimos 25 años han sido el militarismo, los conflictos armados y la violencia contra las mujeres, examinados de manera interseccional. La profesora Okazawa-Rey participa en el Consejo Consultivo Internacional de Du Re Bang en Uijongbu, Corea del Sur; en la Junta Internacional de Mujeres de Paz en el Mundo (PeaceWomen Across the Globe) en Berna, Suiza; y es co-presidente de la Junta del Centro Highlander para la Investigación y Educación en New Market, Tennessee, EE. UU.
Sus publicaciones recientes incluyen “Nation-izing” Coalition and Solidarity Politics for US Anti-militarist Feminists [«Coalición “nacio-nalizadora” y políticas de solidaridad para las feministas antimilitaristas de EE. UU.»], en prensa; “No Freedom without Connections: Envisioning Sustainable Feminist Solidarities” [«No hay libertad sin conexiones: contemplando solidaridad feminista sostenible»] (2018) in Feminist Freedom Warriors: Genealogies, Justice, Politics, and Hope [«Guerreras feministas por la libertad: genealogías, justicia, política y esperanza»], Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Linda Carty (eds.); Between a Rock and Hard Place: Southeast Asian Women Confront Extractivism, Militarism, and Religious Fundamentalisms [«Entre la espada y la pared: Las mujeres del sudeste asiático enfrentan el extractivismo, el militarismo y los fundamentalismos religiosos»] (2018); “Liberal Arts Colleges Partnering with Highlander Research and Education Center: Intergenerational Learning for Student Campus Activism and Personal Transformation,” Feminist Formations Special Issue on Feminist Social Justice Pedagogy (2018) [«Las universidades de artes liberales se asocian con el Centro Highlander para la Investigación y Educación: aprendizaje intergeneracional para el activismo estudiantil y la transformación personal», número especial de Formaciones Feministas sobre pedagogía de la justicia social feminista]
Position
Presidenta
Add to stories
Off
Ghiwa Sayegh Snippet | AR
غوى صايغ كاتبة كويرية آناركية، وناشرة مستقلة ومؤرشفة. هي المحرّرة المؤسِّسة لمجلّة “كحل” ومؤسِّسة شريكة لـ”منشورات المعرفة التقاطعية”. حصلت على ماجستير في الدراسات الجندرية من جامعة باريس 8 فينسين - سانت دينيس. إنها شغوفة بنظرية الكوير، والمنشورات الدورية العابرة للحدود القومية، والتاريخ المتخيل أو المجهول. أودري لورد وسارة أحمد هما ملهمتاها.
Rani Jethmalani
Snippet - WITM Acknowledgements - FR
Remerciements
L’AWID remercie chaleureusement les nombreuses personnes dont les idées, analyses et contributions ont permis de rédiger la recherche "Où est l’argent pour l’organisation des mouvements féministes?" et les actions de plaidoyer au fil des années.
En premier lieu, et avant tout, nos profonds remerciements aux membres et activistes de l’AWID ayant pris part aux consultations WITM et piloté cette enquête à nos côtés, partageant si généreusement leur temps, leurs analyses et ouvrant leur cœur.
Notre gratitude va également aux mouvements féministes, aux allié·es et aux fonds féministes, et notamment, sans s’y limiter, au Black Feminist Fund, au Pacific Feminist Fund, à ASTRAEA Lesbian Foundation for Justice, à FRIDA Young Feminist Fund, à Purposeful, au Kosovo Women’s Network, au Human Rights Funders Network, au Dalan Fund et à PROSPERA International Network of Women's Funds pour vos études et recherches rigoureuses sur l’état du financement de l’organisation des mouvements, vos analyses pointues et vos incessantes actions de plaidoyer en faveur de davantage de financement de meilleure qualité et de plus de pouvoir pour l’organisation des mouvements féministes et de genre dans tous les contextes.