Adrienne Rich
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.
Related Content
40 Years of AWID: The Scrapbook
Gather, Seed, and Disrupt.
In 2022, AWID celebrates 40 years since our founding. We’re using this moment to reflect on our past and learn from the road traveled as we prepare to look forward, and to forge the journey ahead. As we move through cycles of progress and pushback, we know that struggles for women’s rights and gender justice are iterative and non-linear. In collaboration with artist Naadira Patel, we created a scrapbook that highlights a handful of snapshots from AWID’s last four decades of feminist movement support.
We have not done all this on our own. We share this with deep appreciation for the constellation of feminist activists and groups that have made this work possible. In this context of so many converging crises, we embrace the opportunity to celebrate the power and resilience of feminist movements around the world.
Explore our scrapbook below:
You can also explore in full-screen mode.
Download the Scrapbook
Snippet - WITM Our objectives - PT
Os nossos objetivos da pesquisa WITM:
1 |
Fornecer a membres da AWID, parceires do movimento e financiadores uma análise atualizada, robusta, baseada em fatos e orientada para a ação das realidades do financiamento de movimentos feministas e do estado atual do ecossistema do financiamento feminista. |
2 |
Identificar e demonstrar oportunidades para transferir mais recursos de maior qualidade para a organização feminista, expor soluções falsas e interromper tendências que fazem com que o financiamento não seja bem-sucedido e/ou se mova contra a justiça de género e objetivos feministas interseccionais. |
3 |
Articular visões, propostas e objetivos feministas para a justiça no financiamento. |
رسالة حب إلى الحركات النسوية # 6
عن الحب لحركة
هكذا تبدأ الحركات
أشباحا تطردنا من البيت والعائلة والوطن
فنصل متعبات إلى مساحة (أيضا مكان) وغالبا حالة
وصلت إليها قبلنا نجمة سقطت
ربما نصل أكثر من متعبات
مذعورات
ربما أكثر من مذعورات نصل
غاضبات
من أمور لا تنفك تعيد نفسها
طعنة في القلب (أيضا كسور)
رصاصة في الظهر (أيضا خيانة)
اختفاء قسري
جسد محكوم عليه بزواج أو تشويه أو تعب مزمن
لكننا حين نصل نتجمع ونهمس ونبوح وننوح
هكذا تبدأ حركاتنا، حين نصل إلى الأخريات
فنصبح بذورا
هكذا تبدأ الحركات، حين نزرع بعضا زهورا وأيضا أشواكا وأيضا ثمارا
نحن واحات
لنا كلنا نصنع منها ما نشاء
أغنيات للمعارك
وصفات للشفاء
مخازن لوجوه عشيقاتنا وشكل ابتسامتهن وضحكة انتصاراتهن اليومية
السر لتحويل الصمت الى لغة
تعاليم كل الساحرات
هكذا تكون حركاتنا: لنا كلنا
حين نصل بذورا فنزهر.
سرى أبو غزال
www.badiya.blog
Snippet - CSW69 - Full Calendar - EN
Coming Out at the Highest Point in My Life: The Black Feminisms Forum
Many participants experience the AWID Forums as a unique space of freedom where they are embraced and celebrated as they are. In a world where even the most privileged feminists often find themselves not fully fitting in, for those whose identities are criminalized or otherwise condemned in their everyday contexts this experience of freedom and celebration can be deeply transformative (and restorative). The story of how OluTimehin Kukoyi – a first time participant – experienced the Black Feminist Forum (BFF) and the AWID Forum in Bahia (2016) powerfully illustrates this.
In their own voice: watch the interview with OluTimehin
Snippet - CSW69 - What Can Feminist Movements Learn - EN
What Can Feminist Movements Today Learn from Beijing 1995?
✉️ By registration only. Register here
📅 Wednesday, March 12, 2025
🕒 6.30–8:00pm EST
🏢 Church Center of the United Nations, 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017
🎙️Co-facilitated by: Inna Michaeli, Co-Executive Director
Organizer: Jass, Gender at Work, and Count Me In! Consortium
Snippet - WCFM Movement and Struggle - EN
Movement in focus:
Filter your search by funders’ priority support areas that speak to your organizing efforts
Snippet - WITM INFOGRAPHIC_1_EN_2 Annual budget size
In 2023, feminist and
women's rights organizations
had a median annual budget of
In contrast, over $1 billion went
to three anti-rights groups in 2021-2022,
with funding for anti-gender networks still rising.
Snippet - COP30 - 6th International Rights of Nature Tribunal - EN
6th International Rights of Nature Tribunal: A New Pledge for Mother Nature
Where frontline organizers lead and corporations are held accountable.
📅 Tuesday, November 11, 2025
📍 Online and at the Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém
Snippet - COP30 - Partner intro - EN
This campaign is held by 8 partner organizations across continents, building feminist alternatives to the climate crisis, ecocides and genocides.
Nadine Gordimer
Rahma Abdulkadir
Dorothy Musakanya Mapulanga
Rocío Mesino
Roberta Galler
Mia Berden
Saskia Poldervaart
Diana Staubli
Solidarity: membership why page
Solidarity
We take a position in solidarity with each other and diverse struggles for justice and freedoms. We strive to mobilize and strengthen collective action and practice meaningful ways of working with each other.