Chandrika Sharma
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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Simone Jagger
Biography
Simone has 20 years’ experience working in management support and administration in non-profit organizations, in particular post-graduate medical education and ICT training. She has qualifications in Management Support and Paralegal studies. She is based in South Africa, enjoys traveling and is an amateur Genealogist.
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Executive Assistant
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ما هو عدد الردود الذي ترغبون بجمعها؟
نهدف للوصول الى 2000 رد، وهذا تقريباً ضعف الردود التي جمعناها من استطلاع "أين المال" الأخير عام 2021.
Is AWID a feminist organization?
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AWID Community
AWID Community is an online social networking platform for specifically for AWID members. It’s a feminist space for connection, resistance and celebration. A space for critical feminist conversations, collective power and solidarity. It is also a space for post-event dialogues, navigating difficult political learnings and community care
2003: First High-level Dialogue is held
First High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development, 29-30 October 2003
One of the follow up mechanisms to the Monterrey conference are the UN General Assembly High-level Dialogues on Financing for Development held every two years. In total eight roundtable meetings took place following the Dialogue on various issues including agricultural subsidies, trade, debt relief and funding of the MDGs. All the discussions focused on dealing with the structural hindrances on these issues that disadvantaged ‘developing’ nations.
Other follow up mechanisms to Monterrey included:
- The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) special high-level meeting, held annually, with the leadership of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and UNCTAD on the follow-up to the Monterrey Consensus. ECOSOC also devotes up to two days to deliberate the FfD agenda item during its substantive session.
- Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters, the specialized United Nations tax body, addresses the various tax policy issues identified in the Monterrey Consensus and provides a framework for dialogue with a view to enhancing and promoting international tax cooperation among national tax authorities.
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Feminist Mixer: Speed Dating for Feminists!
✉️ By registration only. Register here
📅 Tuesday, March 11, 2025
🕒 6.00-8.00pm EST
🏢 Chef's Kitchen Loft with Terrace, 216 East 45th St 13th Floor New York
Organizer: AWID
What is at stake for women’s rights?
Development financing has specific threats and opportunities for women's and all people’s human rights. Transformative development financing and policies can make an important contribution to the systemic changes that are needed to ensure the respect, protection and fulfillment of women’s human rights.
2015 is an important year for the FfD process. The Third International Conference on FfD took place from 13-16 July 2015 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and governments are finalising the post-2015 development agenda including agreements on how the new Sustainable Development Goals will be financed.
The current stage of the FfD process is an important opportunity to establish a financing framework that will ensure effective financing for the implementation of the post 2015 agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is also an opportunity to address the structural conditions, and systemic changes needed, for the full implementation of other agendas and commitments such as Human Rights Conventions, and the Beijing Platform for Action.
Over the last 13 years, women’s rights and feminist organizations have actively engaged in the FfD process.
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AWID Community Jobs Board: Available for all AWID members, upon signing up for the AWID Community access. Whether you're looking for full-time advocacy roles, project-based consulting opportunities, paid internships or volunteer positions, this community-led jobs board is a valuable resource to help you find work that makes change possible.
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Explore and share the databases with your network now!
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Global Day of Action
Movements marching globally for climate justice.
📅 Saturday, November 15, 2025
📍 Multiple Locations
Our Companion Sites
The Young Feminist Wire
An online community for and by young feminists working on women’s human rights, gender equality and social justice around the world.
The Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs)
The platform is the go-to place for information and resources on safeguarding the universality of rights in international and regional human rights spaces.
The Young Feminist Fund-FRIDA
Provides funding for young feminist-led initiatives. It aims to strengthen the capacity of young feminist organizations to leverage resources for their work and to increase donors’ and allies’ commitments to resourcing young feminist activism.
Online Directory of Urgent Responses for WHRDs
A go-to site to learn about the urgent responses undertaken to protect women human rights defenders and to find tools and resources to support the work and wellness of WHRDs.
IM-Defensoras (Mesoamerican Initiative for Women Human Rights Defenders)
A regional initiative created to prevent, respond, document and make public all cases of violence against women human rights defenders in the Mesoamerican region.
The WHRD International Coalition
The WHRD IC is a resource and advocacy network for the protection and support of women human rights defenders worldwide.
Post-2015 Women´s Coalition
A Coalition of feminist, women´s rights, women´s development, grassroots and social justice organisations working to challenge and reframe teh global development agenda.
Women´s Major Group on Development
The role of the Women’s Major Group is to assure effective public participation of women’s non-governmental groups in the UN policy processes on Sustainable Development, Post2015 and Environmental matters.
Women Working Group on Financing for Development
An alliance of women’s organizations and networks to advocate for the advancement of gender equality, women’s empowerment and human rights in the Financing for Development (FfD) related UN processes.
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