Anna Politkovskaya
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
Alexandra Lamb Guevara
Biography
Alexandra is an anglo-colombian feminist with over 20 years of experience in local, national and international HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights programming. She has extensive experience in resource mobilization and donor relations with private philanthropic foundations and multilateral agencies on behalf of international, national and local NGOs, predominantly in Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to AWID, Alexandra worked at Fundación Si Mujer, a feminist abortion provider and educator in Colombia, RedTraSex and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
Alexandra has a BA in International Relations and Development Studies from Sussex University and a MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In rare moments when she is not working or parenting, she loves to swim, eat and has recently begun to play Zelda: Breath of the Wild with her son.
Position
Resource Mobilization Lead
Add to stories
Off
Snippet - COP30 - Resistance Hubs Section Column 1 - EN
As world leaders gather in Brazil, it’s vital that feminist movements especially from the Global Majority have autonomous spaces to gather, strategize, and disrupt.
These Hubs challenge the elitism of climate talks, center lived experiences, and aim to build collective power across borders. They offer a critical counterbalance to top-down, often exclusionary international negotiations. The Hubs aim to foster community-driven solutions, amplify feminist demands, and ensure that feminist principles of care and solidarity shape the climate agenda. It’s not just about being present at COP30, it’s about reshaping the conversation on climate justice on feminist terms.
Can AWID provide funding for my development project?
No, we regret that AWID is not a funding organization.
We and cannot review funding proposals or requests.
We encourage you to browse our list of donors that may potentially fund your women's rights organizing.
More resources are available from the Priority Area “Resourcing Feminist Movements”
WITM - Refreshed Intro Text (FR)
Où est l’argent ? Un plaidoyer documenté pour soutenir les organisations féministe
Ce rapport révèle la réalité du financement des organisations féministes et de défense des droits des femmes dans un contexte de bouleversements politiques et financiers. S’appuyant sur plus de dix ans d’analyse depuis la dernière étude Où est l’argent ? de l’AWID (Arroser les feuilles, affamer les racines), il dresse un bilan des progrès réalisés, des lacunes persistantes et des menaces croissantes dans le domaine du financement féministe.
Le rapport salue le pouvoir des initiatives menées par les mouvements pour façonner le financement selon leurs propres conditions, tout en alertant sur les coupes massives dans l’aide au développement, le recul de la philanthropie et l’escalade des offensives anti-droits.
Il appelle les bailleurs de fonds à investir massivement dans l’organisation féministe, infrastructure essentielle pour la justice et la libération, et invite les mouvements à réimaginer des modèles de financement audacieux et autodéterminés, fondés sur le soin, la solidarité et le pouvoir collectif.
Le rapport sera bientôt disponible
2007: CSO engagement rises with the creation of the WWG on FfD
The Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development (WWG on FfD), an alliance of women’s rights organizations and networks, was launched in October 2007 to advocate for the advancement of gender equality, women’s empowerment and human rights in the FfD related UN processes.
- The Third High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development, 23-25 October 2007 saw an upsurge in civil society participation. Aside from the six round table sessions, there were hearings for civil society and the business sector.
- AWID delivered a statement at the plenary on behalf of Civil Society calling for governments to give greater attention to the importance of women’s rights organizations as agents of development, and the need to promote new mechanisms for financing for women in developing and least developed countries. The statement urged governments to give greater support to gender architecture in the United Nations so that the system as a whole could make progress in terms of its commitment to gender equality, women’s empowerment and human rights, including the economic, social, cultural and environmental rights of all persons.
What are some of the debates and conflict areas?
- Towards The Third International Conference On Financing For Development: Old Tensions And New Challenges, by Nicole Bidegain Ponte/DAWN (March 2015)
-
‘A geopolitical Analysis of Financing for Development’ by Regions Refocus 2015 and Third World Network (TWN) with DAWN.
-
The Zero Draft Language Map, by Regions Refocus
-
‘Addis Ababa financing conference: Will the means undermine the goals?‘ by RightingFinance
Marie-Lise Semblat-Frere
Will the AWID Forum still be in Taipei in light of the COVID-19?
AWID is closely monitoring the global COVID 19 situation and for now anticipates continuing with the Forum as planned.
If at any moment the situation demands something different, we will let you know right away.
The 14th AWID International Forum is scheduled to take place 20-23 September 2021 in Taipei,.
Isabel Martinez Martinez
Maria Enriqueta Matute
Nan Robertson
Yusdiana
Body
From “WID” to “GAD” to Women’s Rights: The First Twenty Years of AWID
In 2002 AWID celebrated its 20th anniversary. Given the challenging political, economic and funding environment in which women's organizations must survive, a milestone such as this is worthy of recognition.
In the past two decades the geo-political landscape has been transformed and development theories have come and gone, but approaches to ensure women benefit from development processes have endured.
In its twenty-year history, AWID grew from a volunteer organization for U.S. "Women in Development" (WID) specialists to an international network striving to support proactive and strategic gender equality research, activism and policy dialogue.
On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, this paper charts not only the changes in AWID's organizational structure and goals but also the shifts in policy approaches to gender equality in a changing global environment, through the lens of a membership organization committed to improving the lives of women and girls everywhere.
Vicky HernaÌndez Amador
Body