Special Focus

AWID is an international, feminist, membership organisation committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development and women’s human rights

Human Rights Council (HRC)

The Human Rights Council (HRC) is the key intergovernmental body within the United Nations system responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe. It holds three regular sessions a year: in March, June and September. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is the secretariat for the HRC.

The HRC works by:

  • Debating and passing resolutions on global human rights issues and human rights situations in particular countries

  • Examining complaints from victims of human rights violations or activist organizations on behalf of victims of human rights violations

  • Appointing independent experts (known as “Special Procedures”) to review human rights violations in specific countries and examine and further global human rights issues

  • Engaging in discussions with experts and governments on human rights issues

  • Assessing the human rights records of all UN Member States every four and a half years through the Universal Periodic Review

Learn more about the HRC


AWID works with feminist, progressive and human rights partners to share key knowledge, convene civil society dialogues and events, and influence negotiations and outcomes of the session.

With our partners, our work will:

◾️ Monitor, track and analyze anti-rights actors, discourses and strategies and their impact on resolutions

◾️ Raise awareness of the findings of the 2017 and 2021 OURs Trends Reports.

◾️Support the work of feminist UN experts in the face of backlash and pressure

◾️Advocate for state accountability
 
◾️ Work with feminist movements and civil society organizations to advance rights related to gender and sexuality.
 

Related Content

Advancing Movements

6 Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) across Western and Southeastern Europe have in their lifetime researched, campaigned, participated in and advanced peace and women’s rights movements be it through political and social activism or through dance. We are grateful for the legacy they have left. Please join AWID in honoring these women, their activism and legacy by sharing the memes below with your colleagues, networks and friends and by using the hashtags #WHRDTribute and #16Days.


Please click on each image below to see a larger version and download as a file

 

Shireen Lateef

Shireen fue una inspiración para muchas feministas en Fiyi y una aliada poderosa del movimiento de mujeres.

Abogó incansablemente por la igualdad de género tanto a nivel local como regional. Comenzó su carrera como especialista junior en género en el Banco de Desarrollo Asiático e introdujo profundos cambios en las políticas de género de la institución. Su investigación «Gobernar mediante lxs danda: violencia doméstica entre lxs indo-fiyianxs» fue uno de los primeros trabajos de investigación sobre violencia doméstica, matrimonio y mujeres en Fiyi. Este trabajo fundacional ha sido un catalizador para el trabajo feminista en esta área.

El legado de Shireen sigue vivo porque son muchxs lxs que recuerdan su influencia, su compromiso y su apoyo al movimiento de mujeres de Fiyi y del Pacífico. 


 

Shireen Lateef, Fiji

Snippet FEA Get Involved 2 (FR)

Si vous êtes de passage à Sao Paulo, au Brésil, visitez l'Occupation 9 de Julho et prenez un repas collaboratif. Vous pouvez aussi acheter leurs produits dans leur boutique en ligne depuis l'étranger.

Visitez la boutique en ligne de l'Association des Femmes Afro-Descendantes du Cauca du Nord où vous pouvez trouver de superbes produits faits à la main.

Il existe plusieurs façons de soutenir Metzineres : vous pouvez faire un don financier, offrir du matériel et des services, proposer une formation, un atelier ou une activité (pour plus d'informations, cliquez ici).

2. Frame your research

A framework for your research will guide throughout your research process, and the framing document you develop can also serve as a concept note to advisors and partners, and a funding proposal to potential donors.

Before conducting any research:

Your research framing may evolve over time as you refine your questions and gather new information. However, building an initial research framing will allow you to work from a solid foundation.


Goals

To create a strong foundation for your WITM research, it is important to clarify what you hope to accomplish.

For example, one goal of AWID’s WITM global research was to provide rigorous data to prove what we already knew anecdotally: that women’s rights organizations are discrepantly underfunded. With this data, we felt we would be better positioned to influence funders in their decision-making.

Your goals could be to:

  • Generate hard data on funding realities and trends to prove or disprove existing myths.
  • Gain deeper insight into differences between the perspectives of donors and women’s rights organizations.
  • Influence donors in grant-making.
  • Add crucial input to key funding debates.
  • Explore collaboration between donors and women’s rights organizations on issues that emerge from the research.

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Key questions

Frame your research process with key questions that only your research can answer and limit those questions to a specific time frame (e.g. past five years, past year, etc.).

Consider the following points:

  • What exactly do you want to learn more about and what is the hypothesis you would like to test? Writing this out will assist you in your thought process.
  • Is there existing research on this? If research already exists, it may not make sense to conduct new WITM research unless you feel like the existing research is not extensive or specific enough.  
  • What time frame do you want to cover in your analysis? For example, will your research analyze only the past year, or several previous years, such as the past five years?
  • Are you planning to repeat your survey to collect data in the future?

Choosing a specific timeframe for your research can result in more precise findings than working with an open-ended timeframe. Also, deciding whether you will repeat this research at regular intervals will allow you to set up data collection benchmarks for easy replication and comparison over time.

These were the key questions that guided AWID’s WITM research process:

  • What is the current state of women’s organizations’ financial sustainability across the world?
  • What external and internal trends are impacting donors’ funding decisions to support women’s organizations and movements?

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Type of data

Now that you determined your key questions, you can determine what kind of data will help you answer your key questions. This will allow you to plan the rest of your schedule for your WITM research.

For example, will you conduct a survey that covers an extensive portion of your priority population? Will you analyze the applications that funders are receiving from a certain region? Will you also conduct interviews (recommended)? By determining the types of data you need, you can reach out to external parties who will provide this data early on, and plot out your full schedule accordingly. Some suggested sources of data could be:

  • Surveys you create for women’s rights organizations and donors
  • Application and grantmaking data from donors funding cycles
  • Interviews of prominent activists, organizations, and donors
  • Donor data from membership organizations and networks, such as  the Foundation Center, regional or national donor affinity groups.

Diverse data sets are a great way to create robust and rich analysis.

The data from AWID’s 2011 Global Survey formed the backbone of our analysis in Watering the Leaves, Starving the Roots report. However, we also collected data from interviews and interactions with several actors in the field, ranging from donors to activists and women’s rights organizations.

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Final products

In addition to allowing you to set your schedule, creating an initial plan of what products you will develop will also allow you to work out what resources you need.

For example, will you only produce a long research report or will you also create infographics, brochures and presentations? Depending on your products, you may need to hire a design firm, plan events and so on.

These products will also be the tools you use to achieve your goals, so it is important to keep those goals in mind. For example, is your WITM research exclusively intended as an advocacy tool to influence funders? In that case, your products should allow you to engage with funders at a deep level.

 Some sample products:

  • Long report for dissemination with key funders and organizations.
    Historically, AWID WITM research has centered on a long report, from which AWID distilled other smaller products  - see rest of list.
  • Infographic for viral distribution online
  • Short animation demonstrating key findings
  • Short brochure(s) distilling your findings and messages
  • Articles and blog posts on key findings to draw interest to your larger report
  • Seminars or webinars presenting key findings.

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Conclusion: Framing your research will give you the big picture

Framing your research to cover goals, key questions, types of data, and final products will allow you to create a well-planned schedule, prepare your resources in advance, and plan a realistic budget.

This will make interactions with external partners easier and allow you to be nimble when unexpected setbacks occur.


Previous step

1. Gather your resources

Next step

3. Design your survey

 


Estimated time:

• 1 month

People needed:

• 1 or more Research person(s)

Resources available:

AWID Research Framing: sample 1
AWID Research Framing: sample 2


Previous step

1. Gather your resources

Next step

3. Design your survey


Ready to Go? Worksheet

Download the toolkit in PDF

Mariam Uy Acob

Mariam était assistante juridique à l'Alliance des droits humains Kawagib Moro.

Mariam était une fervente critique de la militarisation imposée aux communautés moro et a constamment dénoncé les bombardements aériens et les cantonnements de troupes. Elle a dû fuir et chercher refuge après avoir révélé et dénoncé des injustices commises à l'encontre des communautés musulmanes aux Philippines.

Il semble que Mariam ait été assassinée par de présumés agents de l'armée à cause de son action en tant que défenseure. Les assaillants qui l‘ont tuée l’ont épiée, ont rattrapé le véhicule dans lequel elle se trouvait et ont fait feu sur elle à sept reprises.


 

Mariam Uy Acob, Philippines

Snippet FEA EoS The Ivy (FR)

An illustration of a vine with vine like leaves in neon with purple background

Le lierre
Communauté et quartier

6. Conduct desk research

Desk research can be done throughout your research. It can assist you with framing, help you to choose survey questions and provide insights to your results.

In this section

Giving context

Conducting desk research throughout your research process can assist you with framing, help you to choose survey questions and provide contextual clarity or interesting insights to your survey results, such as comparing similarities and differences between your survey results and information produced by civil society and donors.

Perhaps you notice trends in your survey data and want to understand them.

For example, your survey data may reveal that organization budgets are shrinking, but it cannot tell you why this is happening. Reviewing publications can give you context on potential reasons behind such trends.

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Building on existing knowledge

Desk research also ensures you are building your research on the existing knowledge regarding your topic, confirming the validity and relevance of your findings.

They may be complimentary or contradictory to existing knowledge, but they must speak to existing data on the topic.

To ensure comprehensive research of the entire funding landscape related to your topic, look at a diverse set of funding sectors.

You can consider:

  • Women’s Funds
  • Private and Public Foundations
  • International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs)
  • Bilateral and Multilateral Agencies
  • Private Sector Actors
  • Individual Philanthropists
  • Crowdfunders

Include any other relevant sectors to this research.

For example, you may decide that it is also important to research local non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

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Potential sources for desk research (non-exhaustive)

1. Donors’ websites and annual reports

These are direct sources of information about what funders are actually doing and generally contain information on policies and budgets. Researching this before interviewing donors can result in more focused questions and a stronger interview.

2. Online sources of information

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Previous step

5. Conduct interviews

Next step

7. Synthesize your research findings


Estimated time:

• 1-2 months

People needed:

• 1 or more research person(s)


Previous step

5. Conduct interviews

Next step

7. Synthesize your research findings


Ready to Go? Worksheet

Download the toolkit in PDF

Ana M. Tallada Iglesia

Ana was a strong advocate of women’s rights and worked with a broad cross-section of women, from those in grassroots networks to those in the private sector.

She believed in building bridges across sectors. Ana was a member of the National Network for the Promotion of Women (RNPM), and was active in developing many social programs that address issues such as sexual and reproductive health and rights. 


 

Ana M. Tallada Iglesia, Peru

Snippet FEA We are living in a world (EN)

We are living in a world where the destruction of Nature fuels our current global economy.

Even in times of climate crisis, governments continue to encourage large-scale agriculture industries to expand. These activities poison the land, threaten biodiversity, and destroy local food production and livelihoods. Meanwhile, while women produce the majority of our food in the world, they own almost none of the land.

What if we perceived land and Nature not as private property to exploit, but as a whole to live in, learn from, and harmoniously coexist with? What if we repaired our relationships with the land and embraced more sustainable alternatives that nurture both the planet and its communities?

Nous Sommes la Solution (We Are the Solution, NSS) is one of many women-led movements striving to do this. This is their story.

¿Cómo se originó este proyecto?

Pensamos que la economía, el mercado, el sistema financiero y las premisas sobre las que se basan son todas áreas fundamentales para la lucha feminista.


Por eso, nuestra visión de una economía justa va más allá de promover los derechos y el empoderamiento de las mujeres en una economía de mercado, sino que busca evaluar el rol que juegan las opresiones de género en dar forma al modelo económico y ver como podemos transformarlo para garantizar la justicia de género y económica.

El proceso

No estamos comenzando de cero ni estamos solas en nuestro intento de presentar propuestas feministas para una economía justa. Muchas de nuestras propuestas ya han sido presentadas o existen en la práctica de las diversas comunidades que confrontan y desafían a los sistemas económicos dominantes basados en el mercado y el  crecimiento.

También somos concientes de las limitaciones que algunas alternativas presentan para abordar las injusticias del actual sistema capitalista a escala global. No siempre las propuestas a nivel micro son la respuesta a los problemas macro, si bien representan espacios importantes de resistencia y construcción de movimientos.  

Metas

Sin embargo, las alternativas feministas para una economía justa son fundamentales para socavar el sistema y para aprender a generar cambios transformadores y sistémicos. No podemos presumir de ofrecer un relato exhaustivo ni completo acerca de cómo crear un modelo económico feminista justo, o varios modelos de esa clase. Lo que sí podemos hacer es recoger elementos de diálogos con otros movimientos (sindicales, ambientales, rurales y de campesinxs) para formular propuestas que nos permitan acercanos a esa visión.

¿Qué queremos cambiar?

El modelo neoliberal que dirige la economía global ha demostrado una y otra vez su incapacidad para hacer frente a las causas estructurales de la pobreza, las desigualdades y la exclusión. Lo que en realidad ha hecho el neoliberalismo ha sido contribuir a crear y exacerbar esas injusticias.

En estas últimas tres décadas, las políticas dominantes para el desarrollo se han caracterizado por la globalización, liberalización, privatizaciones, financialización y ayudas condicionadas, y han destrozado los medios de vida de la población. El recorrido de estas políticas también ha estado marcado por la profundización de desigualdades, las injusticias con marca de género y la destrucción ambiental que el mundo ya no puede continuar soportando.

Hay quienes no dudan en sostener que el crecimiento económico, que debe ser facilitado dando plena libertad a las grandes corporaciones y empresas, puede generar y sostener una una marea alta que (con el tiempo) levante todos los barcos.

Sin embargo, la noción de desarrollo que ha prevalecido durante las últimas décadas, construida sobre la premisa de un crecimiento económico ilimitado, está atravesando una crisis ideológica.

El mito del crecimiento económico como panacea para todos nuestros problemas está perdiendo cada vez más prestigio.


Ver también

5 grandes amenazas

Nuestra visión

Marceline Loridan-Ivens

Nacida en 1928, Marceline trabajó como actriz, guionista y directora.

Dirigió The Birch-Tree Meadow en 2003, protagonizada por Anouk Aimee, así como varios otros documentales. También fue una sobreviviente del Holocausto. Tenía solo quince años cuando ella y su padre fueron arrestadxs y enviadxs a campos de concentración nazis. Los tres kilómetros entre su padre en Auschwitz y ella en Birkenau eran una distancia infranqueable, sobre la cual escribió en una de sus novelas más influyentes: Pero no regresaste.

Al hablar sobre su trabajo, una vez afirmó: «Todo lo que puedo decir es que todo lo que pueda escribir, todo lo que pueda develar, es mi tarea hacerlo».


 

Marceline Loridan-Ivens, France

Snippet FEA Agroecology And Food (EN)

AGROECOLOGY AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AS RESISTANCE

Today, large-scale industrial food production uses single-crop plantations, genetically modified organisms and other pesticides that destroy the land and knowledge of local communities.

Agroecology is a resistance to corporate-driven agriculture. It prioritizes smaller scale agriculture, multiple crops and diversified food production, and the centering of local knowledge and practices. Agroecology goes hand-in-hand with demands for food sovereignty, or the “right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems”(Via Campesina, Declaration of Nyéléni).

The role of women, indigenous and rural communities and people of color from the Global South is absolutely essential when it comes to food systems. Feminist agroecologists are working to dismantle oppressive gender roles and systems of patriarchy embedded within food production. As shown by the heroines of NSS, they are generating a liberatory agroecology by strengthening community resilience, empowering women peasants and farmers, and preserving local traditions, territories, and knowledge of food-producing communities.