Memory as Resistance: A Tribute to WHRDs no longer with us
AWID’s Tribute is an art exhibition honouring feminists, women’s rights and social justice activists from around the world who are no longer with us.
In 2020, we are taking a turn
This year’s tribute tells stories and shares narratives about those who co-created feminist realities, have offered visions of alternatives to systems and actors that oppress us, and have proposed new ways of organising, mobilising, fighting, working, living, and learning.
49 new portraits of feminists and Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) are added to the gallery. While many of those we honour have passed away due to old age or illness, too many have been killed as a result of their work and who they are.
This increasing violence (by states, corporations, organized crime, unknown gunmen...) is not only aimed at individual activists but at our joint work and feminist realities.
The stories of activists we honour keep their legacy alive and carry their inspiration forward into our movements’ future work.
The portraits of the 2020 edition are designed by award winning illustrator and animator, Louisa Bertman.
AWID would like to thank the families and organizations who shared their personal stories and contributed to this memorial. We join them in continuing the remarkable work of these activists and WHRDs and forging efforts to ensure justice is achieved in cases that remain in impunity.
“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.” - Mexican Proverb
The Tribute was first launched in 2012
It took shape with a physical exhibit of portraits and biographies of feminists and activists who passed away at AWID’s 12th International Forum, in Turkey. It now lives as an online gallery, updated every year.
To date, 467 feminists and WHRDs are featured.
Related Content
Forum 2024 - FAQ - Call for Activities FR
Appel à activités
Illumination by the Light of the Full Moon | Snippet Small FR
Illumination par la lumière de la pleine lune : une expérience BDSM africaine
Plus qu’une entorse amusante pour explorer des sensations, le BDSM peut être un moyen d’aborder la douleur émotionnelle et les traumatismes. Cela a été pour moi un moyen de guérison sexuelle, offrant une forme radicale de libération.
Nilce de Souza Magalhães
AWID IN 2015: Building Collective Impact

In 2015 AWID grew and diversified.
We ramped up preparations for the 13th AWID international Forum, focused a lot of energy on the Post 2015 Development Agenda and Financing for Development processes, and continued the core work of our priority areas:
- Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms
- Women Human Rights Defenders
- Economic Justice
- Resourcing Women’s Rights
- Young Feminist Activism
A sneak peak inside the report
The context
- We continue witnessing the rapid breakdown in democracy and democratic institutions, with spaces for dissent shrinking.
- Multiple and concurrent systemic crises (energy, food, finance and climate) continue to deepen inequalities and pose major challenges.
- Corporations are a leading power in determining the development agenda.
- Violence against WHRDs remains an urgent problem.
- Religious fundamentalisms are pervasive and increasingly powerful.
- New forms of online gender-based violence have emerged.
In response, we are moving out of our silos.
Increasingly, women’s rights and other movements worldwide are articulating the systemic and intersectional nature of these and other problems. We are making better connections with the agendas of other social and environmental movements for solidarity, alliance building and collective responses. We are also seeing greater visibility of these movements fighting for justice on the ground.
Our Impact
- For effective strategizing and advocacy, we need facts
- To exchange knowledge and join hands in solidarity, we need a strong online community
- To build our collective power, we need to work together
- To influence international processes, we need to increase our access and voice
- To reposition power we need to give visibility and emphasize the important role that feminist and women’s rights movements are already playing
Our Members
As at 31st December, 2015 we had:

Read the full report
Benjaline Hernandez
Is the virtual submission process different from the in-person?
It is exactly the same process and same deadline. Please use the same form to submit your activity, whether it is in-person, online, or both (hybrid).
Disintegration | Content Snippet ES
El miércoles llega una nota
con una dirección en el reverso.
5 de la tarde, hoy.


La escritura a mano de la invitación—
enroscada y brusca—
la he visto cinco veces en cinco años.
Mi cuerpo se activa,
afiebrado.
Necesito cogerme a mí misma antes.
La marea está alta esta noche y
yo
acabo/me corro.
Quiero bajar la velocidad de todo,
saborear el tiempo y el espacio, grabarlos
en la memoria.
*
Nunca he estado antes en esta parte de la ciudad.
Los lugares desconocidos me excitan,
la forma en que las extremidades y las venas
y los huesos
resisten a la descomposición,
su destino incierto.
En la puerta, lo pienso dos veces.
El vestíbulo está oscuro como el carbón
y me hace detenerme.
Del otro lado,
un portal de olor y color
se abre como una maldición
a una tarde soleada.


La brisa
hace bailar mi cabello,
despierta su curiosidad,
lo obliga a moverse.
Oigo chirriar la silla de ruedas,
dando forma a las sombras.
Entonces lx veo:
un rostro de lince
y un cuerpo como el mío
y me encuentro deseando a ambos
de nuevo.
La criatura me hace señas para que me acerque.
Sus gestos escriben una oración;
mientras me muevo hacia ellx
noto sus detalles:
marchitarse, carne, deleite
A su orden, la enredadera que cubre el vestíbulo
abrazando piedras tibias
serpentea hacia arriba por la pared.
Se convierte en un verbo,
«trepar»,
y me reoriento cuando sus garras apuntan
al cantero de la enredadera en el centro.
Oigo las ruedas detrás de mí,
luego ese sonido.
Reverbera
como ningún otro.
Sus largas alas negras
se elevan hacia el cielorraso
y después se lanzan hacia adelante.
La visión felina examina cada detalle,
cada cambio,
cada anhelo.
¿Puede el deseo licuar tus músculos?
¿Puede actuar más dulce que el
tranquilizante más potente?


Un lince cose el mundo
a través de nuestras diferencias
tejiendo encaje alrededor de mis rodillas.
¿Puede el deseo aplastar la distancia del mundo, comprimiendo los segundos?
Se acerca todavía más,
el ojo de lince encontrando el ojo humano,
olfateando el aire,
convirtiendo al cuerpo en
urgencia.
Ellx agita sus alas.
Atizadas,
las lianas se enmarañan alrededor de mi cintura/residuo.
Su lengua adelgaza el tiempo,
moviendo los suelos,
calma, con su magia,
lo que se aviva debajo.
Veo el mundo en ti, y el mundo
está exhausto.
Entonces ellx suplica:
Déjame hacer de tí mi banquete.
Shifa Gardi
.
Annual Report 2010

Our 2010 Annual Report highlights the major accomplishments of each of our strategic initiatives during the year.
Along with activity highlights, we include a brief analysis of the impact of our initiatives as well as reflections from our members and partners that further illustrate the relevance of AWID’s work and its connection to broader women’s rights movements.
This interactive document is complete with links to our websites and recent publications with in-depth information on the issues we address in the report.
Juvy Capion
¿Habrá medidas de accesibilidad en el Foro?
En síntesis, ¡sí! En este momento AWID está trabajando con un Comité de Accesibilidad, para garantizar que el Foro sea lo más accesible posible. También estamos realizando una auditoría de accesibilidad en la sede del Foro, los hoteles circundantes y el transporte. Antes de que se abra el proceso de inscripción incluiremos en esta sección información detallada sobre la accesibilidad del Foro de AWID. Mientras tanto, si tienes alguna pregunta por favor contáctanos.
Embodying Trauma-Informed Pleasure | Small Snippet EN
Embodying Trauma-Informed Pleasure
Trauma is not the event; it is how our bodies respond to events that feel dangerous to us. It is often left stuck in the body, until we address it. There’s no talking our body out of this response – it just is.
Ofelia Maria Mosquera Usuga
Lucy O.
With over ten years of finance experience, Lucy has devoted her career to for profit and furthering nonprofit missions. She also worked and volunteered at non-for-profit organizations. From the fast-paced world of Finance, Lucy has passion for staying tuned with tech skills in the finance field. Lucy joined AWID in 2014. During her spare time she enjoys music, traveling, and variety sports.
Parveen Rehman
A Collective Love Print | Small Snippet AR
Maria das Dores dos Santos Salvador
Kasia Staszewska
Kasia viene apoyando la labor de los movimientos feministas y por la justicia social desde hace 15 años. Antes de sumarse a AWID, se lideró las acciones de política e incidencia ActionAid y Amnistía Internacional, a la vez que participaba en procesos de organización feministas y de distintas agrupaciones por la justicia social en Polonia, en pro del acceso al aborto y contra la violencia en las fronteras europeas. Es una apasionada del financiamiento para la movilizaciónfeminista en toda su audacia, riqueza y diversidad. Reparte su tiempo entre Varsovia y su aldea comunitaria de trabajo artesanal en el bosque. Le encanta tomar saunas y adora con locura a su perro Wooly.