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Women Human Rights Defenders
WHRDs are self-identified women and lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LBTQI) people and others who defend rights and are subject to gender-specific risks and threats due to their human rights work and/or as a direct consequence of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
WHRDs are subject to systematic violence and discrimination due to their identities and unyielding struggles for rights, equality and justice.
The WHRD Program collaborates with international and regional partners as well as the AWID membership to raise awareness about these risks and threats, advocate for feminist and holistic measures of protection and safety, and actively promote a culture of self-care and collective well being in our movements.
Risks and threats targeting WHRDs
WHRDs are exposed to the same types of risks that all other defenders who defend human rights, communities, and the environment face. However, they are also exposed to gender-based violence and gender-specific risks because they challenge existing gender norms within their communities and societies.
By defending rights, WHRDs are at risk of:
- Physical assault and death
- Intimidation and harassment, including in online spaces
- Judicial harassment and criminalization
- Burnout
A collaborative, holistic approach to safety
We work collaboratively with international and regional networks and our membership
- to raise awareness about human rights abuses and violations against WHRDs and the systemic violence and discrimination they experience
- to strengthen protection mechanisms and ensure more effective and timely responses to WHRDs at risk
We work to promote a holistic approach to protection which includes:
- emphasizing the importance of self-care and collective well being, and recognizing that what care and wellbeing mean may differ across cultures
- documenting the violations targeting WHRDs using a feminist intersectional perspective;
- promoting the social recognition and celebration of the work and resilience of WHRDs ; and
- building civic spaces that are conducive to dismantling structural inequalities without restrictions or obstacles
Our Actions
We aim to contribute to a safer world for WHRDs, their families and communities. We believe that action for rights and justice should not put WHRDs at risk; it should be appreciated and celebrated.
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Promoting collaboration and coordination among human rights and women’s rights organizations at the international level to strengthen responses concerning safety and wellbeing of WHRDs.
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Supporting regional networks of WHRDs and their organizations, such as the Mesoamerican Initiative for WHRDs and the WHRD Middle East and North Africa Coalition, in promoting and strengthening collective action for protection - emphasizing the establishment of solidarity and protection networks, the promotion of self-care, and advocacy and mobilization for the safety of WHRDs;
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Increasing the visibility and recognition of WHRDs and their struggles, as well as the risks that they encounter by documenting the attacks that they face, and researching, producing, and disseminating information on their struggles, strategies, and challenges:
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Mobilizing urgent responses of international solidarity for WHRDs at risk through our international and regional networks, and our active membership.
Related Content
Snippet FEA ASOM’s activists in encounters (EN)
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ASOM’s activists in encounters, parades and events
第14屆AWID論壇的主題是什麼?
第十四屆論壇的主題是“女權主義現實實踐:我們的行動力量”。
我們將女權主義現實實踐理解為不同方式和形式的存在,向我們展示了儘管有主導的權力系統但仍舊存在各種可能性去反抗和抵抗它們。我們將這些女權主義現實實踐理解為希望和力量的開墾與體現,並且是多維的、動態的和植根於特定背景和歷史時刻的。
Maria Auxiliadora Escalante Diaz
Snippet - WITM To Strengthen - ES

Para fortalecer nuestra voz y poder colectivos para obtener más y mejor financiamiento para las organizaciones feministas, por los derechos de las mujeres y de las personas LBTQI+ y demás organizaciones aliadas de todo el mundo.
Snippet FEA Aura Roig (ES)
Ven a conocer a Aura Roig, activista feminista visionaria, antropologa y directora-fundadora de la cooperativa Metzineres.
Dedicó las últimas dos décadas a la investigación, el diseño y la implementación de políticas con perspectivas de reducción de daños, derechos humanos y feminismo interseccional.
Después de experimentar y aprender de comunidades que usan drogas a través del mundo, volvió a Barcelona y creó la Xarxa de Dones que Usen Drogues (la Red de Mujeres que Usan Drogas, XADUD). XADUD era un espacio de apoyo mutuo y de solidaridad con la lucha por los derechos de los grupos marginalizados que, más tarde, se convirtió en la cooperativa Metzineres.
Actualmente, Aura está trabajando para expandir el modelo Metzineres y brindar apoyo a grupos más grandes, al mismo tiempo que documenta ampliamente su prolífico viaje y aprendizaje.
Doris Viloria Palomares
這次論壇有什麼不同?
我們一直努力確保論壇是由合作夥伴、運動和我們的優先群體共同來開發。
對於即將舉行的論壇,我們旨在加深和增強共同創造與合作的精神和實踐。我們還認識到有必要在多樣的聲音和體驗之間取得平衡,讓參與者和工作人員有調整呼吸、休息和享受一些空閒時間的空間。
該論壇將在以下方面有所不同:
- 特別有組織條理的論壇活動大幅減少,因為我們希望人們有時間去參與、體驗、消化資訊和彼此交談等。這是溝通的關鍵:您可以參加論壇、積極活躍參與,不必協助推動特別有組織的活動(或「場次」)。
- 我們將擁有開放空間(至少會有一個下午沒有任何有組織的活動),而且整個論壇過程中都將有可供使用的物理空間鼓勵人們自己組織會議等。
- 我們有一個內容和方法委員會,由來自不同地區的女權主義者組成,他們在參與式方法上頗有建樹,以創新和吸引人的方式參與並支持我們的論壇活動。
Noxolo Nogwaza
Snippet - WITM Survey will remain open - FR
Regardez le webinaire « Où est l'argent?» maintenant !
Le 11 juillet 2024, nous avons eu une conversation étonnante avec de grandes féministes sur l'état de l'écosystème du financement et le pouvoir du recherche « Où est l'argent ? ».
Un merci spécial à Cindy Clark (Thousand Currents), Sachini Perera (RESURJ), Vanessa Thomas (Black Feminist Fund), Lisa Mossberg (SIDA) et Althea Anderson (Fondation Hewlett).
N'oubliez pas que l'enquête restera ouverte jusqu'au 31 août 2024 !
Who we are & what we do
We are excited to share our new Strategic Plan (2023-2027) with the world. AWID will make an announcement to inform our community and members very soon.
The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) is a global, feminist, membership, movement-support organization.
For 40 years, AWID has been a part of an incredible ecosystem of feminist movements working to achieve gender justice and women’s human rights worldwide.
Our vision

AWID envisions a world where feminist realities flourish, where resources and power are shared in ways that enable everyone, and future generations, to thrive and realize their full potential with dignity, love and respect, and where Earth nurtures life in all its diversity.
Our mission
Our mission is to support feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements to thrive, to be a driving force in challenging systems of oppression, and to co-create feminist realities.
Our tactics
We advance our work through these tactics:
Influencing, advocacy and campaigning
We collaboratively leverage our access, power, resources and relationships to strategically influence policy and practice. We aim to advance feminist agendas through our work with policy makers, funders and activists in regional and global spaces. We also work to influence feminist and women’s rights movements to centre historically oppressed movements as part of efforts to strengthen our collective power and influence.
Convening and connecting
We use our convening power to facilitate dialogue and strategize on key issues. We connect our members and allies with one another, sharing and exchanging resources, ideas and action across relevant issues. We organize and facilitate spaces to strengthen and engage across movements, to imagine and envisage new futures, to develop effective influencing tactics and to co-create powerful agendas and processes.
Solidarity and bridge-building
We work to mobilize our members and the movements we support to strengthen collective action in solidarity with feminist causes and defenders at risk. We build partnerships, engage in active listening and ongoing, long-term, solidarity. We work with defenders to build a body of knowledge and support networks of solidarity on protection and wellbeing.
Arts and creative expression
We recognize the unique and strategic value of cultural and creative strategies in the struggle against oppression and injustice. We work with artists who centre feminist voices and the narratives of historically oppressed communities. In this emerging tactic, we see art and creative expression helping us envision a world where feminist realities continue to flourish and be celebrated.

Our initiatives
Our initiatives work at the intersections of the sites of change we work to address, the movements we prioritize, and the tactics we use:
Advancing Universal Rights and Justice
We monitor, document and make visible how anti-rights actors are operating and colluding in multilateral spaces and support feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements and allies to counter their influence and impact.
Building Feminist Economies
Working on extractivism, tax justice and corporate accountability, we build knowledge on corporate power and influence; advocate for corporate accountability and equitable distribution of wealth; and amplify feminist proposals for just economies.
Resourcing Feminist Movements
We develop accessible, action-oriented analysis on the state of resourcing for feminist movements. We aim to influence funders’ policies and practices, deepen and sustain funding for feminist social change, and support movements’ needs and strategies.
In addition to the impact we aim to have in the world, AWID is expressly committed to strengthening our own organizational learning and resilience in order to further strengthen global feminist movements.
Our donors
Thank you!
Without the generous funding and support from our donors, our work would not be possible
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).
María Fabiola Jiménez de Cifuentes
Rohini Ghadiok
Snippet - WITM RESOURCES - ES
Recursos
Snippet FEA EoS The Cover (FR)

La puissante
Autoprotection et renforcement
Faustine Mpanga Mule
Will there be pre-Forum convenings this time around?
We have been contacted by global and regional partners about some ideas for pre-Forum convenings and we will share more information about these ideas soon.
If you plan to organize a meeting before the Forum please let us know!
Many beautiful things emerged from the 2016 Black Feminisms Forum (BFF) that was organized by an Advisory Group and funded by AWID. Some of the independent organizing that arose from the BFF include Black feminist organizing in Brazil. While we won’t have another BFF this year, we remain committed to sharing some key learnings with anyone interested in continuing work around Black feminist organizing.











