Diana Sacayan
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.
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Clone of Snippet FEA Title Menu (FR)
Les Économies Féministes
QUE NOUS ADORONS
ÉCONOMIES DES SOINS AGROÉCOLOGIE ET SOUVERAINETÉ ALIMENTAIRECOOPÉRATIVISME FÉMINISTESYNDICALISME FÉMINISTE
Love letter to Feminist Movements #4
To my beloved feminists living with HIV,
We’ve been together for over 20 years and how deeply I’ve treasured your love and support. It is interesting to think that you too are a similar age to AWID - both trying to figure out how to engage and support the community on a similar timeline. To the mothers in the movement, your leadership and guidance has been unmatched. I think of Prudence Mabele, Kate Thompson, Darien Taylor, Patricia Perez, Martha Tholanah, Deloris Dockery, Iris De La Cruise, Doris Peltier, Cecilia Chung and so many more. While not perfect (as none of us are), you always put your community first and champion the inclusion of ALL women living with HIV in feminist spaces.
I love the way you have held me when no one else has been able to, but more importantly how we hold each other. While you understand stigma, discrimination, violence and pain, you also understand joy, love and forgiveness. As feminists living with HIV, we are glorious and powerful in our intersectionality. We understand that feminism includes and is led by communities - our Black, Brown and Indigenous sisters, communities who are trans and gender diverse, sex workers, queer/lesbian, those who have been incarcerated, and those who use drugs - as set out in the GIPA (Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV) principles. Your feminism is all encompassing. We talk about the hard issues and about criminalized communities, because as people living with HIV, we ourselves are criminalized.
I would be remiss if I didn’t send special love to the young women living with HIV, the heartbeat of the movement. I see you Kia Lebejia, Keren Dunaway, Liz Onyango, Faith Ona, Sara Thapa Maga, Doreen Moraa, Yana Panfilova and millions of others incredible activists living with HIV. You are the power that will continue to propel us forward and allow us to be seen as important in mainstream feminst movements. Thank you for taking our movement further to ALWAYS include trans and gender diverse folks, to talk about the links between climate change and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
I love, love, love, love you so much. For better or for worse, let’s move forward together because this is our community - this is my community.
With love,
Jessica Whitbread
Rosane Santiago Silveira
Rosane Santiago Silveira was affectionately known as Rô Conceição. A Brazilian environmental and human rights activist, she fervently fought to protect the environment where it was most threatened.
This included defending it on the island of Barra Velha, where it was endangered by oil exploration, as well as safeguarding it by campaigning against land-grabbing and expansion of eucalyptus plantations in Bahia State, where Rosane was a member of the Cassurubá Extractivist Reserve Council.
“Extractive Reserve is a protected area where resident families make their living off natural products extracted from the forest. These activities help maintain the forest integrity.” - Global Justice Ecology Project (original source: Rede Brasil Atual)
She was part of trade union activities, human rights and cultural movements. Rosane dedicated much of herself to causes that were not only close to her but are also of concern to land, forests, rivers, and communities whose rights and lives are continuously at risk.
She was tortured and murdered on 29 January 2019 in Nova Viçosa, a city in southern Bahia.
“Unfortunately, today there is a feeling of total insecurity, because of the State’s absence in prosecuting these crimes. We were with her at Christmas, and everyone realised that she was worried and now we know that she had received three death threats,” - Tuian, Rosane’s son in an interview with Rádio Brasil Atual (original source: Rede Brasil Atual)
Snippet Forum Quoate Sara Abu (FR)
Le Forum est un exemple vivant de ce que le grand NOUS peut faire. Nous allons au Forum, nous sommes des graines, nous sommes ensuite semées. Nous devons célébrer cela.
- Sara Abu Ghazal, Liba
Berta Cáceres Flores
Film club - outrun
Out Run (2016) English | Tagalog with English subtitles
Mobilizing working-class transgender hairdressers and beauty queens, the dynamic leaders of the world’s only LGBT political party wage a historic quest to elect a trans woman to the Philippine Congress.
Join the Live Conversation with S. Leo Chiang and Johnny Symons, the filmmakers of “Out Run”
WITM - Refreshed INFOGRAPHIC 1 FR
Vous êtes-vous déjà demandé à quoi ressemblaient les budgets des organisations féministes ?
En 2023, le budget annuel médian des organisations féministes et de défense des droits des femmes était de 22 000 USD. Cette médiane masque de profondes inégalités : quelques groupes accèdent à des ressources considérables, tandis que la grande majorité survit avec des budgets très limités.
Un examen plus attentif des budgets réels révèle une immense diversité et une grande disparité dans les revenus.
Explorez les données relatives à la taille des budgets féministes
Carta de amor a los movimientos feministas #6
Sobre el amor por un movimiento
¿Cómo comienza un movimiento?
los fantasmas nos expulsan de una casa, una familia, y una nación
llegamos fatigadas a un espacio (a veces un domicilio real) pero fundamentalmente a un estado de ser
precedidas por una estrella fugaz
quizás nuestra llegada no está acompañada por la fatiga,
quizás está acompañada por el miedo
quizás nuestra llegada no está acompañada por el miedo
quizás está acompañada por la rabia
ante cuestiones que siguen repitiéndose:
una puñalada en el corazón (léase pena)
una bala en la espalda (léase traición)
desapariciones forzadas
cuerpos sentenciados por el matrimonio, la desfiguración y la fatiga crónica,
sin embargo, llegamos, nos reunimos, susurramos, hablamos y lloramos.
Así es como nuestros movimientos comienzan cuando llegamos unas a otras
Nos convertimos en semillas,
Así es como nuestros movimientos comienzan cuando nos plantamos unas a otras
Convirtiéndonos en flores, a veces solo espinas, a veces frutas,
somos el oasis de las otras
para cantar por las batallas
para preparar remedios
para ubicar los rostros de nuestras amantes, la forma de sus sonrisas, el sonido de su risa
el secreto de convertir los silencios en lenguaje
las detalladas instrucciones de las brujas
nuestro movimiento es para todas nosotras,
cuando llegamos como semillas con el propósito de florecer.
Sara AbuGhazal
www.badiya.blog
Ayanda Denge
«Soy una maravilla... ¡Por lo tanto, he nacido de una madre! Cuando comienzo a balbucear, Mi vida ha sido como ninguna otra...» - Ayanda Denge (lee el poema completo más abajo)
Ayanda Denge fue unx mujer trans, trabajadorx sexual, activista, poeta. Era una xhosa de Puerto Elizabeth, en el Cabo Oriental de Sudáfrica. Después de viajar por diferentes ciudades del país, se mudó a Ciudad del Cabo.
Como comprometida y ferviente activista por la justicia social, luchó por los derechos de lxs trabajadorxs sexuales, de las personas trans y de quienes viven con VIH y SIDA. Era también conferencista motivacional para concientizar sobre el cáncer, y hacía campaña por viviendas sociales económicas, en especial, para la gente pobre y de clase trabajadora. Ayanda se erguía, alta como una montaña, contra los distintos y, a menudo, abusivos rostros de la discriminación.
«Ser transgénero no es una dosis doble, sino una dosis triple de estigmatización y discriminación. Te discriminan por tu identidad sexual, te discriminan por tu trabajo, y te discriminan por tu estatus de VIH.» - Ayanda Denge, 2016
Ayanda presidía la organización Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) [ Grupo de Trabajo para la Educación y la Defensa de Trabajadorxs Sexuales], y trabajaba también como coordinadora de promoción comunitaria en Sisonke, un movimiento nacional de trabajadorxs sexuales de Sudáfrica.
«Desde nosotrxs, desde nuestra sede regional, hasta SWEAT, de la que integro la Junta Directiva, o hasta Sisonke, un movimiento de trabajadorxs sexuales de Ciudad del Cabo, todxs nos amalgamamos, tenemos un solo grito y es un grito que ha sido reconocido internacionalmente por lxs trabajadorxs sexuales internacionales. Queremos la descriminalización del trabajo sexual.» - Ayanda Denge, 2016
Vivía en la Ahmed Kathrada House, que estaba siendo ocupada por la campaña Reclaim the City [Recuperar la Ciudad] en favor de las viviendas sociales. En 2018, Ayanda fue elegida líder de la casa. El 24 de marzo de 2019 fue apuñalada en su habitación. El año anterior, otrx residente había sido asesinadx.
Reclaim the City señala una conexión entre la seguridad de lxs residentes de la casa, el corte del servicio de electricidad por parte del gobierno provincial, y el derecho humano al agua:
«No podemos separar la seguridad de las mujeres y de las personas LGBTQI que están viviendo en la casa ocupada de la negativa a reestablecer los servicios de electricidad y agua en la Ahmed Kathrada House por parte del gobierno de la Provincia del Cabo Occidental.
De noche, la casa está completamente oscura. Necesitamos luces para protegernos unxs a otrxs. Es como si la Provincia quisiera castigar a la gente pobre y de clase trabajadora, cuyo único crimen es necesitar un hogar. Si bien pueden estar en desacuerdo con nuestros motivos por ocuparla, deberían avergonzarse de priorizar la política en detrimento de la seguridad y la dignidad de lxs residentes de esta ciudad.
Descansa en paz, camarada Ayanda Denge. Te recordaremos mientras mantenemos viva la llama de la lucha por una vivienda decente y bien ubicada.»
Poema de Ayanda:
Soy una maravilla…
¡Por lo tanto, nací de una madre!
Cuando comienzo a balbucear,
Mi vida ha sido como ninguna otra.
Nacida en el dolor
Nutrida por la lluvia
Para mí ganar
Era vivir en un desagüe.
Mientras se me cae una lágrima
Me pongo de pie y empuño mi lanza.
Las voces hacen eco, no temas
Habrá desafíos dentro del año,
Desafíos de daño se ciernen sobre mí;
La comunidad aplaude porque asume que he ganado mi carrera;
Pero en realidad mi trabajo avanza a paso de tortuga;
De rodillas me inclino y pido gracia.
Porque el Señor
Es mi espada
Para recordar a la humanidad
Que Él brinda cordura.
¿Por qué Señor soy esta maravilla?
El Señor me responde con la lluvia y el trueno,
Por cuestionar a mi padre
Que tiene en el libro de los corderos
Un nombre llamado Ayanda.
Desde las calles mi vida nunca fue dulce
La gente que tenía que encontrar;
A veces yo nunca saludaba,
Aun a pesar de que tenía que comer;
Optaba por inclinarme
En lugar de sentarme
Escucha el poema en la voz de Ayanda
«Porque mi vida representa la de una flor de loto, ya que de las turbias y turbulentas aguas florecí para ser hermosa y fuerte...» - Ayanda Denge, mira y escucha
Tributos:
«Ayanda, quiero decirte que todavía eres una sobreviviente, en nuestros corazones y nuestras mentes. Te has ido, pero estás en todas partes, porque eres amor. Qué hermoso es ser amadx, y dar amor. Y Ayanda, ese es el regalo que nos has dado. Gracias por todo el amor, verdaderamente te necesitábamos. De ahora en adelante, te prometo que todxs nos comprometeremos a continuar la lucha a la que tanta energía y tiempo dedicaste. Y nos comprometeremos a buscar justicia por este horrible final de tu vida.» - transcripción de un mensaje en un tributo de despedida a Ayanda
«Ayanda era una activista por naturaleza. Sabía cuáles eran sus derechos y no le importaba pelear por los derechos de otrxs. Para mí, no fue una sorpresa que se involucrara en muchas organizaciones, y era sabido que era una persona de la gente. Ella representaba no solo los derechos de las personas LGBTI, representaba los derechos de todxs.» - hermana de Ayanda
When and Where will the Forum be?
2-5 December, 2024, Bangkok, Thailand! We will gather at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center (QSNCC) as well as virtually online.
Gloria Carolina Hernández Vásquez
Feminist film club - holding up the skies
Conoce el programa del Club de Cine Feminista de AWID «Holding up the Skies» [«Sosteniendo los cielos»], una serie de películas sobre realidades feministas de África y la Diáspora Africana, curada por Gabrielle Tesfaye.
Snippet - COP30 - Links
$2.7 trillion for the military. $300 billion for climate justice. We're here to flip the script.
Get started with these resources.
COP30 Political Education Toolbox Play the Climate Justice Organizing Deckgame
Read the Feminist Economic Alternatives Brief Download the Climate Justice Zine
We Are the Ones We Have been Waiting For!
We’re beginning a new year--2023. COVID-19 continues to infect and re-infect many, many people around the world. We are witnessing the resurgence of right-wing and fascist governments, even in places we may not have expected like Sweden. War, armed conflict, and dramatic increase in militarization, militarism, and military spending are enabling the unbridled capital accumulation by the few, with participation of seemingly “strange” alliances locking arms, both visibly and invisibly, where economic and political elites of the Global North and Global South are benefitting beyond our wildest imagination. In the meanwhile, our people and the natural environment pay enormous costs and suffer all the expected and unexpected consequences.
As all of you and all of us at AWID know, feminists in multiple movements around the world are resisting and organizing against multiple faces of tyranny, creating alternative structures, implementing grassroots strategies, and building transnational alliances. We are generating joy, inspiring one another, singing, and dancing within and against the prevailing culture of killing and cynicism that seems to have engulfed so much of the world.
We--Staff and Board--of AWID are prepared and inspired more than ever before to face challenges by strengthening our relationships with our members and organizational partners, meeting and getting to know those who we are yet to meet and do what we do best: support the global feminist movements. Although we were sad facing the departures of our beloved former Co-Eds Cindy and Hakima, our wonderful new Co-EDS Faye and Inna along with committed and creative staff have embraced the moment that encapsulates both opportunities and threats.
For sure, all of us at AWID and all our movement folks know: As the Caribbean US poet and activist June Jordan wrote to the South African women activists during the height of the apartheid regime, “We are the ones we have been waiting for”!
¿Cuándo puedo registrarme para el Foro? ¿Cuánto cuesta registrarse? ¿Qué incluye la inscripción?
Las inscripciones comenzarán a principios de 2024. Pronto anunciaremos la fecha exacta de inscripción y el valor correspondiente. La inscripción incluirá la participación en el Foro, así como almuerzo y refrigerios (el desayuno se proporcionará en los hoteles) y una cena en el lugar.
Elaine Rosa Salo
ours chapter 4
Chapter 4
Anti-Rights Actors
A complex and evolving network of anti-rights actors is exerting increasing influence in international spaces as well as domestic politics. Often backed by obscure funding, these actors build tactic alliances across issues, regions, and faiths to increase their impact.