Sabeen Mahmud
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
Lindiwe Rasekoala | Snippet FR
Lindiwe Rasekoala est une coach de vie spécialisée dans ce qui touche à l’intimité et au bien-être relationnel. Elle est passionnée de santé sexuelle et contribue à des contenus en ligne. Au travers de ses propres expériences et de méthodes de recherche non conventionnelles, elle pense pouvoir combler le fossé éducatif et le manque d’accès à l’information qui existent autour du bien-être sexuel. Elle contribue à diverses émissions de radio et de télévision et a suivi une formation de coach auprès de la Certified Coaches Alliance. La mission de Lindiwe est d’éradiquer les obstacles qui entravent les conversations autour du bien-être sexuel et de donner à ses client·e·s les moyens de mieux se comprendre afin qu’ils·elles puissent avoir un mode de vie et des relations plus saines et holistiques.
¿Por qué decidió AWID cambiar la ubicación del Foro, de Bali a Taipéi?
A fines de 2019, la situación en Indonesia (en particular, los signos de militarización intensificada y de reacción contra los derechos LGBTQ) nos llevó a cuestionar la capacidad de AWID para sostener un ambiente razonablemente seguro y acogedor para la diversidad de participantes que esperamos reunir en el Foro.
Después de un análisis cuidadoso, en noviembre de 2019 la Junta Directiva de AWID decidió cambiar la sede del 14° Foro Internacional de AWID, de Bali a Taipéi.
Taipéi ofrece un alto nivel de capacidad logística, y resulta accesible para muchxs viajerxs (con la facilitación de un trámite de visa electrónico para conferencias internacionales).
Para más detalles:
لا أشعر بالراحة لمشاركة اسمي او اسم مجموعتي، منظمتي و\ أو حركتي مع AWID, هل أستطيع مع ذلك تعبئة الاستطلاع؟
طبعاً! هذه الأسئلة اختيارية. نقدّر جداً حقكم بالسرية. الرجاء تعبئة الاستطلاع دون علاقة بقراركم/ن بمشاركة اسم المجموعة، المنظمة أو الحركة أو تفاصيل التواصل معكم/ن.
Griselda Tirado Evangelio
Forum 2024 - FAQ - Will you be opening CFA - EN
Yes! Please read the Call for Activities and apply here. Deadline is 15 January 2024
Why did AWID choose Taipei as the location for the Forum?
AWID spent close to two years working to identify a Forum location in the Asia Pacific region (the Forum location rotates regions).
Building on initial desk research and consultations with allies that led us to rule out many other options in the region, we organized a thorough round of site visits to Nepal, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and (later) Taiwan.
Each site visit included not just scoping the logistical infrastructure but meeting with local feminist groups and activists to better understand the context, and their sense of potential opportunities and risks of an AWID forum in their context.
In our site visits, we found incredibly vibrant, diverse local feminist movements.
They often expressed conflicted feelings about the opportunities and risk that the visibility of an event like the Forum could bring to them. In one, during the first 30 minutes of our meeting we heard unanimously from the activists gathered that an AWID Forum would be subject to huge backlash, that LGBTQ rights were a particular political hot-button and that fundamentalist groups would turn out in full force to interrupt the event. When our response was “ok, then you don’t feel it’s a good idea”, again the unanimous response was “of course it is, we want to change the narrative!”.
It was difficult to hear and see in some of these places how many feminist activists wanted to leverage the opportunity of a visible big event and were prepared to face the local risks; but our considerations as hosts of close to 2,000 people from around the world impose a different calculation of risk and feasibility.
We also grappled with questions of what it means to organize a feminist forum that is aligned to principles around inclusion, reciprocity and self-determination, when state policy and practice is usually directly counter to that (although officials in the ministries of Tourism work very hard to smooth that over).
We weighed considerations of infrastructure, with potential opportunity to tip momentum on some national level feminist agendas, and national political context.
In many of these places, monitoring the context felt like an exercise on a pendulum that could swing from open and safe for feminist debates in one moment to stark repression and xenophobia the next, sacrificing feminist priorities as political bargaining chips to pacify right wing, anti-rights forces.
The process has been a sobering reflection on the incredibly challenging context for women’s rights and gender justice activism globally.
Our challenges in Asia Pacific led us to consider: would it be easier if we moved the Forum to a different region? Yet today, we would not be able to organize an AWID Forum in Istanbul as we did in 2012; nor would we be able to do one in Brazil as we did in 2016.
With all of this complexity, AWID selected Taipei as the Forum location because:
- It offers a moderate degree of stability and safety for the diversity of Forum participants we will convene.
- it also has strong logistical capacities, and is accessible for many travellers (with a facilitated e-visa process for international conferences).
- The local feminist movement is welcoming of the Forum and keen to engage with feminists from across the globe.
In organizing the AWID Forum, we are trying to build and hold space as best we can for the diverse expressions of solidarity, outrage, hope and inspiration that are at the core of feminist movements.
At this moment, we see Taipei as the location in the Asia Pacific region that will best allow us to build that safe and rebelious space for our global feminist community.
The fact is, there is no ideal location in today’s world for a Forum that centers Feminist Realities. Wherever we go, we must build that space together!
Zuhour Mahmoud | Snippet AR
زهور محمود، منسّقة التواصل لمجلّة كحل. هي كاتبة ومحرّرة ودي جاي مقيمة في برلين. تركّز في عملها على مقاربات نقدية بين الثقافة والتكنولوجيا والسياسة، ودورة حياتهم في العالم الرقمي.
Angiza Shinwari
Могу ли я поделиться информацией об опросе с другими?
Да, пожалуйста! Мы просим распространить ссылку на опрос среди своих коллег по сети. Чем больше различных точек зрения мы соберем, тем более полным будет наше понимание финансового положения феминистских организаций.
Ola AbuElShalashel
What criteria are you using to select the activities?
Please refer to the Call for Activities for this information, including the section “What you need to know”.
Вместе под Зонтом: Феминизм и Права Секс-Работниц/ков
Ассоциация «Права женщин в развитии» и Фонд «Красный зонт» приглашают Вас принять участие в диспуте-семинаре на тему феминизма и секс-работы.
Вместе под Зонтом: Феминизм и Права Секс-Работниц/ков
10 ноября 2020г. в 14:00 по UTC (сверьтесь с вашим местным временем)
В рамках данной сессии, сотрудницы (-ки) Ассоциации «Права женщин в развитии» будут делиться своими знаниями и опытом работы в условиях виртуального общения. Мы поговорим об основных сложностях и интерсекциональности в работе секс-работниц (-ков) и феминисток (-ов).
Подумайте над своими вопросами!
Для участниц (-ков) будет предоставлен перевод на испанский, французский и русский языки.
Спикеры
Кей Тхи Вин
Кей Тхи является секс-работницей и с 2007 года лоббирует вопросы здоровья и прав секс-работниц (-ков). За последние девять лет она участвовала в программе по предупреждению ВИЧ среди женщин, работающих в секс-индустрии, и мужчин, имеющих половые связи с мужчинами, в Мьянме. В настоящее время Кей Тхи является региональной координаторкой Азиатско-Тихоокеанской сети секс-работниц (-ков) (АТССР) и работает с партнерами по всему Азиатско-Тихоокеанскому региону.
Гитанджали Мишра
Гитанджали является соосновательницей и исполнительной директоркой организации CREA (Нью-Дели). Она феминистка и любительница кино, работала по вопросам сексуальности, репродуктивного здоровья, гендера, прав человека и насилия в отношении женщин на различных уровнях - в качестве активистки, грантодательницы и на директивном уровне.
Вера Родригез
Вера присоединилась к фонду «Красный зонт» в августе 2017 года в качестве сотрудницы по программам. Вера родилась в Испании, где окончила факультет журналистики Университета Сан Пабло в Валенсии. Последние 7 лет она является активной участницей организации «X-talk», очень вовлечена в работу Коллектива Стриптизерш (-ров) Восточного Лондона, а также является участницей съемочной группы «Опера секс-работниц (-ков)».
Заинтересованы в том, чтобы вскоре стать частью этого диспут-семинарa и других обучения?!
Mariam Mekiwi | Snippet ES
Mariam Mekiwi es una cineasta y fotógrafa de Alejandría. Vive y trabaja en Berlín.
Ruby Montour
Membership why page - Loyiso Lindani
I believe empowered women empower women and that is why I’ve had an incredible time being an AWID member. My knowledge and understanding of Feminism and intersectionality has been broadened by the exposure I received being part of the AWID Community Street Team. I hope more women join and share topics and ideas that will help other women.
- Loyiso Lindani, South Africa.
Hala Salaam
¿Habrá apoyo para materiales u otros costos preparatorios para los talleres?
Contarás con todos los materiales estándar para talleres y presentaciones: rotafolios, marcadores, notas autoadhesivas, así como proyectores y equipos audiovisuales. Cualquier material adicional será responsabilidad de lxs organizadorxs de la actividad. El equipo de logística de AWID estará disponible para responder preguntas y aconsejar.