Myriam Merlet
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
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To claim your power as an expert on the state of resourcing for feminist movements
Je voudrais travailler pour les droits des femmes. Par où commencer ?
Snippet FEA FIGHT LIKE SOMEONE WHO CARES (FR)
São Paulo, Brésil
COZINHA OCUPAÇÃO 9 DE JULHO
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PREND SOIN
Riham Al-Bader
Riham was a lawyer and activist committed to monitoring rights violations in Yemen.
She worked with other activists to supply civilians trapped by Houthi militias in the outskirts of the city of Taiz with food and water.
Riham was killed in February 2018 and it is unconfirmed whether she was killed by a sniper or hit by an aircraft. Nobody has been held accountable for her murder.
Patrona Benita Sandoval
Snippet - WITM Why now_col 2 - EN
Resourcing feminist movements is fundamental to securing a more just and peaceful present and liberated future.
While funders committed significantly more money to gender equality over the last decade, still only 1% of philanthropic and development funding has actually been moved to directly resource feminist-led social change.
In solidarity with movements that continue to be invisibilized, marginalized and without access to core, long-term, flexible and trust-based funding, the WITM survey highlights the actual state of resourcing, challenges false solutions, and points to how funding models must change for movements to thrive and meet the complex challenges of our times.
2002: Discussions on the Financing for Development agenda begin
The Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development marked the beginning of discussions on the Financing for Development agenda.
- The Monterrey Consensus was adopted at this first international conference on Financing for Development. It was the first United Nations hosted summit-level meeting to address key financial and related issues on global development.
- The Conference and its preparatory process saw unprecedented cooperation between the United Nations and the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) as part of efforts to promote greater coherence and consistency among the international monetary, trade and financial systems and institutions.
- Monterrey also marked the first time that financing for development debates took place between governments, representatives of civil society and the business sector. These actors moved the discussion beyond a ‘technical’ focus, to look at how to mobilize and channel financial resources to fulfill the internationally agreed development goals of previous UN conferences and summits of the 1990s, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
- The Women’s Caucus noted the historical significance of the conference stating that it had the potential to address structural challenges that continue to hamper development but also raised concern over the effects of increased militarisation and fundamentalism on women, despite the fact that the Monterrey Consensus assumed that the global economic and financial system worked for all.
- Learn more about the six Monterrey themes and the conference follow up mechanisms: Gender Issues and Concerns in Financing for Development by Maria Floro, Nilufer Çagatay, John Willoughby and Korkut Ertürk (INSTRAW, 2004)
Snippet FEA Introducing Carmen Silva Ferreira (EN)
We have the pleasure to introduce you to Carmen Silva Ferreira.
She was born in Bahia, the Northeastern part of Brazil. She is an immigrant, a social activist and a mother of 8 children.
Carmen experienced homelessness at the age of 35, after migrating to Sao Paulo on her own. This led her to become a fierce advocate for vulnerable, marginalized and invisibilized communities most affected by the housing crisis. She eventually became one of the founders of MSTC in 2000.
As a visionary political organizer and the current leader of the MSTC, Carmen’s work has laid bare the city's housing crisis and provided inspiration to others on different ways to organize and manage occupations. She stood strong on the forefront of several occupations. One of them is the 9 de Julho Occupation, which now serves as a stage for direct democracy, and a space where everyone can be heard, seen, appreciated and work together.
Carmen has been long celebrated for her boldness in giving life back to abandoned buildings in the heart of São Paulo.
To know more about her life, you can follow her on Instagram!
So'oalo Roger
So'oalo fue una ferviente defensora de los derechos humanos, especialmente de los derechos de la comunidad LGBTQI en el Pacífico.
Fue integrante de la Asociación Fa’afafine de Samoa (SFA) y una apasionada activista por el reconocimiento de un tercer género en el país insular. Bajo su liderazgo, la SFA luchó por el reconocimiento de la validez y los derechos de la comunidad fa’afafine.
También fue pionera en articular los vínculos entre derechos humanos, explotación de lxs fa’afafines en Samoa y el Pacífico y la salud, el bienestar y la seguridad de la comunidad LGBTQI.
Fue fuente de inspiración, visionaria y su dedicación a la lucha por los derechos de su comunidad es admirable y será recordada por siempre.
Parvin Paidar
Snippet - WITM Provide members - EN
Provide AWID members, movement partners and funders with an updated, powerful, evidence-based, and action-oriented analysis of the resourcing realities of feminist movements and current state of the feminist funding ecosystem.
Identify and demonstrate opportunities to shift more and better funding for feminist organizing, expose false solutions and disrupt trends that make funding miss and/or move against gender justice and intersectional feminist agendas.
Articulate feminist visions, proposals and agendas for resourcing justice.
2009: la ONU celebra una Conferencia sobre el impacto de la crisis económica
- Esta conferencia de 2009 fue un producto de la Conferencia de Doha realizada en 2008. La Declaración de Doha le había encargado a la ONU que el Presidente de su Asamblea General organizara una conferencia sobre la crisis financiera y económica mundial y su impacto sobre el desarrollo.
- En esta conferencia los grupos de mujeres, a través del WWG, destacaron el impacto de la crisis financiera mundial sobre los grupos en situación de vulnerabilidad. En su declaración ante los Estados Miembros, el WWG les propuso acciones que consideraba necesarias para remediar los efectos de la crisis sobre las mujeres. También observó que otros grupos sociales afectados por la crisis son clave para una respuesta que esté en consonancia con los estándares y compromisos internacionales en materia de igualdad de género, derechos de las mujeres, derechos humanos y empoderamiento.
Snippet FEA ASOM Challenges Story 1 (ES)
DESAFÍOS
- Cambio Climático
- Acesso a créditos
- Intermediários
Samira Khalil
Samira était une activiste syrienne sous le régime de Bachar al-Asad.
Dès son plus jeune âge, Samira s'est opposée à toutes les formes de despotisme et en particulier au régime autoritaire dans lequel elle vivait. Samira a été kidnappée en 2013 avec trois autres activistes de premier plan. Elle aurait été enlevée au Centre de documentation sur les violations à Douma, une ville située en périphérie rurale de Damas.
Le principal suspect associé à sa disparition est le groupe rebelle syrien Jaych al-Islam (l'armée de l'islam), qui nie son implication. Aucune enquête officielle n’a été ouverte sur la disparition de Samira et elle n’a plus donné de nouvelles depuis lors. Samira était attachée à son pays et refusait de quitter la Syrie tant qu'elle estimait que son rôle en faveur de l'émancipation des femmes et la documentation des crimes était utile et nécessaire.
Uma Singh
Who should participate in the survey?
Groups, organizations and/or movements working specifically or primarily for women, girls, gender justice, LBTQI+ and allied people’s rights in all regions and at all levels, both newly formed and long-standing.
Janvier 2015: 1ère session de rédaction du document final de la 3ème Conférence sur le FdD
La première session de rédaction du document final de la troisième Conférence sur le financement du développement
- À partir de janvier 2015, les sessions de rédaction du document final se sont succédé au siège de l’ONU à New York.
- Avant la première de ces sessions, les co-facilitateurs du processus préparatoire de la Conférence d’Addis Abeba ont présenté un document récapitulatif (en anglais) en vue de la rédaction de la dite « version zéro » du document final. Ce document avait vocation à servir de base aux négociations intergouvernementales relatives au contenu du document final.
- Pendant les sessions, des organisations de défense des droits des femmes ont mis l’accent sur la nécessité, au cours des processus relatifs à l’après-2015, d’aborder séparément le FdD et les modalités de mise en œuvre. À leurs yeux, le FdD offre une occasion unique aux États de s’attaquer aux causes structurelles des inégalités.
Snippet FEA Barcelona, Spain (FR)
Barcelone, Espagne
Metzineres