The Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD-IC) is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Atena Daemi from Tehran’s Evin prison. She must also be given immediate access to specialised medical care outside prison.

The WHRD IC is deeply concerned about the recent detention of eight Turkish human rights defenders and two IT trainers and calls for their immediate and unconditional release. Among those who were detained from a human rights workshop are prominent members of the women’s rights movement, which is a clear attempt to destabilize and demoralize women who engage in legitimate and important activism to defend and promote human rights.

The WHRD-IC calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Ebtisam Al-Saegh, and the end to the harassment, intimidation, violence and threats towards her and her family. We ask the Bahraini authorities to end their campaign against all human rights defenders.

Women Human Rights Defenders are at the forefront of rights struggles. WHRDs are targeted because of our work, including for what we do, the fact that we do it, and the identities we carry.

On 24 May 2017, the divisional court in Ankara overturned a conviction for sexual assault of human rights defender, Kemal Ördek. Instead the three perpetrators were sentenced to seven years and six months imprisonment for the charge of ‘aggravated burglary.’ The man previously convicted and sentenced for the sexual assault was acquitted.

AWID and partners express our strong concerns about the draft resolution on the protection of the family. We are concerned that the resolution attempts to instrumentalize older persons and their rights.

Bondita Acharya is an activist and a member of Women in Governance (WinG) Assam. She received death threats after condemning the arrest of three people for the possession of beef on 4 April 2017. The attacks on her include trolling on her Facebook account and other social media with sexually laden, criminal and defamatory posts.

Last Saturday, on 25 March 2017, AWID alongside other international organizations, attended a special Right Livelihood Award ceremony in Cairo where Mozn Hassan was  honoured  "for asserting the equality and rights of women in circumstances where they are subject to ongoing violence, abuse and discrimination."

Feminist activists have seen their hard work pay off as the CSW61 adopted a set of Agreed Conclusions that made significant commitments to advance women’s rights and economic empowerment in the changing world of work.

As concerned members of the Caribbean region and diaspora, we are outraged by the unreasonable and absurd charges of three counts of “malicious communication” under Section 9 (1) of the Cybercrimes Act of 2015 by the Jamaican state towards human rights defender and activist, Latoya Nugent.