Kalpana Chakma
Protection of the Family
The Issue
Over the past few years, a troubling new trend at the international human rights level is being observed, where discourses on ‘protecting the family’ are being employed to defend violations committed against family members, to bolster and justify impunity, and to restrict equal rights within and to family life.
The campaign to "Protect the Family" is driven by ultra-conservative efforts to impose "traditional" and patriarchal interpretations of the family, and to move rights out of the hands of family members and into the institution of ‘the family’.
“Protection of the Family” efforts stem from:
- rising traditionalism,
- rising cultural, social and religious conservatism and
- sentiment hostile to women’s human rights, sexual rights, child rights and the rights of persons with non-normative gender identities and sexual orientations.
Since 2014, a group of states have been operating as a bloc in human rights spaces under the name “Group of Friends of the Family”, and resolutions on “Protection of the Family” have been successfully passed every year since 2014.
This agenda has spread beyond the Human Rights Council. We have seen regressive language on “the family” being introduced at the Commission on the Status of Women, and attempts made to introduce it in negotiations on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Our Approach
AWID works with partners and allies to jointly resist “Protection of the Family” and other regressive agendas, and to uphold the universality of human rights.
In response to the increased influence of regressive actors in human rights spaces, AWID joined allies to form the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs). OURs is a collaborative project that monitors, analyzes, and shares information on anti-rights initiatives like “Protection of the Family”.
Rights at Risk, the first OURs report, charts a map of the actors making up the global anti-rights lobby, identifies their key discourses and strategies, and the effect they are having on our human rights.
The report outlines “Protection of the Family” as an agenda that has fostered collaboration across a broad range of regressive actors at the UN. It describes it as: “a strategic framework that houses “multiple patriarchal and anti-rights positions, where the framework, in turn, aims to justify and institutionalize these positions.”
Related Content
Become a member (homepage block) - French
Pourquoi rejoindre l’AWID ?
Oeuvrez pour le renforcement des mouvements pour les droits des femmes et contribuez aux transformations en faveur des droits humains.
The Devil is in the Details
Free ebook on Women's rights and Religious fundamentalisms
Religious fundamentalisms have particularly high costs for women and girls
In a global picture of rising religious fundamentalisms, this ebook details the grave human rights violations, and violations of women’s rights in particular, caused by state-sponsored fundamentalism, as well as by fundamentalist non-state actors such as militias, religious community organizations, and individuals.
It is vital to promote intersectional feminist understandings of power and privilege, and to apply these to questions of religion and culture.
Сколько вопросов содержится в опросе?
Всего 47 вопросов, из которых 27 являются обязательными*, а остальные 20 – дополнительными. Большинство вопросов – это вопросы с множественным выбором. Мы надеемся, что вы ответите на все вопросы.
Janet Benshoof
Janet Benshoof était une avocate des droits humains oeuvrant aux États-Unis et défenseure de l’égalité des femmes et de leurs droits sexuels et reproductifs.
Elle a milité pour l’élargissement de l’accès à la contraception et à l’avortement dans le monde entier, et s’est battue contre des décisions anti-avortement dans le territoire américain de Guam. Arrêtée en 1990 pour son opposition à la loi anti-avortement la plus restrictive de son pays, elle a remporté une mise en demeure [MB1] au tribunal local à Guam qui a bloqué la loi, pour ensuite remporter l’affaire devant la Cour d’Appel de Ninth Circuit, décision qui devait supprimer définitivement celle-ci.
« Les femmes à Guam sont dans une situation absolument dramatique. Je n’ai nullement l’intention d’arrêter d’en parler », Janet Benshoof pour People Magazine
Janet a créé plusieurs précédents juridiques, dont l’approbation par l’US Food and Drug Administration de la contraception d’urgence, ainsi que l’application du droit international afin de garantir leurs droits aux victimes de viol lors des poursuites pour crimes de guerre de l’époque de Saddam Hussein, devant la Cour Suprême iraqienne.
Janet était présidente et fondatrice du Global Justice Center, ainsi que fondatrice du Center for Reproductive Rights, la première organisation internationale pour les droits humains, centrée sur le choix reproductif et l’égalité. Elle a siégé pendant 15 ans en tant que directrice du projet pour les droits reproductifs de l’American Civil Liberties Union, où elle a mené de nombreuses procédures juridiques qui ont contribué à façonner la loi constitutionnelle des États-Unis sur l’égalité de genre, la liberté d’expression et les droits reproductifs.
« Janet était connue pour son brillant esprit juridique, son sens de l’humour vif et son courage face à l’injustice », Anthony D. Romero.
Nommée l’une des « 100 avocat·e·s les plus influent·e·s d’Amérique » par le National Law Journal, Janet a reçu de nombreux prix et distinctions.
Née en mai 1947, Janet est décédée en décembre 2017.
Snippet FEA Striking against all odds (EN)
Striking against all odds: the story of Solidarity Network’s unprecedented win.
In January 2022, the Solidarity Network organized a strike with 400 workers. Their main demand? To increase wages. The strike was called following months of unsuccessful talks with the Georgian Ministry of Social Affairs as part of a labor dispute.
After weeks of protesting, negotiating, speaking to the media, withstanding backlash, and enduring the blistering cold of Georgian winter, the workers won unprecedented concessions from the government: wage increase, paid maternity leave, the covering of transportation costs, no lay-offs, compensation for strike days, and more.
The strike did not only result in material gains, it also left the workers feeling united and empowered to stand up for themselves and fight for dignified working conditions now and in the future. They became a source of inspiration for all workers across the country.
You can read more about their victory here.
Reason to join 5
Expand your boundaries. AWID members increasingly represent a diverse and vibrant cross-section of feminists working on land rights, workers’ rights, sexual rights and bodily autonomy, among other issues. By joining us as a member, you can connect your struggles across movements.
Ana Maria Marcela Yarce Viveros
框架與主題
第十四屆AWID國際論壇的主題是：“女性主義理念實現：行動的力量”。
在第十四屆論壇上，我們將表揚與彰顯在我們身邊，處於各種發展階段的女性主義理念實現行動。
我們希望將本次論壇變成我們的女性主義理念實現行動：在這裡你可以進入在一個不同的世界，帶著你的勝利佳績、你所設計的解決方案前來，分享讓你更加強大、充滿希望、做好前行準備的事物。本次盛會有別於您之前參加過的其他會議。
請您務必共襄盛舉，攜手創造世界。絕對值得！
每個論壇都有一個主題，該主題反映了我們成員和運動的需求，並回應我們對當前背景脈絡的分析。
全球背景脈絡
當前，全球各地的法西斯主義、基本教義主義、威權主義以及不受約束的企業權力方興未艾。我們看到，這些威脅與國家協力形塑了公共規範、敘事論述和政策，在公共論述中深植了恐懼和仇恨的文化，並煽動暴力。國家，曾經是我們權利倡議和主張權利的對象，但在許多情況下，國家不再覺得需要負責，甚至在某些情況下，國家自己也不再具有維護權利的權力了。
這個動盪、複雜和充滿不確定性的時代，更需要發揮創造力，組織各種運動，保持需求的連貫性並大膽提出主張。
從女性主義的將來到女性主義的理念實現
2016年的AWID論壇以女性主義的未來及付諸實現所需的條件為中心。無論是當時還是現在都很明顯不過，對於許多社會正義運動來說，若想跳出當前的體制之外去思考結構性的解決方案是一個艱鉅挑戰。長期的不平等和壓迫的經驗會限縮想像力。但是當時我們周遭的所見所聞顯示女性主義運動確實生機勃發，以各種大小規模都有的方式推動了權利和正義為導向理念實現與解決方案。
我們確實看到了對於動員的迫切需求，但動員的起點不是從最低的共同點開始，動員應源於希望。這分希望源自於肯定，世界各地的經驗與實踐體現了更加正義的生存方式，儘管不盡完美，從這些經驗出發，藉由分享、加強與壯大，我們可以幫助其擴大影響力。
這些並非不可能實現的夢想，而是以實現的生活。凡事皆有可能的感受啟發我們去重新審視和重新欣賞我們的工作具備的轉化面向。
全球女性主義理念實現的一些例子
在AWID，我們知道鮮活的女性主義理念實現典範是，代表一個有望實現的世界。這些多元的理念實現經驗蘊含再現了希望和力量。深植於多種生活思考與實踐的方式，向我們證明有不一樣的可能：從我們日常生活和彼此之間的關係的日常表達到治理和正義的替代制度。女性主義理念實現經驗抵制諸如父權制度、資本主義和白人至上的宰制權力制度。
以上皆為強而有力的主張，引導我們看到具備可能性的願景，並證明了女性主義組織是如何在世界各地的運動和社群中開疆拓土，開闢通往正義的道路。
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在美國密西西比州傑克遜城一個被深度邊緣化的黑人社區透過傑克遜合作（Cooperation Jackson）平台，展開了社區團結和合作經濟的實驗，這項計劃雄心勃勃，有別於資本主義的生產方式，要建立社群共有精神。
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在西非，女性農民對抗圈地並拒絕工業化的農業計畫，勇敢主張「我們就是解決方案（We Are The Solution）」，此運動旨在建立農業生態解決方案，以女性農民及其知識為中心，讓社群可以獲得溫飽並減緩氣候變遷
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同樣，在印度有5000名婦女根據地方知識，共同建立了以社群為基礎的糧食主權制度，包括穀物和種子銀行
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墨西哥的婦女開創了一個無錢交易的經濟計畫，該計畫由婦女主導，並為其他婦女以及她們所認識的每個人服務。在El Cambalache計畫中，一切交換物都具有相同的價值：人們用不再需要的東西去交換他們想要的東西，也包括想分享的知識、能力和互助。El Cambalache計畫建立在當地社會運動的反制度、反資本主義價值觀之上
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在羅賈瓦，庫德人在沒有國家的情況下建立了民主制度。庫爾德婦女將女性學（Jineology）作為挑戰父權制度、資本主義和國家機器的框架，創建了將這一框架付諸實踐的制度和機構
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在英國，Anarcho Agony Aunts是一個關於性和約會的諮詢節目，涵蓋了女性主義者、反法西斯主義者和無政府主義者的各種觀點。主持人羅文和馬里亞姆正在從另類右派中奪回空間，讓人們（主要是男人）在不受批判的空間內提出棘手問題
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非洲女性主義判決計畫起草並廣傳了一系列關於重大非洲里程碑司法案件的另類判決。該計畫的核心精神提出了女性主義司法實踐和替代性的女性主義判決，對非洲法學、法律實務和司法決貢獻卓著。
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印度的烏沙合作社（Usha Cooperative）是在主流銀行拒絕向Sonagachi地區的性工作者提供服務時成立的。性工作者自發組織起來，優先解決其經濟問題並建立自己的金融機構。烏沙合作社是一家合作銀行，服務2萬多名性工作者，並在一年內提供7231名性工作者470萬美元的貸款。該銀行完全由性工作者組成，為合作社的治理和管理帶來了真正的所有權和影響力，為個人和社群服務，開創了建立經濟實力的自主先驅模式
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在波多黎各，一個社區土地信託基金協助了非正式居住區轉型為永續的社區，該社區處於受到污染的易氾濫河道。該基金為改善城市中的非正式定居區域點提供了一種新模式，如果沒有她們的幫助，當地的原始居民根本負擔不起
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在幾個拉丁美洲國家，社運人士提供了醫療人工流產提同儕的諮詢和陪伴，奪回女性身體的自主權和獲得醫療知識的權利。（出於安全原因，此處未提供相關的鏈接）
第十四屆AWID國際論壇
AWID論壇將按照6大主軸安排：
- 社群、運動和經濟正義的資源
- 治理、當責與正義
- 數位化的現實
- 身體、愉悅和健康
- 女性主義星球與生命
- 組織女性主義運動
基於這些理念實現的經驗，我們希望2020年的論壇能夠：
- 鞏固女性主義理念實現的力量：通過點名、表揚、壯大和貢獻等方式，從這些經驗及主張出發，累積動能，凸顯可能性並豐富我們的集體想像力。
- 補充希望和能量的泉源：為人權與正義社會運動及韌性提供必要的能量。
- 加強聯繫、互惠和團結：服務各種多元的女性主義運動以及其他權利和正義為本的社會運動。
論壇是一個協作過程
該論壇不僅僅是一個四天的會議，是女性主義理念實現的運動茁壯旅程的一個中繼站，我們已經出發，論壇結束後也會繼續前行。
É preciso responder a todas as perguntas de uma só vez ou posso responder quando quiser?
Se quiser guardar as suas respostas e voltar ao inquérito mais tarde, pode fazê-lo sempre que precisar.
Mena Mangal
Mena Mangal was a prominent TV journalist, women’s rights advocate and cultural adviser to Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of Afghanistan's national parliament.
For more than a decade, she worked for Ariana TV, Tolo TV's Pashto-language channel Lamar, and the private Afghan national television broadcaster Shamshad TV. As a presenter, Mena focused on women’s rights and cultural talk shows.
"Women's rights activist Wazhma Frogh said Mangal "had a loud voice" and actively spoke out as an advocate for her people."
Off-screen, she also ran popular social media pages that advocated for the rights of Afghan girls and women to education and work. In terms of her private life, Mena wrote extensively about being forced into an arranged marriage in 2017 and the process she had to go through to finally obtain a divorce.
In a Facebook post, Mena wrote she was receiving death threats from unknown sources but would continue to carry out her work.
On 11 May 2019, she was attacked by unknown gunmen and shot dead in broad daylight in a public space in Southeast Kabul.
"We are concerned about the situation because it has a direct impact on women who work outside their homes...Female journalists are changing their professions due to the increasing risks they are facing." - Robina Hamdard, Kabul-based women’s rights activist.
Snippet FEA Union Otras (ES)
SINDICATO OTRAS
La Organización Sindical de Trabajadoras del Sexo (OTRAS) es el primer sindicato de trabajadoras del sexo de la historia de España. Nació de la necesidad de garantizar los derechos sociales, legales y políticos de las trabajadoras sexuales en un país donde los movimientos de extrema derecha están cada vez más fuertes.
Después de años de luchas contra el sistema legal español y los grupos abolicionistas del trabajo sexual que solicitaron su cierre, OTRAS finalmente obtuvo su estatus legal como sindicato en 2021.
¿Su objetivo? Despenalizar el trabajo sexual y garantizar condiciones y entornos de trabajo dignos para todxs lxs trabajadorxs sexuales.
El sindicato representa a más de 600 trabajadorxs sexualxs, muchxs de lxs cuales son inmigrantes, racializadxs y sexo/genero disidentes.
Our values - bodily autonomy
Autonomía corporal, integridad y libertades
Celebramos el derecho de todas las personas a elegir sus identidades, relaciones, metas, trabajos, sueños y placeres, y lo que hacen con su mente, cuerpo y espíritu. Trabajamos por el acceso a los recursos, a la información, y a ambientes seguros y habilitantes que permitan que esto suceda.
Ummaya Gabbara
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!
قمت بتعبئة الاستطلاع لكنني غيرت رأيي وأريد سحب اجاباتي. ماذا أفعل؟
إن رغبتم/ن في سحب استطلاعكم/ن ومحيه لأي سبب كان، لديكم/ن الحق الكامل بالقيام بذلك. الرجاء التواصل معنا عن طريق هذا النموذج وكتابة "استطلاع المال" في عنوان رسالتكم/ن وسنقوم بسحب ومحي أجوبتكم/ن.
Lina Ben Mhenni
«Quiero transmitir el siguiente mensaje a todos los tunecinos y tunecinas: Tenemos que unirnos para decir no a la censura y a los juicios contra el derecho a opinar.» - Lina Ben Mhenni (entrevista de 2013)
Lina Ben Mhenni fue bloguera, activista y docente de lingüística tunecina. Se expresaba en contra de la censura en Internet, defendía la libertad de expresión, y era una defensora de los derechos humanos y de las mujeres. Lina luchó también por la liberación de lxs estudiantes arrestadxs durante el gobierno del anterior presidente Zine El Abidine.
«Es cierto que la información y la Internet son importantes, pero para hacer una revolución es crucial estar en el territorio. Algunas personas aquí en Túnez piensan que el cambio se dará mediante un simple “me gusta” en Internet. Yo creo que hay que estar activxs en el terreno. Y, por supuesto, que hay que combinar las acciones en el terreno con la acción en las redes.» - Lina Ben Mhenni (entrevista en POCIT)
En 2010 co-organizó una protesta que desafió la decisión gubernamental de suprimir medios de comunicación e instalar la censura de Internet. Lina era muy conocida por su blog «A Tunisian Girl», y por su trabajo durante la revolución tunecina de 2011. En su blog, difundió la información sobre el levantamiento, compartió imágenes que documentaban las protestas, y fue una de las pocas voces que hablaron sobre los asesinatos y la represión de lxs manifestantes de Sidi Bouzid. Lina publicaba en su blog utilizando su nombre real en lugar de un seudónimo que protegiera su identidad, y fue una de lxs pocxs bloguerxs en hacerlo.
«Nuestra libertad de expresión corre verdadero peligro. Me temo que estamos perdiendo los extraordinarios frutos de la revolución: la desaparición del miedo y nuestra libertad de expresión. Tenemos que seguir luchando para proteger y preservar este derecho.» - Lina Ben Mhenni (entrevista de 2013)
Lina tenía solamente 36 años cuando falleció, el 27 de enero de 2020, debido a complicaciones derivadas de una enfermedad autoinmune.
«Libertad, mejor educación y mejor salud—eso era lo que todxs queríamos. Cuando fracasábamos, ella nos empujaba.» - Hala, maestra de Lina