Philippe Leroyer | Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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.

  • 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.

  • 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;

  • 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:

  • Mobilizing urgent responses of international solidarity for WHRDs at risk through our international and regional networks, and our active membership.

Related Content

Type

FR Editor's note

Editor's note

Feminist Realities is a warm and caring invitation, a kind of en masse-care (versus self-care) act of preservation, an invitation to archive, to take stock of all the work lest it disappear. (...)

Read

Snippet - CSW69 spaces to watch out for - ES

Espacios para tener en cuenta en la CSW69

Obtén más información sobre los próximos eventos de la CSW69 que AWID está coorganizando

Faye Macheke

Biography

Faye is a passionate Pan-African feminist, active in movements for women's rights, racial justice, migrant and labor rights, and environmental justice. Her activism builds on the legacy of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the aftermath of the apartheid era in Zimbabwe.

In 2019, Faye joined AWID as the Director of Finance, Operations and Development, and strived to ensure that AWID upholds the feminist principles and values in all of its operations. She brings over 20 years of experience in feminist leadership, strategy, and all aspects of finance and organizational development.

Faye is a committed Board Member of UAF-Africa and other women's rights organizations. She previously held a Head of Finance and Operations roles at Paediatric Adolescent Treatment for Africa and JASS - Just Associates Inc. in Southern Africa. She also held Directorship roles for International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) in Central and Southern Africa. She holds a Bcompt in Accounting Science from University of South Africa and is a member of the Southern African Institute for Business Accountants.

Position
Co-Executive Director
Add to stories
Off

Bessy Ferrera

Category
Droits des LGBTQI
Region
Amérique latine
Date of death / disappearance
Cause of death / disappearance

Tuée

Bessy Ferrera a défendu sans relâche les droits humains des personnes trans, travailleuses du sexe et séropositives au Honduras. 

 Bessy était aussi membre d’Arcoíris, une organisation qui soutient la communauté LGBTI+. Elle était en outre la personne référente de la plateforme Derechos aquí y Ahora (les droits ici et maintenant) au Honduras et plaidait fermement en faveur d’une pleine citoyenneté pour les personnes trans, ainsi que pour l’adoption d’une loi sur l’identité de genre qui permettrait aux personnes trans de changer légalement d’identité de genre. 

« Depuis le début de l’année [2019], la communauté trans a été victime d’une série d’attaques, parce qu’elle a défendu et demandé des droits. » Rihanna Ferrera (sœur de Bessy)
Bessy était une travailleuse du sexe qui a été tuée par balle par deux hommes, au début du mois de juillet 2019, alors qu’elle travaillait dans les rues Comayagüela. Ses assaillants ont par la suite été arrêtés.  

Bessy fait partie des nombreux·ses activistes des droits LGBTI+ du Honduras, assassiné·e·s en raison de leur identité et de leur travail, parmi qui se trouvent : Cynthia Nicole, Angy Ferreira, Estefania "Nia" Zuniga, Gloria Carolina Hernandez Vasquez, Paola Barraza, Violeta Rivas et Sherly Montoya.

Le cas de Bessy incarne l’injustice, de même qu’un problème plus large de violence systémique à laquelle se confronte la communauté LGBTI+ au Honduras, puisque l’État ne parvient pas à garantir l’offre de droits ni à fournir une protection. Cela est à l’origine d’une culture de l’impunité.   

Malgré les risques auxquels sont confronté.e.s les activistes LGBTI+ au Honduras,  tous et toutes continuent leur travail pour défier et résister à la violence, ainsi que pour combattre la stigmatisation et la discrimination au quotidien.

« Si je meurs, il faut que ce soit pour quelque chose de bien, pas pour une futilité. Je ne veux pas mourir en fuyant, en étant lâche. Si je meurs, je veux que les gens disent que je suis mort·e en me battant pour ce qui m’appartient » - membre d’Arcoíris

Snippet FEA Story 1 Maps Economies of Care (ES)

Los mapas de Brasil en blanco, España en amarillo mostaza y Colombia en rosa sobre un fondo color vino o burdeos.

FRMag - My queer Ramadan

Mi ramadán queer

por Amal Amer

Rezo con mi familia por primera vez en seis años envueltx en un keffiyah que recogí de un contenedor de basura. (...)

Leer

arte: «Angels go out at night too» [Los ángeles también salen de noche], Chloé Luu >

Snippet - Feminist Community Evening - ES

Una noche de la comunidad feminista 

✉️ Requiere inscripción previa. Regístrate aquí

📅 Miércoles 12 de marzo de 2025
🕒 De 05:00 a 07:00 p.m., EST
🏢 Chef's Kitchen Loft with Terrace, 216 East 45th St 13th Floor New York

Organizan: Women Enabled International y AWID

Juhi

Biography

Juhi es una entusiasta de las tecnologías. Posee una licenciatura en Ingeniería Informática de la Universidad Tecnológica de Gujarat y formación de posgrado en Telecomunicaciones Inalámbricas y Gestión de Proyectos del Instituto Universitario Humber. Apasionada de la resolución de problemas y de mantenerse a la vanguardia en el panorama tecnológico en constante evolución, Juhi se ha encontrado recorriendo diversas industrias como técnica en Tecnologías de la Información. Ha tenido oportunidad de aplicar sus competencias técnicas en distintos entornos, siempre abrazando los nuevos desafíos con entusiasmo. Más allá de los códigos y los circuitos, le encantan las aventuras de la vida. Explorar nuevos lugares y culturas es para ella una bocanada de aire fresco. Ya sea que se trate de descubrir alguna joya oculta en la ciudad, de probar algún plato exótico o de embarcarse en algún deporte de aventura, Juhi siempre está predispuesta a vivir nuevas experiencias.

Position
Coordinadora, Apoyo en Tecnologías de la Información
Add to stories
Off

Navleen Kumar

Category
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Region
Asia
South Asia
Date of birth
Date of death / disappearance
Cause of death / disappearance

Killed

"She was not a person. She was a power."
- a fellow activist remembering Navleen Kumar

Navleen Kumar was a fervent land rights and social justice activist in India.

With commitment and integrity, she worked for more than a decade to protect and restore the lands of Indigenous people (adivasi) in Thane district, an area taken away by property and land developers using such means as coercion and intimidation. She fought this injustice and crime through legal interventions at different courts, realizing that manipulation of land records was a recurrent feature in most cases of land acquisition. In one of the cases, that of the Wartha (a tribal family), Navleen found out that the family had been cheated with the complicity of government officials.

Through her work, she helped restore the land back to the Wartha family and continued to pursue other cases of adivasi land transfers.

“Her paper on the impact of land alienation on adivasi women and children traces the history and complexities of tribal alienation from the 1970s, when middle class families began to move to the extended suburbs of Mumbai as the real estate value in the city spiralled.

Housing complexes mushroomed in these suburbs, and the illiterate tribals paid the price for this. Prime land near the railway lines fetched a high price and builders swooped down on this belt like vultures, to grab land from tribals and other local residents by illegal means.”
-Jaya Menon, Justice and Peace Commission 

During the course of her activism, Navleen received numerous threats and survived several attempts on her life. Despite these, she continued working on what was not only important to her but contributed to changing the lives and realities of many she supported in the struggle for social justice. 

Navleen was stabbed to death on 19 June 2002 in her apartment building. Two local gangsters were arrested for her murder. 

Snippet - That Feminist Fire Logo (FR)

Texte blanc qui dit le titre de notre podcast en français : Notre flamme féministe

FRMag - Ashawo Work na Work

« Ashawo Work na Work » : Comment les jeunes féministes ghanéennes transforment des horizons féministes en réalité

par Fatima B. Derby

En 2017, la campagne #ManifestezVotreSolidarité a mis en évidence la manière dont les jeunes féministes pouvaient construire un avenir féministe en étant là les unes pour les autres, en participant à des conversations transrégionales, en marchant en solidarité avec d'autres activistes et en collaborant entre les mouvements. (...)

Lire

< illustration : « Laisse-les pousser », par Gucora Andu

Snippet - CSW69 - Feminist Solidarity Space 12 - FR

Espace de solidarité féministe

✉️ Sur inscription pour les grands groupes. Espace ouvert pour les petits groupes. Inscrivez-vous ici

📅 Mercredi 12 mars 2025
🕒 14.00h-16.00h EST
🏢 Chef's Kitchen Loft with Terrace, 216 East 45th St 13th Floor, New York 

Organisé par : AWID

Patience Chabururuka

Biography

Patience est une professionnelle internationale des ressources humaines avec plus d'une décennie d'expérience dans la gestion des ressources humaines (RH) dans le secteur non lucratif. Elle a travaillé auparavant chez Mercy Corps en tant que responsable générale des ressources humaines pour l'Afrique. Elle y a appuyé le cycle de vie complet des employé·e·s expatrié·e·s dans la région de l'Afrique de l'Est et de l'Afrique australe et fourni des conseils techniques RH aux responsables des ressources humaines dans les bureaux nationaux de la région africaine. Avant de rejoindre l'équipe internationale des ressources humaines, elle agissait en tant que point focal national ressources humaines et protection, et faisait partie de l'équipe de direction qui traitait de toutes les questions de ressources humaines et de protection. Avant de rejoindre Mercy Corps, elle dirigeait le département des ressources humaines et des opérations de l'organisation de développement des Pays-Bas SNV et était membre de l'équipe de direction nationale. Elle possède également une expérience de consultance en ressources humaines qu'elle a acquise alors qu'elle étudiait encore pour sa licence spécialisée en gestion des ressources humaines. Elle est passionnée de RH, aime travailler avec les gens et considère le bien-être et la protection dans ses valeurs fondamentales et son travail professionnel. Amatrice de sport, Patience peut également être aperçue sur un terrain de basket, un court de tennis ou encore un terrain de football.

Position
Coordonnatrice des Ressources Humaines
Add to stories
Off

Nadyn Jouny

Category
Derechos civiles y políticos
Region
Asia Occidental
Date of death / disappearance
Cause of death / disappearance

Accidente

Lo personal es político, y la apasionada y valiente Nadyn Jouny personificó este mantra feminista. Nadyn experimentó de primera mano el dolor de la violencia estructural de los sistemas legales que despojan a las mujeres de sus derechos.

Cuando Nadyn decidió solicitar el divorcio, los tribunales religiosos chiítas, bajo las Leyes de Estatuto Personal Libanesas, le negaron la custodia de su joven hijo Karam. Nadyn, como tantas otras mujeres del Líbano y de otros países, se vio atrapada entre el dolor imposible de dejar una relación no deseada y abusiva y de perder a la vez los derechos sobre su hijo.  Sin embargo, Nadyn se defendió, y lo habría de hacerlo hasta el último día.

Nadyn utilizó su  habilidad con los medios de comunicación para convertirse en una voz  franca a favor de las mujeres que luchan contra la discriminación en la legislación familiar, en el Líbano y a nivel internacional. Nadyn cofundó el grupo autofinanciado "Protecting Lebanese Women" [Protegiendo a las Mujeres Libanesas] (PLW, por sus siglas en inglés) y se unió a muchas otras madres libanesas que se enfrentaban a problemas similares de custodia. Juntas, trabajaron para crear conciencia sobre las injusticias extremas a las que se enfrentaban, a nivel nacional, protestaron ante los tribunales religiosos por sus derechos y, a nivel internacional, llamaron la atención de los medios de comunicación.

Nadyn también trabajó con ABAAD - Resource Center for Gender Equality [Centro de Recursos para la Igualdad de Género], otra organización por los derechos de las mujeres en el Líbano, para realizar campañas en favor de los derechos de las mujeres, la igualdad en la legislación familiar y relativa a las custodias y contra los matrimonios forzados y precoces.

Para muchxs de sus colegas, Nadyn llegó a "simbolizar la lucha de una madre libanesa contra la supresión y la misoginia de todo tipo" (en inglés), al utilizar "su experiencia personal y trayectoria individual de empoderamiento, dio a otras mujeres esperanza para que ellas también pudieran ser un catalizador para el cambio positivo" - ABAAD - Centro de Recursos para la Igualdad entre los Géneros, Líbano.

El 6 de octubre de 2019, Nadyn murió trágicamente en un accidente de automóvil cuando se dirigía a protestar por los injustos aumentos de impuestos en un país que ya se enfrentaba a una espiral de crisis financiera. Nadyn Jouny tenía solo 29 años en el momento de su muerte.

Snippet Forum Stories Story 1 (EN)

Case study 1 - Three Boats, a Horse and a Taxi: Pacific Feminists at the AWID Forums

This story is about how an increasingly diverse group of feminists from the Pacific organized through the years to attend the AWID Forums and how that process changed them personally, as organizations, and as a movement through what they learned, discovered and experienced. It illustrates the importance of the Forums as a space through which a region that tends to be marginalized or ignored at the global level can build a strong presence in the feminist movement that is then replicated at other international women’s rights spaces.

FRMag - Between Two Worlds

Between Two Worlds: The Double Consciousness of Women in The Gambia

by Haddy Jatou Gassama

The Mandinka tribe of The Gambia has a custom of measuring the first wrapa used to carry a newborn baby on its mother's back. (...)

Read

artwork: “Sacred Puta” by Pia Love >

Snippet - WCFM Content Body - EN

Feminist and gender justice movements continue to be chronically underfunded in the face of global funding cuts and freezes, and rising fascisms. Growing resource scarcity has impacted the most vulnerable communities, particularly in Global South regions with progressively closing civic spaces. 

 

In response to these challenges, we collaborated with Impactmapper to co-create a comprehensive resource that combines two powerful tools to strengthen the funding ecosystem for social justice movements.