Vivian Stromberg
Young Feminist Activism
Organizing creatively, facing an increasing threat
Young feminist activists play a critical role in women’s rights organizations and movements worldwide by bringing up new issues that feminists face today. Their strength, creativity and adaptability are vital to the sustainability of feminist organizing.
At the same time, they face specific impediments to their activism such as limited access to funding and support, lack of capacity-building opportunities, and a significant increase of attacks on young women human rights defenders. This creates a lack of visibility that makes more difficult their inclusion and effective participation within women’s rights movements.
A multigenerational approach
AWID’s young feminist activism program was created to make sure the voices of young women are heard and reflected in feminist discourse. We want to ensure that young feminists have better access to funding, capacity-building opportunities and international processes. In addition to supporting young feminists directly, we are also working with women’s rights activists of all ages on practical models and strategies for effective multigenerational organizing.
Our Actions
We want young feminist activists to play a role in decision-making affecting their rights by:
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Fostering community and sharing information through the Young Feminist Wire. Recognizing the importance of online media for the work of young feminists, our team launched the Young Feminist Wire in May 2010 to share information, build capacity through online webinars and e-discussions, and encourage community building.
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Researching and building knowledge on young feminist activism, to increase the visibility and impact of young feminist activism within and across women’s rights movements and other key actors such as donors.
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Promoting more effective multigenerational organizing, exploring better ways to work together.
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Supporting young feminists to engage in global development processes such as those within the United Nations
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Collaboration across all of AWID’s priority areas, including the Forum, to ensure young feminists’ key contributions, perspectives, needs and activism are reflected in debates, policies and programs affecting them.
Related Content
Challenging the economic growth model
Context
Contesting the premise that a country’s economy must always ‘grow or die’, de-growth propositions come to debunk the centrality of growth measured by increase in Gross domestic product (GDP).
Definition
A de-growth model proposes a shift towards a lower and sustainable level of production and consumption. In essence, shrinking the economic system to leave more space for human cooperation and ecosystems.
The proposal includes
- Downsizing resource-, energy- and emission-intensive superfluous production, particularly in the North (e.g. the automotive and military industries)
- Directing investments instead into the care sector, social infrastructure and environmental restoration
Feminist perspective
Feminist perspectives within de-growth theory and practice argue that it also needs to redefine and revalidate unpaid and paid, care and market labour to overcome traditional gender stereotypes as well as the prevailing wage gaps and income inequalities that devalue care work.
Learn more about this proposition
- In “The Future WE Want: Occupy development” Christa Wichterich argues that in order to break up the hegemonic logic of unfettered growth and quick returns on investment, three cornerstones of another development paradigm must combine: care, commons and sufficiency in production and consumption.
- Equitable, Ecological Degrowth: Feminist Contributions by Patricia Perkins suggests developing effective alternative indicators of well-being, including social and economic equity and work-time data, to demonstrate the importance of unpaid work and services for the economy and provide a mechanism for giving credit to those responsible.
Part of our series of
Feminist Propositions for a Just Economy
Snippet FEA how important essential workers are (EN)
The COVID-19 pandemic showed the world how important essential workers are. We’re talking about cleaners, nurses, paramedics, domestic workers, transport workers, grocery shop workers, among others. Their work is to tend to and guarantee the wellbeing of others, and they make our economies function.
But while they take care of us…
Snippet - WITM RESOURCES - AR
المصادر
(متوفرة باللغة الإنجليزية)
Gloria Chicaiza
Gloria Chicaiza, an Ecuadorian social and environmental activist, was a fervent defender of land and water. She defied the status quo, fighting against a model of development based on extraction and worked tirelessly for ecological justice and the rights of communities affected by mining.
In diverse areas of Ecuador, Gloria was part of resistance actions in favour of protecting the ecosystem. With passion and dedication, Gloria supported the indigenous and environmental movement, its communities and organizations who oppose mining projects and protect their territories and collective life projects. She spoke out, in local and international foras, against the criminalization of dissent and resistance, the pressure and violence being enacted against community activists, in particular, women human rights defenders and in support of community led efforts for food sovereignty and sustainability.
She was the Mining Justice Coordinator at Acción Ecológica, member of the Latin American Network of Women Defenders of the Social and Environmental Rights and a Board member at the Observatory of Mining Conflicts of Latin America.
In October 2010, Gloria was accused by the mining company Curimining / Salazar Resources S.A. (with Headquarters in Vancouver, Canada) of sponsoring an act of terrorism, sabotage and illegal association to commit a crime. Acción Ecológica believed this to be “in retaliation for her work of denouncing the impacts of mining activities in the country.”
In 2014, Gloria supported the coordination of a delegation to the UN COP 20 Dialogue on Climate Change. The group consisted of 25 Indigenous women from Latin America.
Gloria passed away due to complications from a lung transplant on December 28, 2019. She is remembered for her resistance and tireless work.
"The fastest way to achieve sustainability is still resistance." - Gloria Chicaiza (2010 interview)
Tributes:
“Para GLORIA. GLORIA Agua. GLORIA Tierra. GLORIA Madre. GLORIA Revolución. GLORIA Hermana. GLORIA Cielo. GLORIAmiga. GLORIAstral. Thank you for weaving us together.” -Liliana Gutierrez
“Thank you Glorita, for sustaining hope, for keeping the fabric strong, for connecting the community, for the united hands, for solidarity, thank you Glorita for standing with us in the most difficult moments. Thank you for teaching us that throughout life, nobody gets tired.” (Chakana News)
“Gloria Chicaiza cherished and flourished in being one of many. And as humble as she was, she had an uncanny ability to lead and maintain a steady and thunderous beat, a life-affirming pulse that guided, mobilized, and inspired communities and networks in the protection of Mother Earth. She denounced all forms of violence against cuerpos-territorios. She endorsed el buen vivir.” - Gabriela Jiménez, Latin America Partnerships Coordinator, KAIROS
“Thank you Gloria Chicaiza from infinity we are sure that you will continue to support our struggle. You who continued to struggle with us despite your failing health. You will live on in the forests and the water that you defended with such courage. You will live on in our hearts.”- The community of Intag in Ecuador
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Key opposition discourses
Ultra conservative actors have developed a number of discourses at the international human rights level that call on arguments manipulating religion, culture, tradition, and national sovereignty in order to undermine rights related to gender and sexuality.
Anti-rights actors have increasingly moved away from explicitly religious language. Increasingly, we see regressive actors - who may previously have derided human rights concepts - instead manipulating and co-opting these very concepts to further their objectives.
Protection of the family
This emerging and successful discourse appears innocuous, but it functions as a useful umbrella theme to house multiple patriarchal and anti-rights positions. The ‘protection of the family’ theme is thus a key example of regressive actors’ move towards holistic and integrated advocacy.
The language of ‘protection of the family’ works to shift the subject of human rights from the individual and onto already powerful institutions.
It also affirms a unitary, hierarchical, and patriarchal conception of the family that discriminates against family forms outside of these rigid boundaries. It also attempts to change the focus from recognition and protection of the rights of vulnerable family members to non-discrimination, autonomy, and freedom from violence in the context of family relations.
The Right to Life
The Holy See and a number of Christian Right groups seek to appropriate the right to life in service of an anti-abortion mission. Infusing human rights language with conservative religious doctrine, they argue that the right to life, as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, applies at the moment of conception.
The discourse has no support in any universal human rights instrument. Yet this is an appealing tactic for anti-rights actors, because the right to life cannot be violated under any circumstances and is a binding legal standard.
Sexual rights
Anti-rights actors use a number of rhetorical devices in their campaign to undermine sexual rights: they argue that sexual rights do not exist or are ‘new rights,’ that they cause harm to children and society, and/or that these rights stand in opposition to culture, tradition or national laws.
Conservative actors engaged in advocacy at the UN attack the right to comprehensive sexuality education from several directions. They claim that CSE violates ‘parental rights’, harms children, and that it is not education but ideological indoctrination. They also claim that comprehensive sexuality education is pushed on children, parents, and the United Nations by powerful lobbyists seeking to profit from services they provide to children and youth.
Attempts to invalidate rights related to sexual orientation and gender identity have proliferated. Ultra conservative actors argue that application of long-standing human rights principles and law on this issue constitutes the creation of ‘new rights’; and that the meaning of rights should vary radically because they should be interpreted through the lens of ‘culture’ or ‘national particularities.’
Reproductive Rights
Christian Right organizations have been mobilizing against reproductive rights alongside the Holy See and other anti-rights allies for several years. They often argue that reproductive rights are at heart a form of Western-imposed population control over countries in the global South. Ironically, this claim often originates from U.S. and Western Europe-affiliated actors, many of whom actively work to export their fundamentalist discourses and policies.
Regressive actors also cite to ‘scientific’ arguments from ultra-conservative think tanks, and from sources that rely on unsound research methodologies, to suggest that abortion causes an array of psychological, sexual, physical, and relational side effects.
Protection of children and parental rights
Just as anti-rights actors aim to construct a new category of ‘protection of the family,’ they are attempting to construct a new category of ‘parental rights,’ which has no support in existing human rights standards.
This discourse paradoxically endeavours to use the rights protections with which children are endowed, as articulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to support the rights of parents to control their children and limit their rights.
Violence against women
Increasingly, anti-rights actors are attempting to infiltrate and subvert standards and discourses developed by women human rights defenders, such as violence against women (VAW).
At the Commission on the Status of Women and other spaces, one rhetorical move is to treat VAW as a concept in which to embed anti-reproductive rights and patriarchal arguments. Ultra conservative actors, for example, have argued that non-heteronormative or traditional intimate partner relationships are a risk factor for violence, and emphasize that fathers are necessary to protect families from violence.
Gender and ‘gender ideology’
The Holy See has set off a sustained critique of gender, ‘gender ideology’, ‘gender radicals,’ and gender theory, and anti-rights actors often read the term as code for LGBTQ rights. Gender is used by the religious right as a cross-cutting concept that links together many of their discourses. Increasingly, the hysteria on this subject fixates on gender identity and trans rights.
Complementarity and human dignity
Complementarity of the sexes is a discourse employed by a number of ultra-conservative actors today. Its rhetoric is structured around an assumption of difference: men and women are meant to have differing but complementary roles in marriage and family life, and with respect to their engagement in the community and political and economic life.
Reference to ‘natural’ roles is meant to fundamentally reject universal human rights to equality and non-discrimination.
It is also used to justify State and non-State violations of these rights, and non-compliance with respect to State obligations to eliminate prejudices and practices based on stereotyped roles for men or women.
National sovereignty and anti-imperialism
This discourse suggests that national governments are being unjustly targeted by UN bodies, or by other States acting through the UN. This is an attempt to shift the subject of human rights from the individual or marginalized community suffering a rights violation to a powerful and/or regressive institution - i.e. the state, in order to justify national exceptions from universal rights or to support state impunity.
Religious freedom
Anti-rights actors have taken up the discourse of freedom of religion in order to justify violations of human rights. Yet, ultra-conservative actors refer to religious freedom in a way that directly contradicts the purpose of this human right and fundamentally conflicts with the principle of the universality of rights. The inference is that religious liberty is threatened and undermined by the protection of human rights, particularly those related to gender and sexuality.
The central move is to suggest that the right to freedom of religion is intended to protect a religion rather than those who are free to hold or not hold different religious beliefs.
Yet under international human rights law, the right protects believers rather than beliefs, and the right to freedom of religion, thought and conscience includes the right not to profess any religion or belief or to change one’s religion or belief.
Cultural rights and traditional values
The deployment of references to culture and tradition to undermine human rights, including the right to equality, is a common tactic amongst anti-rights actors. Culture is presented as monolithic, static, and immutable, and it is is often presented in opposition to ‘Western norms.’
Allusions to culture by anti-rights actors in international policy debates aim to undermine the universality of rights, arguing for cultural relativism that trumps or limits rights claims. Regressive actors’ use of cultural rights is founded on a purposeful misrepresentation of the human right. States must ensure that traditional or cultural attitudes are not used to justify violations of equality, and human rights law calls for equal access, participation and contribution in all aspects of cultural life for all, including women, religious, and racial minorities, and those with non-conforming genders and sexualities.
Subverting ‘universal’
Anti-rights actors in international policy spaces increasingly manipulate references to universal or fundamental human rights to reverse the meaning of the universality of rights.
Rather than using the term universal to describe the full set of indivisible and interrelated human rights, ultra conservative actors employ this term to instead delineate and describe a subset of human rights as ‘truly fundamental.’ Other rights would thus be subject to State discretion, ‘new’ rights or optional. This discourse is especially powerful as their category of the truly universal remains unarticulated and hence open to shifting interpretation.
Other Chapters
Snippet FEA collaborator and allies Photo 3 (ES)
Ana Maria Marcela Yarce Viveros
على من يجب تعبئة الاستطلاع؟
المجموعات، المنظمات والحركات التي تعمل خصوصاً وبالأساس على حقوق النساء، حقوق الفتيات، العدالة الجندرية، حقوق مجتمعات الميم - عين وحلفائها/يفاتها في جميع المناطق وعلى جميع المستويات، إن كانت مجموعات جديدة أو قديمة.
Lorena Borjas
Lorena Borjas, una mujer trans latina y activista, vivía y trabajaba en el barrio de Jackson Heights de Queens, en la ciudad de Nueva York. En esas calles, cuidó de su comunidad durante años, defendiendo los derechos de las personas trans e inmigrantes, apoyando a lxs sobrevivientes del tráfico humano y del abuso, y haciendo campaña por los derechos de lxs trabajadorxs sexuales y de las personas que viven con VIH y SIDA.
Lorena era fuerte e incansable en su lucha por apoyar, defender y proteger a quienes son más marginalizadxs y discriminadxs por la transfobia, la misoginia y el racismo.
«Ella nos empujaba a brillar auténticamente, a convertirnos en un grito de subversión que dice “Aquí estoy, y merezco felicidad también”.» - Cecilia Gentili, activista trans amiga de Lorena
Luego de haber enfrentado ella misma numerosos traumas y dificultades como mujer trans inmigrante y víctima de tráfico humano, recabó conocimientos y memoria emocional de la fuente de sus propias experiencias para ayudar a construir y fortalecer la comunidad de la cual era parte, y que era parte de ella. Algunas de las formas en que llevó esto a cabo fue organizando y movilizando apoyo, que abarcaba desde proveer preservativos y conectar a las mujeres trans con distintos servicios sociales, hasta armar una clínica para el testeo de VIH en su propia casa.
«Era un alma tan bella que ayudaba a otrxs, aun cuando su propio camino era difícil y doloroso como inmigrante, como inmigrante trans. Creía que la comunidad trans necesitaba amor, aceptación, y compasión, y lo daba todo.» - Luchia Dragosh, supervisora de producción de QPTV de un documental sobre Lorena
En sus más de 25 años de activismo, también fundó con Chase Strangio (abogadx y activista por los derechos trans) el Lorena Borjas Community Fund. Este fondo ayuda a lxs diferentes integrantes de su comunidad (y en especial a las personas trans) que lidian con problemas de inmigración, para evitar el ciclo de arresto-cárcel-deportación.
Lorena falleció en marzo de 2020 por complicaciones derivadas del COVID-19.
Su enorme y hermoso legado será llevado adelante a través de las calles de Queens por la red y la comunidad que ella ayudó a crear.
« Continuaremos su trabajo desde donde ella lo dejó, un trabajo que es esencial para el bienestar de “mis pájaras”, como llamaba Lorena a las chicas trans de Queens que protegía bajo su ala.» - Cecilia Gentili
Tributos:
«Lorena nos trajo luz, cuando atravesábamos tiempos muy oscuros aquí en Nueva York. Nos trajo luz cuando tuvimos que enfrentar la epidemia del crack, cuando tuvimos que enfrentar la crisis del SIDA, cuando tuvimos que enfrentar los cambios en las políticas de inmigración.» - Cristina Herrera, fundadora y CEO de Translatina Network y amiga de Lorena
«Lorena ha hecho más que nadie que yo conozca para arrojar luz sobre la epidemia del tráfico en las comunidades transgénero y para ayudar a otras mujeres trans a escapar de la explotación.» - Lynly Egyes, representante de Borjas en nombre del Transgender Law Center
Mira un documental sobre Lorena Borjas (solo en inglés)
Lee un artículo publicado en The New Yorker sobre Lorena Borjas (solo en inglés)
Lee una nota de opinión de Cecilia Gentili publicada en The New York Times (solo en inglés)
When development initiatives, religious fundamentalisms and the state of women’s rights collide
Nuestro nuevo documento de investigación El diablo se esconde en los detalles aborda la falta de conocimientos sobre los fundamentalismos religiosos en el sector del desarrollo, y se propone comprender mejor de qué manera estos fundamentalismos inhiben el desarrollo y, en particular, los derechos de las mujeres. Propone recomendaciones para que quienes trabajan en temas de desarrollo desafíen la labor de los fundamentalismos y eviten fortalecerlos inadvertidamente. [CTA download link: Leer el documento completo]
Seven pointers to consider
| Graphic1 | 1. Control of women’s bodies, sexuality, and choice are “warning signs” of rising fundamentalisms. |
| 2. Neoliberal economic policies have a particularly negative impact on women, and fuel the growth of religious fundamentalisms. | Graphic2 |
| Graphic3 | 3. Choosing religious organizations as default for partnerships builds their legitimacy and access to resources, and supports their ideology, including gender ideology. |
| 4.Everyone has multiple identities and should be defined by more than just their religion. Foregrounding religious identities tends to reinforce the power of religious fundamentalists. | Graphic4 |
| Graphic5 | 5. Religion, culture, and tradition are constantly changing, being reinterpreted and challenged. What is dominant is always a question of power. |
| 6. Racism, exclusion, and marginalization all add to the appeal of fundamentalists’ offer of a sense of belonging and a “cause”. | Graphic6 |
| Graphic7 | 7. There is strong evidence that the single most important factor in promoting women’s rights and gender equality is an autonomous women’s movement. |
Auge global de los fundamentalismos religiosos.
El Diablo se esconde en los detalles proporciona detalles de las graves violaciones a los derechos humanos y, en particular, de las violaciones a los derechos de las mujeres, causados por los fundamentalismos auspiciados por los Estados, así como por actores fundamentalistas no estatales como milicias, organizaciones comunitarias confesionales e individuos. La profundización fundamentalista de normas sociales atávicas y patriarcales está provocando el aumento de la violencia contra las mujeres, las niñas y las defensoras de derechos humanos (WHRDs). El informe propuesta estas ideas clave para abordar el problema:
- [icon] Fundamentalismos religiosos están ganando terreno en el seno de las comunidades
- [icon] Sistemas políticos
- [icon] Escenarios internacionales, con efectos devastadores para la gente común y para las mujeres en particular.
Los agentes de desarrollo deben actuar urgentemente.
Quienes trabajan en el desarrollo están de capacidad de asumir una posición más firme. Su capacidad colectiva para reconocer y enfrentar conjuntamente a los fundamentalismos religiosos resulta crucial para promover la justicia social, económica y de género y los derechos humanos de todas las personas en el marco del desarrollo sostenible. Resulta fundamental promover que el poder y los privilegios se entiendan desde la óptica del feminismo interseccional y aplicar esta comprensión a los interrogantes sobre religión y cultura. Las organizaciones de mujeres ya poseen conocimientos y estrategias para oponerse a los fundamentalismos. Quienes trabajan en el desarrollo deberían apoyarse en estos e invertir en coaliciones enfocadas en múltiples temáticas. Lo anterior, les ayudará a alcanzar nuevos horizontes.
Snippet FEA Meet the Solidarity Network (FR)
SYNDICAT RÉSEAU SOLIDARITÉ
Nous vous présentons le syndicat Réseau Solidarité, un syndicat de la santé et des services dirigé majoritairement par des femmes. Émergeant en réponse à la précarité croissante, aux salaires insuffisants et aux environnements de travail hostiles auxquels les travailleur·euses géorgien·es sont confrontés quotidiennement, le Syndicat Réseau Solidarité se bat pour des lieux et des conditions de travail décents.
Son objectif? Créer un mouvement syndical national démocratique. Pour ce faire, il s'est associé à d'autres syndicats locaux et régionaux et a lentement constitué un réseau de syndicats, permettant à de plus en plus de travailleuses de devenir dirigeantes syndicales en cours de route.
Son approche politique est holistique. Pour le syndicat Réseau Solidarité, les questions relatives aux droits du travail sont directement liées aux programmes et réformes politiques et économiques nationaux plus larges. C'est pourquoi iels font pression pour la justice fiscale, les droits des femmes et des personnes LGBTQIA+, et luttent contre le démantèlement de l'État-providence géorgien.
Le syndicat Réseau Solidarité fait également partie de Grève Sociale Transnationale (Transnational Social Strike, TSS), une plate-forme et infrastructure politique inspirée par l'organisation des migrant·e·s, des femmes et des travailleur·euses essentiel·les qui s'efforcent de créer des liens entre les mouvements ouvriers à travers le monde et de fomenter la solidarité globale.
Safia Ahmed-Jan
Что подразумевается под внешним финансированием?
Внешнее финансирование включает гранты и другие формы финансирования от благотворительных фондов, правительств, двусторонних, многосторонних или корпоративных спонсоров и индивидуальных доноров – как внутри вашей страны, так и из-за рубежа. Сюда не входят ресурсы, которые группы, организации и/или движения генерируют самостоятельно, такие как, например, членские взносы, добровольные взносы "сотрудниц(-ков), участниц(-ков) и/или сторонниц(-ков), сборы через сообщество, сдача помещений в аренду или продажа услуг. Для удобства в опрос включены определения различных видов финансирования и краткие описания различных доноров.
Cristina Bautista
« Si nous nous taisons, ils nous tuent, et si nous parlons [ils nous tuent] aussi. Alors parlons. » - Cristina Bautista, 2019
Cristina Bautista était membre de la communauté autochtone du peuple Nasa, qui vit dans la région nord du Cauca en Colombie. Elle participait à la résistance en tant que leader, défenseuse des droits fonciers, travailleuse sociale et gouverneure de la réserve autochtone Nasa de Tacueyó.
Défenseuse infatigable des droits du peuple Nasa, Cristina s’est exprimée haut et fort contre la violence à l’égard de sa communauté. Dans un discours devant les Nations Unies, elle appelait à protéger les vies des femmes autochtones et à les impliquer dans différents domaines de la vie. En 2017, Cristina était membre du Bureau des Nations Unies pour les droits humains des personnes autochtones. Le Fonds de contributions volontaires des Nations Unies pour les populations autochtones lui a octroyé une subvention en 2019.
« J’aimerais mettre en lumière la situation actuelle du peuple autochtone en Colombie, le meurtre de leaders autochtones, la répression de la contestation sociale. Au lieu d’aider, l’accord de paix a renforcé la guerre et l’exploitation de territoires sacrés en Colombie… Actuellement, nous travaillons en tant que femmes, dans presque toutes les nations autochtones, à un avenir meilleur pour nos familles. Je ne veux pas voir plus de femmes vivre dans ces conditions en milieu rural. Il nous faut des opportunités qui permettent aux femmes autochtones de participer à la vie politique, à l’économie, à la société et à la culture. J’acquiers une réelle force aujourd’hui, en voyant toutes ces femmes ici, et en voyant que je ne suis pas seule. » - Cristina Bautista, 2019
Cristina a été assassinée le 29 octobre 2019, ainsi que quatre autres membres de la garde autochtone désarmée, dans une attaque potentiellement menée par des membres de « Dagoberto Ramos », un groupe dissident FARC.
D’après Global Witness, « le nombre d’assassinats de leaders communautaires et sociaux·les a terriblement augmenté en Colombie au cours de ces dernières années ».
« La communauté nasa a prévenu à maintes reprises les autorités au sujet des menaces qui pèsent sur leur sécurité. Malgré les efforts déployés par les gouvernements colombiens successifs, les peuples autochtones continuent de faire face à d'importants risques, surtout les dirigeants communautaires ou religieux comme Cristina Bautista.» - Point presse des Nations Unies, 1er novembre 2019
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