Women's Human Rights News

Financial Sustainability for Women's Movements Worldwide

The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) has published their 2007 Second Fundher Report, Financial Sustainability for Women's Movements Worldwide, and it is now available online for download. Building on the achievements/impact of their first Fundher Report, "Where is the Money for Women's Rights?," this Report probes deeper into fundamental questions related to resource mobilization and movement-building. How are women's organizations and movements growing worldwide? Why do we need strong women's movements and organizations? Where is the money for women's rights? How should we mobilize new resources to build stronger feminist movements in order to advance women's rights worldwide?

 

Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The UN General Assembly adopted a landmark declaration outlining the rights of the world ’s estimated 370 million indigenous people and outlawing discrimination against them – a move that followed more than two decades of debate (Sept. 13, 2007). For more information please visit the UN News Center article and a link to the text of the Declaration.

The International Indigenous Women's Forum states that "the adoption of the Declaration will allow Indigenous women and their families to infuse local human rights struggles with the power of international law and hold their governments accountable to international human rights standards."

 

Maze of Injustice

According to Amnesty International's report, "Maze of Injustice – The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA," Native American and Alaska Native women in the United States suffer disproportionately high levels of rape and sexual violence, yet the federal government has created substantial barriers to accessing justice. In fact, the federal government's jurisdictional maze and chronic under-funding of law enforcement and Indian Health Services mean justice denied for Native women. For more information about Amnesty International's campaign to stop violence against Native American and Alaska Native women, please visit their campaign website.

 

 

 

Where is the Money for Women's Rights?

The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) released a report, "Where is the Money for Women's Rights? Assessing the resources and the role of donors in the promotion of women's rights and the support of women's rights organizations."

The report sums up the results of an action research project of AWID with Just Associates.

"There is an emerging global movement but it has a long way to go: people still tend to see 'women's rights' as peripheral to mainstream human rights, and funders of women's organizations are few and far between"

- Kavita Ramdas, Global Fund for Women, Alliance Magazine, Vol. 9, No. 3, Sept. 2004.

 

 

Shadow Report on Human Rights Violations in the U.S.

Under the main international human rights treaties that the U.S. has ratified, the government is obligated to report periodically to the UN's Human Rights Committee on its compliance with the treaties. The U.S. submitted a report on October 21, 2005 which was reviewed during the Human Rights Committee's July 2006 session. As part of the process, the UN allows NGOs to submit shadow reports to the Committee, to challenge the U.S. official report. In May, a coalition of 142 US-based non-profits and organizations and 32 individuals submitted a shadow report that is the most comprehensive review of human rights violations in the United States ever compiled. The shadow report in full (465 pages) can be found on the website of the U.S. Human Rights Network.

You can also download the section of the report on women's human rights, the "Report on Women's Human Rights in the United States Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (in response to the Second and Third Periodic Reports of the United States of America), United Nations Human Rights Committee, Eighty-seventh Session, July 2006, Geneva."

"Small silos of activity don't make a social movement; they don't enable enough bodies, and more importantly, a broad-enough shared vision, to make claims for social justice that have to be heard by those with power."

- Barbara Klugman, Ford Foundation Program Officer

 

Conferences

AWID convened an International Meeting on "Money and Movements" November 9-11, 2006 in Queretaro, Mexico to discuss ongoing concerns that their report "Where is the Money for Women's Rights?" has brought up. See AWID's website for more information about the conference and AWID's ongoing work in this area.