Sally Gross
Advancing Universal Rights and Justice
Uprooting Fascisms and Fundamentalisms
Across the globe, feminist, women’s rights and gender justice defenders are challenging the agendas of fascist and fundamentalist actors. These oppressive forces target women, persons who are non-conforming in their gender identity, expression and/or sexual orientation, and other oppressed communities.
Discriminatory ideologies are undermining and co-opting our human rights systems and standards, with the aim of making rights the preserve of only certain groups. In the face of this, the Advancing Universal Rights and Justice (AURJ) initiative promotes the universality of rights - the foundational principle that human rights belong to everyone, no matter who they are, without exception.
We create space for feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements and allies to recognize, strategize and take collective action to counter the influence and impact of anti-rights actors. We also seek to advance women’s rights and feminist frameworks, norms and proposals, and to protect and promote the universality of rights.
Our actions
Through this initiative, we:
- Build knowledge: We support feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements by disseminating and popularizing knowledge and key messages about anti-rights actors, their strategies, and impact in the international human rights systems through AWID’s leadership role in the collaborative platform, the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs)*.
- Advance feminist agendas: We ally ourselves with partners in international human rights spaces including, the Human Rights Council, the Commission on Population and Development, the Commission on the Status of Women and the UN General Assembly.
- Create and amplify alternatives: We engage with our members to ensure that international commitments, resolutions and norms reflect and are fed back into organizing in other spaces locally, nationally and regionally.
- Mobilize solidarity action: We take action alongside women human rights defenders (WHRDs) including trans and intersex defenders and young feminists, working to challenge fundamentalisms and fascisms and call attention to situations of risk.
Related Content
Chinelo Onwualu Snippet | AR
تشينيلو أونوالو، مستشارة في الشؤون التحرِيرية، مع 10 سنوات من الخبرة في صياغة الاتصالات الاستراتيجية للمنظمات غير الربحية في جميع أنحاء العالم. من بين عملائها منظمة ActionAid Nigeria و BBC World Trust و Open Society Initiative for West Africa و AWID. حائزة على درجة الماجستير في الصحافة من جامعة سيراكيوز. عملت كاتبة ومحررة وباحثة في نيجيريا وكندا والولايات المتحدة. وهي أيضًا محررة في مجلة Anathema والمؤسس المشارك في Omenana، وهي مجلة من قصص الخيال الأفريقي. ظهرت قصصها القصيرة في العديد من المختارات الحائزة على جوائز، ورُشّحت لجوائز الخيال العلمي البريطانية، وجوائز نومو للخيال الأفريقي المضارب، وجائزة يوم القصة الافريقية القصيرة. تشينيلو من نيجيريا لكنها تعيش في تورنتو مع شريكها وطفلها.
Snippet - Title WCFM Landing - EN
Who Can Fund Me?
Reclaim Power to #FreezeFascisms: Resources for Feminists to Survive & Thrive
Feminist and gender justice movements continue to be chronically underfunded in the face of global funding cuts and freezes. Particularly in Global South regions with shrinking civic spaces, resource scarcity has impacted the most vulnerable communities.
In the face of these setbacks, AWID has updated the Who Can Fund Me? Database - an easy-to-use, practical tool for movements looking for funders from philanthropic foundations, multilateral funders to women’s and feminist funds to support vital lifesaving efforts.
Curatorial Note by Rula Khoury
Feminist Art Walk
Curatorial Note by Rula Khoury
As part of our commitment to engage more deeply with artists and the practice of co-creating Feminist Realities, AWID collaborated with an Artist Working Group to advance and strengthen feminist agendas and realities in their communities and movements through their creative expression. Our intention here is to bring feminist creatives together in a powerful and brave space where they grow and live freely, and where they shatter toxic narratives to replace them with transformative alternatives.
This exhibition gathers the work of artists and collectives from across the globe, those who are actively creating the difference that we want to see in the world. These feminist creatives include Upasana Agarwal, Nicole Barakat, Siphumeze Khundayi, Katia Herrera, Ali Chavez Leeds, Colectivo Morivivi, Ika Vantiani, and the curators behind the #MeToo in China exhibition. Their voices stand strong in their refusal to accept the limitations imposed by patriarchy, and amplify their commitments to the communities they are working in and with. In their own way, each artwork represents daily acts of resistance, untold stories and identities, connections to land and ancestry, and most importantly, the solidarity that exists within and amongst feminist movements and struggles. These artists are both inspired by and inspire creative strategies of feminist resistance and initiatives that show us how we can all live in a more just world - a world that centers care and healing.
Snippet - WCFM getting the money we need - En
Getting the Money We Need | A 101 Guide on Fundraising for Small Grassroots Organizations
From building prospect funders lists with *templates*, to understand how to write a solid grant proposal, with ‘Getting the Money we Need’ Guide really we don't have to figure this out alone anymore
Read and download the guide hereText-only version
- Version française version intégrale | version texte seulement
- Versión en español versión completa | versión solo texto
Snippet From the Heart of the Commune_Fest (EN)
WITM - Refreshed INFOGRAPHIC 1 EN
Ever wondered what budgets for feminist organizations look like?
In 2023, feminist and women's rights organizations had a median annual budget of USD 22,000. Behind that median lies disparity and inequality: while a few groups access large-scale resources, the vast majority survive on shoestring budgets.
A closer look at actual budgets reveals major income diversity and inequality.
Snippet - COP30 - Resistance Hubs Section Column 2 - EN
The following partners are organizing COP30 hubs:
- Caribbean Feminist Climate Justice Movement, Barbados
- Gender Interactive Alliance (GIA), Pakistan
- Women’s Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE), Nigeria
- Réseau des Acteurs du Développement Durable (RADD)*, Cameroon
- MASIPAG, The Phillippines
*Website in French
COP30: Homepage Banner
COP30: Reclaim climate action from corporate capture
As world leaders gather in Brazil, feminist movements are advocating, gathering and disrupting the status quo- at COP30 and beyond! We're heading alongside other feminists to Belém, Brazil for COP30, from 10 November – 21 November 2025, where we will continue to denounce false solutions.
Annual Report 2011
In order to achieve our mission, AWID works through multi-year interconnected programs which encompass a variety of strategies including knowledge production and dissemination, action-research, advocacy, alliance building, and convening strategic dialogues.
Our 2011 Annual Report provides key highlights of our work during the year to contribute to the advancement of women’s rights and gender equality worldwide.
Snippet - WD2026 - Reception _EN
AWID Reception: A Night of Feminist Community
📅 Tuesday, April 28
🕒 6.30pm–9.30pm
🏢 Venue: River’s Edge, 18-31 Siddeley St
(a 5 minute walk across the river from the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre)
Thank you for your enthusiasm. We're currently at capacity, but have opened a waiting list.
RSVP Required. Sign up for the waiting list!
2023: Fierce Feminisms: Together We Rise
For us at AWID, 2023 was the first year of our new Strategic Plan, “Fierce Feminisms: Together We Rise”, which speaks to the unapologetic drive needed to change the world, and the plurality of feminisms and movements in our ecosystem.
In the course of 2023, the volatile situation in Sudan has escalated greatly. The unspeakable genocide in Gaza, in the context of ongoing colonization and occupation of Palestine, continues as we write these lines. Climate crises, militarization, and extractivism all persist as threats to people and the planet. Building stronger movements and people power is a vision to which we contribute daily, through AWID membership, teach-ins, resourcing advocacy and more.
Download the full 2023 Annual Report
From centering climate in feminist economies to advocating for resourcing feminist movements - an urgent task, given the chronic underfunding of feminist, indigenous and Global South movements who are on the frontlines of climate crisis - we are finding solutions.
Claudia Montserrat Arévalo Alvarado
Biography
Claudia is a feminist psychologist with a Masters degree in Development Equality and Equity. She has been a human rights activist for 30 years, and a women’s rights activist for the last 24.
Claudia works in El Salvador as the co-founder and Executive Director of Asociación Mujeres Transformando. For the past 16 years she has defended labour rights of women working within the textile and garment maquila sector. This includes collaborations to draft legislative bills, public policy proposals and research that aim to improve labour conditions for women workers in this sector. She has worked tirelessly to support organizational strengthening and empowerment of women workers in the textile maquilas and those doing embroidery piece-work from home.
She is an active participant in advocacy efforts at the national, regional and international levels to defend and claim labour rights for the working class in the global South from a feminist, anti-capitalist and anti-patriarchy perspective and class and gender awareness raising. She is a board member with the Spotlight Initiative and its national reference group. She is also part of UN Women’s Civic Society Advisory Group.
Position
Co-President
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Clotil Walcott
Jemimah Naburri-Kaheru
Biography
Jemimah Naburri-Kaheru is an accomplished international HR strategist with a profound impact within the Horn of Africa Region. Jemimah previously served as the Regional Human Resource and Office Manager at the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA). Her influence extends to HR leadership for over 70 regional staff, as the organization experienced rapid growth with a 40% increase in annual revenues. Throughout her career, Jemimah has orchestrated successful recruitment efforts, introduced merit-based performance systems, and overseen employee relations and HR policies.. She played a pivotal role in supporting global workforce strategies. With an academic background in Development Studies from Makerere University (Uganda) and an ongoing MBA in Human Resource Management, Jemimah's commitment to professional development is evident. Her contribution to high-performance workforces and international HR leadership positions her as an invaluable asset to any global enterprise.
Position
Deputy Director of Human Resources
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Nahia Sediqi
What does AWID do?
Beauty Mugijima
2002: Discussions on the Financing for Development agenda begin
The Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development marked the beginning of discussions on the Financing for Development agenda.
- The Monterrey Consensus was adopted at this first international conference on Financing for Development. It was the first United Nations hosted summit-level meeting to address key financial and related issues on global development.
- The Conference and its preparatory process saw unprecedented cooperation between the United Nations and the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) as part of efforts to promote greater coherence and consistency among the international monetary, trade and financial systems and institutions.
- Monterrey also marked the first time that financing for development debates took place between governments, representatives of civil society and the business sector. These actors moved the discussion beyond a ‘technical’ focus, to look at how to mobilize and channel financial resources to fulfill the internationally agreed development goals of previous UN conferences and summits of the 1990s, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
- The Women’s Caucus noted the historical significance of the conference stating that it had the potential to address structural challenges that continue to hamper development but also raised concern over the effects of increased militarisation and fundamentalism on women, despite the fact that the Monterrey Consensus assumed that the global economic and financial system worked for all.
- Learn more about the six Monterrey themes and the conference follow up mechanisms: Gender Issues and Concerns in Financing for Development by Maria Floro, Nilufer Çagatay, John Willoughby and Korkut Ertürk (INSTRAW, 2004)
Renata Espinoza Reyes
