Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) are women who defend

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

, and defenders of all genders who defend the rights of women and rights related to gender and sexuality. Their work and the challenges they face have been recognized by a United Nations (UN) resolution in 2013, which calls for specific protection for women human rights defenders. Women_Human_Rights_Defenders_International_Coalition_Logo

A woman human rights defender can be an Indigenous woman fighting for the rights of her community, a woman advocating against torture, an

LGBTQI ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

rights campaigner, a

sex workers A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker" According to one view, sex work is d ...

’ rights collective, or a man fighting for sexual and

reproductive rights Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows: Reproductive rights rest o ...

. Like other

human rights defenders A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing cam ...

, women human rights defenders can be the target of attacks as they demand the realization of human rights. They face attacks such as discrimination, assault, threats, and violence within their communities. Women human rights defenders face additional obstacles based on who they are and the specific rights they defend. This means they are targeted just because they are women, LGBTI people or for identifying with their struggles. They also face additional obstacles connected with Institutional discrimination and inequality and because they challenge, or are seen to be challenging, patriarchal power and

social norms Social norms are shared standards of acceptable behavior by groups. Social norms can both be informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society, as well as be codified into rules and laws. Social normative influences or soci ...

. They are more at risk of facing gender based violence in the home and the community, and sexist, misogynistic,

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...

, trans-phobic threats, smears and stigmatization, as well as exclusion from resources and power. International Women Human Rights Defenders Day has been celebrated each 29 November since 2006.

Examples of contemporary WHRDs

* Morena Herrera (El Salvador) *

Estela de Carlotto Enriqueta Estela Barnes de Carlotto (born 22 October 1930) is an Argentine human rights activist and president of the association of Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. One of her daughters, Laura Estela Carlotto, was kidnapped and missing whil ...

(Argentina) * Aura Lolita Chavez Ixcaquic (Guatemala) * Maxima Acuna (Peru) * Sheyene Gerardi (Venezuela) * Sonia Pierre (Haiti) * Su Changlan (China) * Leila de Lima (Philippines) * Angkhana Neelapaijit (Thailand) * Hina Jilani (Pakistan) * Azza Soliman (Egypt) *

Narges Mohammadi Narges Mohammadi (; born 21 April 1972) is an Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. In May 2016, she was sentenced in Tehran to 16 ...

(Iran) * Loujain Al-Hathlou (Saudi Arabia) * Katana Gégé Bukuru (DR Congo) * Salimata Lam (Mauritania) * Delphine Djiraibe (Chad) *

Lydia Foy Lydia Annice Foy is an Irish trans woman notable for leading legal challenges regarding gender recognition in Ireland. In 1992 Foy had sex reassignment surgery, and began a 20-year battle to have her birth certificate reflect her gender identi ...

(Ireland) *

Marjan Sax Marjan Sax (born 26 December 1947) is a Dutch feminist lesbian activist, member of Dolle Mina and co-founder of a number of feminist organisations, ethical bank Mama Cash among them. Sax is also an advisor for charity organisations. Life Sa ...

(Netherlands) * {{ill, Anina Ciuciu, fr, Anina_Ciuciu (France/Romania) * Anna Mokrousova (Ukraine) * Chonthicha Jaengraew (Thailand) * Hortense Louge (Burkina Faso) *

Caoimhe Butterly Caoimhe Butterly (born 1978) is an Irish human rights campaigner, educator, film-maker and therapist who has spent over twenty years working in humanitarian and social justice contexts in Haiti, Guatemala, Mexico, Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and w ...

(Ireland) * Geraldine Chacón (Venezuela) * Marfa Rabkova (Belarus) These are some of the WHRDs killed in recent years, because of their human rights activism *

Berta Cáceres Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores (; 4 March 1971 – 2 March 2016) was a Honduran (Lenca) environmental activist, indigenous leader, and co-founder and coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). She won ...

(Honduras) *

Marielle Franco Marielle Franco (; born Marielle Francisco da Silva, 27 July 1979 – 14 March 2018) was a Brazilian politician, sociologist, feminist, socialist and human rights activist. After earning a master's degree in public administration from the F ...

(Brazil) * Miroslava Breach (Mexico) * Dr George Tiller (USA) *

Gauri Lankesh Gauri Lankesh (29 January 1962 – 5 September 2017) was an Indian activist and former journalist from Bangalore, Karnataka. She worked as an editor in '' Lankesh Patrike'', a Kannada weekly started by her father P. Lankesh, and ran her own we ...

(India) * Xulhaz Mannan (Bangladesh) * Noxolo Nogwaza (South Africa) * David Kato (Uganda) * Natalia Estemirova (Russia) *

Hande Kader Hande Kader (1993 – August 2016) was a politically active Turkish transgender woman. Kader was familiar to millions of Turks as a figurehead for the LGBT community after being photographed at the forefront of the resistance against police forc ...

(Turkey) * Salwa Bugaighis (Libya) * Almaas Elman (Somalia/Canada) See also List of women killed fighting for human rights.

References

External links

Women human rights defenders
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition
(WHRD-IC)
#Defendher campaign

Free Viasna
Marfa Rabkova