INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZING

This section contains links to international bodies like the United Nations (UN) as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that focus on lobbying in the international arena. This information is presented alphabetical order.

Amnesty International (http://www.amnesty.ca/campaigns/svaw_overview.php) is a worldwide movement of people who work through international action to prevent some of the most serious human rights violations by governments and other political groups. This link takes you to the women's page of the Canadian chapter. It contains links to human rights documents, news, and stories about women who have been assisted by Amnesty International. The main page (www.amnesty.org) lists current campaigns and other chapters around the world.

The Association for Women's Rights in Development (www.awid.org) (AWID) is an international membership organization connecting, informing and mobilizing people and organizations committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development and women's human rights. AWID's goal is to cause policy, institutional and individual change that will improve the lives of women and girls everywhere. We do this by facilitating ongoing debates on fundamental and provocative issues as well as by building the individual and organizational capacities of those working for women's empowerment and social justice. Their four areas of interest are feminist organizational development; gender equality and new technologies; women's rights and economic change, and young women and leadership. On this site you will find links, publications, and job opportunities in these areas.

The Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (http://www.fafia-afai.org/) is an alliance of over 40 Canadian women's equality-seeking non-governmental organizations which formed in 1999 . FAFIA seeks to develop the capacity of Canadian equality seeking women and women's groups to participate in current and future domestic policy debates especially on globalization trends and the liberalization of trade. On this site, you will find calls to action, research resources and information on the advances made five years after the UN Conference on Women in Beijing (1995).

The Center for Women's Global Leadership (www.cwgl.rutgers.edu) promotes the leadership of women and advances feminist perspectives in policy-making processes in local, national and international arenas. The Center fosters women's leadership through women's global leadership institutes, strategic planning activities, international mobilization campaigns, UN monitoring, global education endeavors, publications, and a resource center. It works from a human rights perspective with an emphasis on violence against women, sexual and reproductive health and socio-economic well-being. On this site, you will find suggestions about how to become involved in the women's human rights movement, news about the center, and research articles on human rights.

Human Rights Watch – Women’s Program
(hrw.org/women) is the women's rights page of Human Rights Watch, an organization that stands with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, nongovernmental organization, supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. It accepts no government funds, directly or indirectly. On their site, you will find extensive news coverage of human rights violations worldwide, information on how to act and very graphic photo essays of human rights abuses.  

The Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
( http://www.idea.int/gender/) exists to improve and enhance women's effectiveness in political positions and to strengthen their impact in decision-making forums. On this site you will find news, links, resources and many statistics related to women's participation in democratic elections.

The International Women’s Rights Project
(http://www.iwrp.org/ ),Canada is a research resource for many areas of human rights including information on women's human rights in Afghanistan and on the issue of trafficking in women.

Madre ( www.madre.org) is a US-based women’s human rights organization that works in partnership with women’s community-based groups in conflict areas worldwide to address issues of health, education, economic development and human rights. Madre provides resources and training to enable other women’s organizations to meet immediate needs in their communities and develop long-term solutions to the crises they face. Since 1983, Madre has delivered over 18 million dollars worth of support to community-based women’s groups in Central America , the Caribbean , the Middle East , Africa , the Balkans and the United States . Most importantly, Madre educates and mobilizes its 23,000 members in the US to demand alternatives to destructive US policies. On this site, you will find information about women’s human rights worldwide.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (www.oecd.org) (OECD) is a group of 29 member countries whose governments discuss and develop economic, environmental, political, and social policy. They compare experiences, seek answers to common problems and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies attendant to the process of globalization. They are both a research and a political body. The site contains access to OECD publications in downloadable PDF format.

whrNET (www.whrnet.org) is a collaborative Information & Communication Technology (ICT) project developed by an International Coalition of Women’s Human Rights Organizations. whrNET aims to strengthen advocacy for women's human rights through the effective utilization of information and communication technologies. whrNET provides information, on-line discussion and networking space, and resources for capacity-building among women’s human rights organizations and activists. On this tri-lingual site you will find talk forums, action alerts and research resources.

WomenAction (www.womenaction.org) is a networking forum to help over 30 organizations which participated in the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995) pressure governments to implement decisions made in Beijing concerning women’s human rights. Links to almost all of the member organizations can be found on this site which provides an excellent collection of documents from the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.

Women In Developement Europe
(http://www.wide-network.org/) WIDE is a European network of development non-governmental organizations, gender specialists and human rights activists. WIDE monitors and influences international economic and development policy and practice from a feminist perspective. WIDE's work is grounded on women's rights as the basis for the development of a more just and democratic world order. WIDE strives for a world based on gender equality a nd social justice that ensures equal rights for all, as well as equal access to resources and opportunities in all spheres of political, social and economic life.

WomenWatch
(www.un.org/womenwatch) acts as an entry point to the work of a variety of United Nations (UN) agencies focused on women and gender at the UN. Use this site as the entry point for UNIFEM and many other divisions within the United Nations which provide statistical updates, position papers and other information about the well-being of women around the world.

Gender, Science and Technology Gateway (http://GSTGateway.wigsat.org) GTS Gateway (with sections focussing on different global regions) This Gender, Science and Technology Gateway is presented by the Gender Advisory Board of the UN Commission on S&T for Development (UNCSTD) to help policy makers implement the Gender Working Group recommendations. The recommendations are meant to address some of the gendered inequalities of science and technology for development as it has been practiced to date. The GST Gateway is a resource for researchers, policy makers, and NGOs. It provides key links and information on research,practice, policy and partners in sustainable development which focuses on gender equality. This site has many links to UN documents on women, development and technology. Here you can also find a discussion of the ethics surrounding biotechnology (http://gstgateway.wigsat.org/TA/ethics/biotech.html).

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (http://www.unifem.org/), commonly referred to as UNIFEM, promotes women's empowerment and gender equality. It works to ensure the participation of women in all levels of development planning and practice, and acts as a catalyst within the UN system, supporting efforts that link the needs and concerns of women to all critical issues on the national, regional and global agendas. At this site you can access information about UNIFEM’s history, the projects and organizations it supports. Along with WomenWatch ( www.un.org/womenwatch ), this is the major source for United Nations documents on women and gender.

The Division for the Advancement of Women
(www.un.org/womenwatch/daw ) at the United Nations advocates the improvement of the status of women of the world and the achievement of their equality with men. It aims to ensure the participation of women as equal partners with men in all aspects of human endeavour. It promotes women as equal participants and beneficiaries of sustainable development, peace and security, governance and human rights. It strives to stimulate the mainstreaming of a gender perspective both within and outside the United Nations system. Of particular interest on this site is a table (www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/country/index.html ) that lists the compliance of individual countries with resolutions passed at the 1995 Beijing conference.

Women's Wire (www.womenswire.net) is a news service giving updates on the activities of women activists worldwide. It reports by region on human rights issues of importance to local women. Women's Wire is a recipient of a major grant from the United Nations Children's Fund. Some articles may be outdated.