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 (www.amnesty-usa.org/women)
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 US 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 Canadian Feminist Alliance for International
Action (www.fafia.org)
(FAFIA) 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 Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (www.interlog.com/~vow)
(VOW) focusses on peace, social justice, human rights and
development and targets the United Nations and the Federal
Government of Canada. An accredited non-governmental organization
to the United Nations, affiliated to the Department of Public
Information (DPI) and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC),
VOW was the Canadian lead group for peace at the Fourth World
Conference on Women in Beijing (1995). On this site,you will
find many links to United Nations documents on the status
of women in the world especially relating to war.
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
(www.idea.int/gender/index.htm)
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
(www.yorku.ca/iwrp)
at York University, 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.
The Sisterhood Is Global Institute (www.sigi.org)
(SIGI) is an international non-governmental, non-profit organization
dedicated to the support and promotion of women's rights at
the local, national, regional, and global levels. SIGI works
toward empowering women and developing leadership through
human rights education. On their site you will find evidence
of their membership in 70 countries, publications, newsletters
and other resources.
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.
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.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women
(www.unifem.undp.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.
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