Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition

The Women Human Rights Defendersⁱ International Coalition is a worldwide resource and advocacyⁱ network for the protection and support of women human rights defenders (WHRD). Created out of the international campaign on WHRD launched in 2005, the coalition asserts that the gender ⁱand the nature of the work of those advocating for women's human rightsⁱ has made them a clear target of attacks, requiring “gender-sensitive mechanisms for their protection and support”, as they stateⁱ.

The coalition, composed by 25 members , is currently working on:

• the production of a documentation manual (as a resource for defenders documenting violations related to WHRD);
• monitoring mechanism for urgent appeals (to track the trends and patterns of the violations and facilitate a systematic, comprehensive system of responding to these appeals that meet the specific needs of WHRD);
• public education and policy advocacy (undertaking advocacy at the UN and at regional levels to support the development of constructive policies and analysis that is sensitive to WHRD’s concerns);
• global report on WHRD (to inform the coalition’s advocacy on women’s human rights defenders before the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders and in other fora);
• advocacy on ‘sustaining activism’ with donors (discussing human rights approaches to sustain WHRD, their organisations and movements).

Since 2005, the coalition has called the public attention towards the recognition of women human rights defenders and the legitimacy of their work, mobilized resources to respond to appeals from WHRD, generated new discourse and analysis within defender groups and networks, and its advocacy at regional and global levels has ensured policy development sensitive to WHRD’s concerns.