Gender Policy / LGBTIQ+

Since 2020 a war has been ongoing in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. The conflict quickly spread to the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar, leading to a humanitarian crisis. Sexual violence is being employed deliberately and systematically as an instrument of war by all parties to the conflict in northern Ethiopia. 

Russia is constantly attacking civilian targets in Ukraine, including residential buildings, factories, educational and health facilities.

Despite the high number of rapes, the judicial progress that has been made, and the judgements passed by international, national and local courts, most of the affected women are still far from receiving compensation, reparations, or recognition as a victim.

Feminist and LGBTIQ+ issues are almost as diverse as the communities themselves, yet both movements are discriminated against, marginalized, often attacked, and violated, simply because of their non-conformity to conventional and hegemonic notions of gender.

Digital Rights Foundation, in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, conducted a series of focus group discussions with researchers from across the globe in order to deconstruct ‘gendered disinformation’, understand existing work on the subject and identify areas for future interventions.

The Global Feminist Pitch is back to support feminists from Latin America, Asia, Africa, Middle East and (South) Eastern Europe. This year we are looking for ten feminists who will write on the topic of feminist mobilisation in their region. Apply now!

In March 2020, the OECD Global Forum on Environment focused on "Mainstreaming Gender and Empowering Women for Environmental Sustainability". This summary report on the OECD-Forum highlights selected environment-related sectors and policies, and how they should be discussed from a gender-responsive perspective.

Women are more affected than men by plastics. Biological reasons are part of the problem: their bodies react in different ways to toxins, and the hygiene products that women use are often contaminated. But alternatives do exist.

Among those hardest hit by the climate crisis, women have taken some of the leading roles in combatting it. On local levels they are directly addressing the effects of climate change. Here we present some of the core calls for fair and gender-equitable climate financing on a global scale.

Gender justice, democracy and socio-ecological sustainability are politically and economically inextricably linked. Barbara Unmüßig, President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, gives an insight into her own experiences and develops recommendations for action for politicians.