Women's Rights

Eleven outstanding feminists from around the world, who where selected as 2025 Feminist Foreign and Development Policy Fellows, participated in the 69th Commission on the Status of Women at the UN Headquarters. Here they share their main considerations.

As human rights funding shrinks, feminist movements struggle to sustain their work while meeting donor demands. How can feminist funding literacy help organizations secure resources without compromising their mission?

The withdrawal of state and private funding threatens feminist movements worldwide. Bureaucratic hurdles make access to resources difficult. Can feminist philanthropy help build sustainable structures for lasting change?

Halida Uzunović, a Bosnian war survivor, talks about her experiences during the Bosnian war, especially the harrowing events in Foča that became a byword for brutal ethnic cleansing. The former head of the Foča War Victims Association also reflects on her commitment to breaking the silence about these atrocities and to advocating for truth and justice for the survivors and victims, despite their ongoing social stigmatisation and the denial by some political actors that war crimes occurred.

Presidents’ column: Pregnancy termination is still a criminal offence in Germany under section 218 of the Criminal Code, with serious consequences for access to abortion and women’s right to self-determination. There can only be one answer to this.

Ajna Jusić’s mother survived conflict-related sexual violence during the 1992–95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ajna is one of many children born as a result of such war crimes. Her organisation aims to improve the lives and legal situations of the victims and their children.

I am convinced that we also need gender mainstreaming in peace and security policy! Greeting from the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Lisa Paus, MP

A lack of climate protection in Germany violates the rights of women and vulnerable groups worldwide. This has been criticised by the CEDAW Review Committee.

With the recent national election in Thailand and results still up in the air on the exact nature of the next parliament, the future of Thai women’s and LGBTQ+ rights are also still in question.

In her acceptance speech Joumana Seif talks about the long road necessary to prosecute the crimes committed by the Syrian regime, to punish the perpetrators and also about the injustices suffered by women and how she is trying to support them in Germany.

With her work the lawyer Joumana Seif has played a critical role in having sexualised violence recognised as an offence that constitutes a crime against humanity, says Dr. Imme Scholz, head of the Anne Klein Women's Award jury.

On Monday night, a surprise draft ruling by conservative Justice Samuel Alito was released in the U.S. indicating that a majority on the Supreme Court wants to reverse the legalization of abortions. Ella Müller, director of the Democracy Program at the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Washington, DC, puts this impending caesura and the political developments behind it in context.    

Increase in domestic violence, lay-offs, care responsibilities, restrictions on domestic and international movement, economic insecurities, psychological burdens - these are just a few of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in Asia in the last two years. The gendered nature of COVID-19 impacts is obvious and has sparked large feminist responses in the region.

Gender-based violence, participation in political and social processes and shrinking spaces: How do women's rights activists work under increasingly constrained circumstances in Cambodia?

In the middle of the night on March 20, 2021, a presidential decree was published in the Official Gazette, announcing Turkey would withdraw from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention.

Much has been achieved at international level in the critical field of women, peace and security in recent years. Yet women are still woefully underrepresented in the Afghan peace process. The basic rights for which they fought so hard are at stake in the country’s internal negotiations with the Taliban.

The women presented in this dossier are living proof of the difference, the big improvements we can make if we strengthen female and diverse voices in peace and security. – The use of Resolution 1325 in the EU.

How do we establish peace? Is there such a thing as feminist security policy? What role do women actually play in international conflicts? How do feminists around the world use Resolution 1325 to fight for their rights?

The stamina of women who actively care for their relatives who have been missing for years inspired Rasa Ostrauskaite in her work for a more sustainable missing persons process in Iraq.

Nomarussia Bonase devotes all her energy to the fight for justice. The portrait of a peacemaker.