From June to July, UAF and our partners co-organized a series of conversations for funders on building solidarity with historically marginalized communities and social movements in Brazil, Colombia, Palestine, India, and Myanmar. In this Global Solidarity Series, funders committed to addressing structural inequities and standing in solidarity with oppressed people in the Global South acknowledging that they must do their part in understanding the immense challenges facing social movements led by the historically oppressed communities as well as the ways that they can support them.

UAF co-hosted a session on Palestine on June 29th. More than ever before, Palestine has become further recognized as an intersectional feminist issue in the current international discourse adopted by feminist as well as mainstream human rights spaces. There have been recent shifts in discourse, as local Palestinians call for Free Palestine. As we saw the narrative shifting around Palestine, UAF and partners held a panel around questions such as: how can donors move towards the same shift in discourse to support movements in Palestine?

This session provided an overview of Palestine and explored the ways in which donors can support Palestinian movements and understand the intersections between Black-led movements and Palestinian movements.

Meet our panelists/grantee partners and the work they do:

Vivian Sansour: Vivien Sansour is an artist, storyteller, researcher, and conservationist. She uses images, sketches, film, soil, seeds, and plants to enliven old cultural tales in contemporary presentations and to advocate for seed conservation and the protection of agrobiodiversity as a cultural/political act. Vivien founded the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library as part of this work with local farmers and has been showcased internationally, including at the Chicago Architecture Biennale, V&A Museum in London, Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, and the Venice Art Biennale. A culinary historian and enthusiastic cook, Vivien works to bring threatened varieties “back to the dinner table to become part of our living culture rather than a relic of the past”. This work has led her to collaborate with award-winning chefs, including Anthony Bourdain and Sammi Tamimi. Born in Jerusalem, Vivien lives in both Bethlehem, Palestine, and Los Angeles, USA.

Here’s the latest on Vivien Sansour: The Woman Saving Palestinian Heirloom Seeds https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210908-the-woman-saving-palestinian-heirloom-seeds

Haneen Maikey: Haneen Maikey is a queer feminist organizer, co-founder, and former director of the LGBT and queer grassroots organization alQaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society. In the last two decades, Haneen led the queer movement in Palestine, together with hundreds of organizers and activists, from a small group to a leading national civil society organization. Haneen is based in Jerusalem and has a degree in community organizing (Social Work) and an MA in Community Organizations’ Management. In addition, Haneen has a diploma in “Psychoanalysis in Organizations.” She wrote different articles through the last two decades ranging from the critique on imperial western queer organizing strategies to articles about organizing strategies/vision in the region to different articles and an op-ed about Pinkwashing.

Resources: How Israeli rights groups prevent Palestinians from framing their own reality: https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel–palestine-rights-groups-prevent-palestinians-framing-their-own-reality

No Pride without Dignity: http://alqaws.org/articles/No-Pride-Without-Dignity?category_id=0

Barbara Ransby: Barbara Ransby is a historian, writer, and longtime political activist. She is the John D. MacArthur Chair, and Distinguished Professor, in the Departments of African American Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). She also directs the campus-wide Social Justice Initiative, a project that promotes connections between academics and community organizers doing work on social justice.

Professor Ransby has published dozens of articles and essays in popular and scholarly venues. She is, most notably, the author of an award-winning biography of civil rights activist Ella Baker, entitled Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (University of North Carolina, 2003). Her most recent book is Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the Twenty-First Century.

You can follow Professor Ransby on Twitter here: @BarbaraRansby and find out more about her here: https://hist.uic.edu/profiles/ransby-barbara/ For more resources on Palestine and the other countries we held sessions for, please visit this page: https://sites.google.com/hrfn.org/global-solidarity-series/resources?authuser=0

Additional Resources:

• Resource Generation Webinar: Zionism & Philanthropy
• A Guide to the Current Crisis in Israel/Palestine from Jewish Currents:Guide to Difficult Conversations about Israel and Palestine from Jewish Voice for Peace

• The Nakba Demands Justice by Kaleem Hawa for Jewish Currents:Decolonize Palestine, an independent, self-funded project founded by two Palestinians living in Ramallah

• Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappe
• The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 by Rashid Khalidi
• A Threshold Crossed from Human Rights Watch
• Rashida Tlaib’s speech

The Global Solidarity series was hosted in partnership with Urgent Action Fund, Children’s Rights Innovation Fund, Funders For Justice, Foundation for a Just Society, Human Rights Funders Network, Black Harvest, Movement Voter Project, Resource Generation, The Solidaire Network, and EDGE Funders Alliance.

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Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights (UAF) would like to inform you that we will be taking an organization-wide pause from August 30 – September 6, 2021. During that time, all UAF staff will be momentarily stepping away from our work, including the daily processing of Rapid Response Grants (RRGs), emails, and meetings. We are collectively and intentionally taking this time to rest and recharge and on September 7th we will be back online to resume our normal operations.

Our pause is a radical and political feminist act that gives us an opportunity to continue infusing holistic care into our work. We see collective care and protection as wellbeing in action. This pause is our way of honoring our commitment to UAF’s feminist values of centering well-being and care. We are setting an intention to prioritize and remember the importance of collective care for ourselves and within feminist movements. We aim to embody the importance of slowing down by creating purposeful time and space for care.

During our pause, our online grant applications remain open but we will not be processing any requests until we return.

We hope that this pause will continue to deepen our recognition of limits and the importance of care thus strengthening ourselves to better support the feminist activists and movements across our regions. We look forward to being in touch and resuming grantmaking with renewed energy when we return.

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Generation Equality Forum (GEF) is the UN Women-convened summit to accelerate gender equality investment, kicked off in Mexico City on March 29-31, 2021, and culminated in Paris on June 30-July 2.

Earlier this year, Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights co-organized an event at GEF’s Mexico forum which focused on women human rights defender (WHRD)  protection with activists and representatives from philanthropy and government. There, WHRD speakers from various regions shared collective movement demands on WHRD protection with governments and donors. During the event UAF grantee, Lilit from the Right Side NGO participated and called for the recognition of WHRDs and an end to stigmatization and hate campaigns against WHRDs.

Looking back at the Mexico Forum, although we saw lively discussions and intersectional collaborations amongst the civil society organizations (CSO), there remains a significant challenge of inclusivity and institutional barriers for civil society organizations to fully and effectively participate. To name a few, we saw pushback on gender-based violence (GBV) language rather than violence against women (VAW), pushback on radial economic justice demands, infiltration of anti-choice groups, and the exclusion of trans people and sex workers. Although these are ongoing disappointing trends, UAF is committed to raising these issues and challenge spaces that exclude WHRD’s expertise.

From June 30 -July 2, Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights participated in the Generation Equality Forum’s Paris Forum. The GEF Paris Forum was the most important opportunity civil society organizations and WHRD’s have had in nearly three decades to center the power, participation and well-being of women, girls, trans, gender non-binary and intersex people. There, UAF continued advocating and challenging inclusivity and institutional barriers for CSO’s and WHRD’s at GEF.

In partnership with Women’s Fund Asia and Urgent Action Fund- Africa, Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights is a part of the Feminist Generation Consortium. The Feminist Generation Consortium is a collaborative of feminist funds that provide holistic support to community-based intersectional feminist activist movements led by and for women, girls, trans, gender non-binary and intersex people. The Feminist Generation Consortium knows these movements’ full and substantive participation in the GEF is vital to ensuring relevant and responsive state and donor commitments to gender equality and the true realization of gender justice worldwide.

Together we urged United Nations and Generation Equality Forum leaders to recommit to ensuring feminist movements are equal partners in the global gender justice agenda. Read our full call to action for substantive participation here.

During the GEF Paris forum, UAF also participated in #StopTalkingStartFunding, a global campaign led by French feminist movements to end GBV and apply pressure on decision-makers during the GEF process. The call was to dedicate 0.1% of GPP to fight against GBV. Together we were calling on heads of state to end sexual and gender-based violence and urging them to make concrete financial commitments to end GBV.

At the GEF Paris Forum, UAF also engaged with multiple partners to advocate for substantial financial commitments from states for feminist movements. Alongside peer donor and feminist organizations, UAF participated in the development of a new proposed funding initiative called the Global Alliance for Sustainable Feminist Movements to increase sustainable and better-coordinated financial and political support for feminist movements.

GEF concluded with major political and financial commitments for gender equality totaling more than $40 Billion dollars. GEF brought together high-level stakeholders including heads of government, corporations, and NGOs to accelerate major financial and political commitments to achieving gender equality by 2026.

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The upcoming Generation Equality Forum is the most important opportunity we have had in nearly three decades to center the power, participation, and well-being of women and girls, trans, gender non-binary and intersex people. 

As a collaborative of feminist funds who provide holistic support to community-based intersectional feminist activist movements led by and for women, girls, trans, gender non-binary and intersex people, the Feminist Generation Consortium knows these movements’ full and substantive participation in the Generation Equality Forum is vital to ensuring relevant and responsive state and donor commitments to gender equality and the true realization of gender justice worldwide.

We believe that if we are to truly accelerate gender equality, as the Generation Equality Forum calls for, we must do all we can to ensure those most affected by gender injustice are the foremost participants in decision-making to realize gender justice. The Generation Equality Forum, and other such international forums, are of vital importance to increase the awareness, interest, and investment in gender equality to set the pace worldwide. 

To ensure meaningful progress toward gender justice at the Generation Equality Forum and beyond, it is vital that leaders ensure the full, substantive participation and leadership of structurally excluded women and girls, including but not limited to: racialized, Indigenous, and defenders from other marginalized castes, ethnic and religious groups; environmental and land rights defenders; disability rights activists; lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, gender non-binary defenders; sex worker and informal, domestic, and low-wage worker rights defenders; women living with and affected by HIV and AIDS rights defenders; and migrant, displaced, refugee, or stateless defenders and those affected by conflict and occupation. 

When women and girls in all their diversity, who have been most affected by patriarchy and other intersecting forms of violence and oppression, lead action for gender justice, it is more transformative, sustainable, and responsive to the root causes of gender inequality and gender-based violence. Already, autonomous intersectional feminist movements led by women and girls in all of their diversity have been key to achieving recent gains in gender equality at local, regional, and global levels. 

But worldwide, women, girls, trans, gender non-binary, and intersex people’s voices remain too often excluded within the states, markets, communities, and households in which they live—a pervasive reality that reflects, perpetuates, and maintains systems of entrenched gender inequality around the world. 

In this same vein, women, girls, trans, gender non-binary and intersex people are consistently denied access to—not to mention leadership and power within—decision-making and agenda-setting processes where some of the most consequential decisions are made about their lives. Even when they are represented, they are too few, and unequal power dynamics within these processes continue to exclude many voices, particularly the most marginalized like sex workers, women with disabilities, Indigenous women, and too many more.

Unfortunately, as we prepare for the Generation Equality Forum in Paris, we are witnessing the replication of practices that prevent, diminish, or deter the full, substantive participation and leadership of feminist women, girls, trans, gender non-binary, and intersex activists. Because feminist leaders are routinely under-represented in critical decision-making processes such as the Generation Equality Forum—the most consequential global gathering on gender equality in over 25 years—they face significant barriers to realizing the transformative change for gender justice that our world so urgently requires. 

Given that we are seeing some of the same barriers to the full, substantive participation of women, girls, trans, gender non-binary and intersex people replicated in the structure and design of the Generation Equality Forum, we must—and can—act quickly to assess and remedy mistakes that have been made. 

It is not too late to make key changes to the upcoming Generation Equality Forum in Paris that will help ensure more substantive, meaningful, equitable participation of intersectional feminist movements led by and for women, girls, trans, gender non-binary and intersex people. And it is not too late to incorporate feedback from intersectional feminist activists and movements to inform subsequent global gender justice processes.

To the fullest extent possible, we must ensure the full and meaningful participation of structurally excluded women and girls, trans, gender non-binary and intersex people in the Generation Equality Forum and related processes, systems, and structures that follow.

Moving forward, we urge United Nations and Generation Equality Forum leaders to recommit to ensuring feminist movements are equal partners in the global gender justice agenda, through the following practices: 

• Hold yourselves accountable to feminist, intersectional movements throughout the Generation Equality Forum and beyond. 
• The Generation Equality Forum and subsequent processes should be shaped by and for feminist movements, especially at the grassroots level. Clear messages from movements around the urgency of systems change, in particular in the context of the intensity of crises we are currently facing, must be centered in the structure, framework, and vision of the GEF. 
• The GEF planning, design, and decision-making processes should be transparent, flexible, inclusive, expansive, and spacious, to ensure the active inclusion of feminist, intersectional activists who are most structurally excluded from global processes — including people who are disabled, sex workers, and transgendered. This includes ensuring that Forum sessions are sufficiently reflective and inclusive of, and sufficiently accessible to, all structurally excluded groups.
• Support a redistribution of power and resources in a way that is inclusive and cognizant of issues of gender, age, race, caste, ethnicity, religion, class, sexual orientation, ability, HIV status, statelessness, and other intersecting identities, and centers the transformative power and perspectives of those best positioned to address the root causes of inequalities. This also involves a continuous commitment to resisting tokenism and remaining vigilant about the reproduction of practices and behaviors that deter collaboration, co-leadership, co-ownership, and that benefit a few at the expense of others. 
• There should be full disclosure of decision-making procedures to ensure transparency and accountability throughout the whole Generation Equality Forum process and beyond.
• Ensure easy, clear access to the agenda online, and ensure the accessibility and prominence of sessions and forum events organized and led by civil society.  
• Ensure full and substantive participation of civil society, including allowing for self-organized civil society sessions to be part of the agenda and provide spaces for civil society to gather and strategize. 
  • Give civil society sufficient time to consult partners and allies and to engage meaningfully in ways that balance the urgency to act with the necessity to move at the speed of trust.
• Ensure justice and accessibility across ability, language, technology, and time.
  • Ensure time justice by considering the geography, labor and available bandwidth of women, girls, trans, gender non-binary and intersex activists in your planning for Paris and beyond. 
  • Decolonize your relationship to time. Schedule sessions that accommodate time differences in order to ensure the viable, meaningful participation of women, girls, trans, non-binary and intersex people from the Global South. 
  • Ensure language justice by providing interpretation well beyond English, French, and Spanish and remove a glaring obstacle to the full participation of grassroots feminist activists who hail from all over the world. Refuse to let convenience be the enemy of equity, impact and a truly inclusive opportunity to advance gender justice. 
  • Ensure digital accessibility. Use technology and tools that are accessible and available to all people in all regions, as opposed to relying on technology that is clearly not available in certain parts of the world.
  • Ensure inclusion across abilities. GEF and other spaces should consider all accessibility issues, as to be truly inclusive we need to at minimum consider the needs of those who are visual or hearing impaired in our communities to facilitate their participation as well.
• Collect intersectional data: UN and GEF leaders should develop a framework that facilitates assessment of the potential impacts of policies, programs and initiatives on different groups of women and non-binary people. This should include access to more nuanced data on intersecting social stratifiers, such as race, age, class, sexuality, and disability. The collection, analysis, and use of such nuanced and disaggregated data, should be used for operationalizing intersectoral analyses that creates opportunity for participation, voice, and meaningful change for those who are most impacted.
• Finally, we call on the GEF organizers to learn from these processes and be accountable to do better in the future, with clarity, intention, and practical steps that will be taken to do things differently. In doing so, you can model a practice of explicitly seeking out and taking in constructive critical feedback from movements and activists best positioned to lead the gender justice we all envision and require. 

Together, we can bring about transformative change for gender justice if—and only if—we center the power, perspectives, and participation of women and girls, trans, gender non-binary and intersex people who have been most affected by patriarchy and other intersecting forms of violence and oppression, and if we ensure intersectional feminist movements are equal partners in the global gender justice agenda.

—Feminist Generation Consortium (Women’s Fund Asia, Urgent Action Fund-Africa, Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights)

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The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights appeal to the de facto government in Sana’a, the Houthi group, to immediately and unconditionally release two actresses from prison in Sana’a, the Yemeni capital. One of them is actress and model Entisar Al-Hammadi (pictured above) and the other actress does not wish to be publicly named.

On 20 February 2021, Houthis in civilian clothes arrested the two actresses without an arrest warrant at a checkpoint in the Shamlan area, west of Sana’a and held them incommunicado. After the launch of a widespread Twitter campaign (#Freedom_for_Entisar_AlHammadi), the Houthis referred Al-Hammadi’s case for investigation in April.

The two women were questioned by the Public Prosecution on 18 April 2021. Al-Hammadi met with her lawyer Khaled Al-Kamal (pictured above) for the first time on 21 April 2021, when she and her colleague, whose lawyer was also present, were investigated by a member of the Public Prosecution Office, principal investigator Riyadh Al-Eryani. He was convinced that there were no real charges against them and ordered their release, which led to his dismissal from the case.

Instead of submitting the release warrant to the head of the Public Prosecution, according to legal procedures, the Deputy Prosecutor transferred the warrant to another member of the Public Prosecution Office, Adel Al-Daeni, who suspended the women’s release

Charges of drug possession and prostitution were brought against the women despite the absence of evidence. There were no prohibited substances with them when they were arrested on a public street, and they were not in an incriminating location. This indicates that the Public Prosecution has fabricated false charges against them.

The two actresses are being held in the women’s section of the Sana’a Central Prison, where they face very bad treatment including being verbally harassed with lewd words.

Al-Hammadi and her colleague made a complaint against the security forces’ investigators, as they were interrogated blindfolded, before being forced to put their fingerprints on prepared investigation records. Al-Hammadi and her colleague were then transferred to a security agency, where they spent more than ten days, during which time they were subjected to torture and nightly investigations, as well as being deprived of food and drink.

On 05 May 2021, Al-Daeni, the member of the Public Prosecution Office, ordered that Al-Hammadi and her colleague must submit to a medical examination including a virginity test, in violation of the law and the constitution. This is abusive and violates their dignity and their human rights. On 10 May, during a phone call Al-Hammadi told her lawyer that she would refuse to submit to this examination.

The Public Prosecution ordered a publication ban on the case, which the lawyer criticized, describing it as illegal. On 05 May 2021, Al-Kamel wrote on his Facebook page, “I hope that the case will not politicize my client, who is in a bad state and does not stop crying and asking God to be released.”

Among the legal violations after the arrest of Al-Hammadi and her colleague is that preliminary investigations and evidence gathering took place in the anti-drug department of the Criminal Investigation Centre in Sana’a Governorate, although the Shamlan area is not within its jurisdiction. As such, all investigations should be null and void according to the law.

Another violation of due process was the extension of their detention for a period of 45 days by paper correspondence without presenting them in person to the President of the Court of Appeal, in accordance with the established legal procedures.

Al-Hammadi is a 20-year-old actress of Yemeni and Ethiopian descent who is famous for promoting Yemeni folkloric costumes. She appeared in the series “Dam Al-Gharib” and “Ghurbat Al-Ban” during the holy month of Ramadan last year. She has been subjected to racism and condemned for her profession. The other actress is of a Yemeni father and a Syrian mother.

In addition, the lawyer Al-Kamal has been threatened for defending Al-Hammadi. The Yemeni Bar Association issued a statement on 02 May 2021 in which it reported that a gunman in civilian clothes had threatened Al-Kamal on 27 April 2021 in front of his home, asking him to drop the case completely.

Al-Kamal told GCHR, “The Public Prosecution is trying to place any charge against my client, Entisar Al-Hammadi and her colleague. There is clear abuse as I have not been able to receive the case file so far which is a flagrant violation of her defense rights and has prevented me from preparing my defense, which is without a doubt against the law.”

GCHR and the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest and detention of the actress Entisar Al-Hammadi and her colleague, without any legal justification, as they did not commit any crime under the law, which is a flagrant violation of their civil and human rights. We call on the Houthis to release the women immediately and unconditionally. We also call on the authorities to fully respect the rights of women to live free from restrictions based on their gender. Finally, we call on the Houthis to stop attacks on the lawyer Khaled Al-Kamal and allow him to do his work freely.

اليمن: يجب الإفراج عن الممثلتيْن انتصار الحمادي وزميلتها

يناشد مركز الخليج لحقوق الإنسان وصندوق التمويل الطارئ، حكومة الأمر الواقع في صنعاء، جماعة الحوثيين، للإفراج الفوري وغير المشروط عن ممثلتين من سجنٍ في العاصمة اليمنية صنعاء. إن إحداهما، الممثلة وعارضة الأزياء انتصار الحمادي (في الصورة أعلاه) والممثلة الأخرى التي لا ترغب في الكشف عن اسمها.

في 20 فبراير/شباط 2021، اعتقل حوثيون بملابس مدنية الممثلتيْن دون مذكرة توقيف على حاجز في منطقة شملان، غربي صنعاء، واحتجزوهما بمعزل عن العالم الخارجي. بعد إطلاق حملة تويتر واسعة النطاق (#الحرية_لانتصار_الحمادي)، أحال الحوثيون قضيتها للتحقيق في أبريل/نيسان.

تم استجواب المرأتيْن من قبل النيابة العامة في 18 أبريل/نيسان 2021. التقت الحمادي بمحاميها خالد الكمال (في الصورة أعلاه) لأول مرة في 21 أبريل 2021، وكانت معها زميلتها التي كان محاميها حاضراً أيضاً، تم التحقيق معهما من قبل عضو النيابة العامة والمحقق الرئيسي رياض الإرياني. لقد كان مقتنعاً بعدم وجود تهم حقيقية ضدهم وأمر بالإفراج عنهم، مما أدى إلى إقالته من القضية.

وبدلاً من إحالة مذكرة الإفراج عنهم إلى رئيس النيابة، وفق الإجراءات القانونية، قام وكيل النيابة بتحويل المذكرة إلى عضو نيابة آخر هو عادل الضاعني، الذي أوقف إطلاق سراح المرأتين.

لقد ُوجهت تهم حيازة المخدرات والدعارة إلى النساء رغم عدم وجود أدلة. لم يكن معهم أي مواد ممنوعة عندما تم القبض عليهم في شارع ٍعام، ولم يكونوا في مكان تجريم. إن هذا يدل على أن النيابة العامة اختلقت ضدهم اتهامات باطلة.

الممثلتان محتجزتان الآن في قسم النساء في سجن صنعاء المركزي حيث تتعرضان لمعاملة سيئة للغاية بما في ذلك التحرش اللفظي بالكلمات البذيئة.

تقدمت الحمادي وزميلتها بشكوى ضد محققي الأجهزة الأمنية، حيث تم استجوابهن معصوبات الأعين، قبل اجبارهن على وضع بصمتهن في محاضر تحقيق جاهزة. كما كشفت تحقيقات النيابة، ان الحمادي، وزميلتها نقلن بعد احتجازهن، الى جهة امنية، حيث امضيا هناك أكثر من عشرة ايام، تعرضن فيها للتعذيب والتحقيقات الليلية، فضلا عن حرمانهن من الطعام والشراب.

بتاريخ 05 مايو/أيار 2021، أمرعضو النيابة العامة الضاعني بخضوع الحمادي وزميلتها لفحص طبي يتضمن فحصاً للعذرية، خلافًا للقانون والدستور. إن هذا يعد تعسفاً وينتهك كرامتهم وحقوقهم الإنسانية. في 10 مايو/أيار 2021، خلال مكالمة هاتفية، أخبرت الحمادي محاميها أنها وزميلتها سترفضان الخضوع لهذا الفحص.

أمرت النيابة العامة بحظر النشر عن القضية، وهو القرار الذي انتقده المحامي، واصفة إياه بأنها غير قانوني. وفي 05 مايو/أيار2021، كتب الكمال صفحته في الفيسبوك تعليقاً ورد فيه، “أتمنى عدم تسيّس القضيةـ موكلتي في حالة سيئة ولا تتوقف عن البكاء واسال الله ان يفرج عنها.”

من ضمن المخالفات القانونية بعد اعتقال الحمادي وزميلتها بمنطقة شملان، حصلت التحقيقات الأولية وجمع الاستدلالات في قسم مكافحة المخدرات بمركز البحث الجنائي في محافظة صنعاء بالرغم من ان منطقة شملان ليست من اختصاص هذا المركز. بهذا تكون جميع التحقيقات حسب القانون باطلة ببطلان الاختصاص المكاني.

إن تمديد حبسهم لمدة 45 يومًا عن طريق المراسلات الورقية دون عرضهم شخصيًا على رئيس محكمة الاستئناف، وفقاً للإجراءات القانونية المعمول بها، هو انتهاك آخر للإجراءات القانونية الواجبة.

تبلغ الحمادي من العمر 20 سنة، من أب يمني وأم اثيوبية، اشتهرت بترويجها للأزياء اليمنية الفلكلورية، وأدت عدداً من الأدوار التمثيلية التي عكست موهبتها، كان اخرها في مسلسلي “سد الغريب” و”غربة البن” خلال شهر رمضان من السنة الماضية. لقد تعرضت للعنصرية وادينت بسبب مهنتها. الممثلة الأخرى هي من أب يمني وأم سورية.

لقد تم تهديد المحامي الكامل لدفاعه عن الحمادي. أصدرت نقابة المحامين اليمنيين بيانا في 02 مايو/ايار 2021 أفادت فيه أن مسلحاً بملابس مدنية هدد الكمال في 27 أبريل 2021 أمام منزله، مطالبا إياه بترك القضية نهائياً.

صرح المحامي والمستشار القانوني خالد الكامل لمركز الخليج لحقوق الإنسان بما يلي، “إن النيابة العامة تحاول إلصاق أية تهمة بموكلتي انتصار الحمادي وزميلتها. هناك تعسف واضح بسبب عدم تمكيني من استلام ملف القضية لحد الآن وهذا انتهاك صارخ لحقوق الدفاع عنها ويمنع تحضير دفاعي عنها وهو بلا شك خلاف القانون.”

يدين مركز الخليج لحقوق الإنسان وصندوق التمويل الطارئ، بشدة الاعتقال والاحتجاز التعسفيين للممثلة انتصار الحمادي وزميلتها، دون أية مسوغ قانوني، حيث لم يرتكبن أي جريمة بموجب القانون، وما جرى هو انتهاك صارخ لحقوقهن المدنية والإنسانية. يطالب مركز الخليج لحقوق الإنسان وصندوق التحرك العاجل لحقوق النساء، حكومة الأمر الواقع في صنعاء، جماعة الحوثيين، إطلاق سراح المرأتين دون قيد أو شرط. كذلك، ندعو السلطات إلى الاحترام الكامل لحقوق المرأة في العيش دون قيود على أساس جنسها. وأخيراً ندعو جماعة الحوثيين إلى وقف الاعتداءات على المحامي خالد الكمال والسماح له بممارسة عمله بحرية.

https://www.gc4hr.org/news/view/2721 

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Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights stands in solidarity with Palestinians in Jerusalem facing forced displacement from their homes, escalating violence, and ongoing violations of their human rights by Israeli forces. The situation across the region is intensifying under a watchful, but hesitant to act, world gaze. As a rapid response fund that supports feminist movements in Palestine – we call on donors, civil society, and governments to uphold and be held accountable to their international human rights and humanitarian legal obligations.

During Ramadan, we are witnessing attempts to further erase Palestinian presence in Jerusalem and the rest of historic Palestine. There are increasing reports of Israeli police assaulting residents of Sheikh Jarrah as they protest the forceful removal of Palestinian families from their East Jerusalem neighborhood. Israeli police have raided the Al-Aqsa mosque (the third holiest site in Islam), wounding hundreds of worshipers throughout the week. These attacks have also culminated in multiple airstrikes on Gaza taking the lives of over 65 people, including 16 children – and growing.

We are deeply troubled by the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian residents in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and beyond. These ongoing acts of brutality demonstrate the critical need to dismantle systems that perpetuate violence on Palestinian bodies and deprive Palestinian people of their fundamental freedoms under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to life, liberty, self-determination and security of person. These are at the core of intersectional feminisms and require the confrontation of colonial systems of oppression and patriarchal power dynamics.

UAF pledges continued support and solidarity to our feminist sisters and siblings – Palestinian cis and trans women, Palestinian trans men, and Palestinian non-binary folks who are at the forefront of this struggle for human rights in Sheikh Jarrah and throughout Jerusalem. We hope the world will stand with us and call for an end to this violence and commit to upholding the basic rights of self-determination, equality under the law, and peace.

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Tatiana Cordero Velásquez, our Sister, Tati, Executive Director of the Urgent Action Fund Latin America & the Caribbean, became an ancestor on April 13, 2021.

Tati was the embodiment of feminism, a wise and soulful being, a beloved friend to feminist movements globally, a mother, sister, daughter… a Bruja.

Tati’s presence in a room brought you in and commanded your attention. She was the embodiment of her land; the spirit of her people. She radiated love and light. Her voice was full of strength and grace; her words infused with infinite wisdom. She held a conviction and rigor in her politics. She lifted, always, the voices of feminist movements of the Global South. She reminded us to see each other’s humanity. She urged us to pause; to live with intention and care of each other; to connect with our spirit, our ancestors, our indigenous lands.

To know her was to be transformed by her.

Tati reminded us to be joyful and live life abundantly and in its fullness. She was a lover of dance, music, food, and wine. One evening in 2018, when the Sister Fund staff were gathered in Fiji, Tatiana organized everyone onto the outdoor dance floor. There we all were, doing the limbo under a scarf, dancing to new music, holding our drinks in one hand while we copied each other’s moves. Tati’s footwork was fast and she laughed from the pure joy of sisters getting down.

Over the years, as the collective work of the Sister Funds deepened, Tatiana was instrumental in putting care at its center. She saw our work as at its most powerful when we supported one another, codo a codo. She urged us to take risks, to break free from the power dynamics of traditional philanthropy, to deepen the work in our own regions, and to express our collective understanding. 

Tatiana also taught us the value of well-applied lipstick. Rarely was a photo taken without it.

Over the last three years, UAF Latin America & Caribbean hosted three Encuentros (convenings) bringing together activists, healers, and movement leaders from around the world to discuss collective care. Tati’s vision for care was threaded in the curation of each event. For example, each participant received a personal note and gift when they arrived, honoring their participation and unique contribution. She also believed that care was political and that this included language justice. The Encuentros were held in Spanish, with simultaneous translation for those who needed it. This kept the conversations rich and real, centering their Latina roots.  By the end of the Encuentro, each person left feeling deeply connected, nourished, loved, and renewed.

We lift up her legacy. We celebrate a life lived with authenticity and fullness. We remember her beautiful and vibrant spirit and we feel it with us now. We wish her peace and a smooth journey to join the ancestors knowing that her wisdom and her vision of care lives on.

We are humbled and grateful for the messages of love and remembrance that we have received from around the world. The magnitude of love and the impact she had on so many lives around the world is a reminder of the deep power of her spirit.  

Tati leaves behind a song of care and love that will forever reside in our hearts, collectively around the globe. We send love and comfort to the many people, organizations and feminist movements around the world whose lives were touched by Tati.

Let us celebrate her life and lift up her legacy of collective care as political and integral to our movements. Let us be encouraged and in deep gratitude to have known such a blessed person.

We miss you Tati.

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We stand in solidarity with the family and friends of George Floyd. We grieve with them knowing that no verdict can fill the hole of their loss. We honor their pain and their hurt, they who would much rather have their father, their brother, their cousin, their son, than any verdict.

We stand in solidarity with the community of Minneapolis, the Black-led organizations and movements who took to the streets to demand justice – in a system that is anything but just. Today’s verdict is just one step towards accountability. Black lives matter.

We recognize that the carceral state is not the answer. We acknowledge the need to dismantle the systems of oppression that perpetuate violence on Black and Brown bodies and deprive Black and Brown people of their freedom to be … and to breathe. True justice would be George Floyd still breathing and with us today. Rest in power George, your life fueled a global movement.

We pledge to continue to support our feminist sisters and siblings  – Black women and Black trans women who are at the forefront of this fight. 

This moment was never about a verdict. It was and will always be about justice.

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From March 15-26 UN entities, representatives of global states, and civil society organizations gathered together for the 65^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the UN’s largest annual gathering exclusively dedicated to promoting women’s rights. Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights and several partners came together to co-organize and speak at various events during the 65^th session of CSW.

On March 16, UAF’s Senior Advocacy Officer Nathalie Margi spoke as a panelist at an event called “A Missing Brick for Peace and Sustaining Women’s Movements: Flexible Institutional Funding for Local Women’s Organizations” highlighting the funding gaps for women’s organizations that the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated.

Hosted by The Women Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) and the Spotlight Initiative, the event stressed how essential core funding is to the survival of local women’s organizations and to the sustainability of their work in building peace and gender equality. During the discussion, speakers presented examples of UN mechanisms that offer institutional funding and shared lessons learned in terms of access and measuring the impacts of such funding. Nathalie provided concrete recommendations on how donors can support intersectional feminist movements with the abundant and sustainable resources they need and deserve. Local women’s organizations partnering with the WPHF and the Spotlight Initiative in Yemen, Uganda, South Sudan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Liberia shared their perspectives on how institutional funding is used and why is it essential not only to their existence but also to their invaluable work.

Speakers included: 

• Henriette Geiger, Director for People and Peace at the European Commission Directorate-General, International Cooperation and Development
• Lisa Williams, Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Team Lead, Development Co-operation Directorate, OECD
• Mendy Marsh, Co-founder and Executive Director, VOICE
• Erin Kenny, Head of the Technical Unit, Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls
• Aldijana Sisic, Chief, United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women
• Ghita El Khyari, Head of the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund Secretariat
• Nathalie Margi, Senior Advocacy Officer, Urgent Action Fund

Moderated by Cindy Clark, co-Executive Director of AWID

Click here to watch a recording of “A Missing Brick for Peace and Sustaining Women’s Movements: Flexible Institutional Funding for Local Women’s Organizations” here.

On March 18, in partnership with Urgent Action Fund Africa, Women’s Fund Asia, and the Gates Foundation, we co-organized a parallel event called “Global promises, local realities: 25 years of BPFA journey.”

In this interactive conversation, representatives from community-based feminist organizations and feminist funds discussed the role of intersectional feminist movements in the Generation Equality Forum and Bejijng +25/26 processes, providing tangible recommendations to ensure outcomes are rooted in a transformative feminist agenda. The discussion highlighted the critical importance of amplifying the voices and strategies of groups that have been structurally marginalized and continue to be excluded from global policy processes.

Speakers:

• Cybèle Lespérance –  Syndicat du Travail Sexuel STRASS France
• Dumiso Gatsha- Success Capital Botswana
• Srinidhi Raghavan Rising Flame India
• Tikhala Itaye- HerLiberty Malawi

Moderator: Tulika Srivastava – Women’s Fund Asia

Click here to watch a recording of “Global promises, local realities: 25 years of BPFA Journey” here.

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