The Feminist Alliance for Rights is guided by the principles of equality, justice and non-discrimination that underpin the international human rights framework. We strive to ensure that women[1] and girls from the Global South and from marginalized communities in the Global North are visible and active in key political spaces and that they are able to demand the conditions that are needed to fully enjoy their universal human rights in all their diversity.
We recognize that women are not a homogeneous group and while the majority continue to experience sexism and misogyny in one form or another, women in certain contexts enjoy privileges. The experiences of gender and sex-based discrimination that women are often forced to endure are compounded by other systems of oppression such as racism, colonialism, classism, heteronormativity and ableism. There are communities that have been historically discriminated against for centuries resulting in female populations who carry the inter-generational trauma of their oppression and exist in a persistent state of vulnerability marginalization, and danger. The convergence of multiple and intersecting factors of discrimination significantly increase women’s vulnerabilities to further discrimination, violence and exclusion and hinder their access to opportunities, resources and appropriate redress for violations of their human rights.
Discrimination against women is often linked to aspects of their identity, circumstances and/or occupation including but not limited to gender, race, ethnicity, caste, social class, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, ability, migratory status and legal status, among others. Promoting respect for the diversity and complexity of women’s lives is a central part of FAR’s vision.
FAR centers its strategies on the most marginalized women and, as expressed by our members, includes many different categories such as, but not limited to, the following: girls, adolescent and elderly women; women belonging to racial and ethnic minorities; indigenous aboriginal, tribal women, women with disabilities, lesbians, bisexual women, transgender women and non-conforming persons; refugees, displaced, migrant and stateless women, and other minority groups; widows; women with compromised health, including women with mental health issues, women without access to sexual and reproductive health care and women living with HIV; women living in rural and remote areas; women living in poverty; women living in urban informal settlements; women living in public housing estates; women living in climate frontline states; women living in occupied territories; homeless women; women living in conflict, in war zones and in contexts of endemic violence and other types of crisis; situations caused by natural disasters or human action; women’s human rights defenders and women environmental defenders; institutionalized women; women in detention; and women whose work is marginalized and who are systematically denied legal and social protection, particularly those in the informal economy, including domestic workers, street vendors, waste-pickers and sex workers.
Oppression, marginalization and vulnerability is political and a reflection of power imbalances of heteropatriarchal, racist, neoliberal capitalist systems that must be exposed wherever they exist and eliminated by addressing their root causes and drivers. These are not static conditions and those who are not in a situation of vulnerability today can become so tomorrow as a result of a change in circumstances or due to the emergence of a crisis. As such, we are willing to include new categories and/or classifications and do not consider ourselves to be limited to those listed above. This aspect of FAR’s work will continue to be shaped by its membership and we welcome anyone committed to feminist values and human rights to join us and use this platform to give voice and visibility to those who are vulnerable and, consequently, marginalized, exploited and/or excluded.
