Press and Publications

This report, published in advance of the UN Human Rights Council’s review of Colombia’s human rights record in May 2018, documents human rights violations against Afro-Colombian Peoples and communities, including threats to and violations of their gender-based human rights.

Yifat Susskind, MADRE Executive Director, appeared on 112BK with Ashley Ford to address global women's rights, the rise of the right and how progressive activists can learn from each other to build stronger movements.

When I updated you just weeks ago about the situation in Eastern Ghouta, Syria, the news was already devastating. In the days since, it's gotten even worse.

Last summer, the International Law Commission, a UN body dedicated to developing international legal standards, completed its first reading of the draft articles for a new convention on crimes against humanity, which members of the General Assembly’s Sixth Committee (on legal questions) reviewed in the fall. While the current treaty draft embraces strong language from the Rome Statute, including gender as a protected class from persecution, it also adopts its unusual footnote defining gender.

Afro-descendant women’s organizations in Colombia will mark International Women’s Day by highlighting Black women’s role in peacebuilding and calling for reparations for conflict-related gender-based violence and other human rights violations. As members of communities that have long suffered governmental neglect, Afro-Colombian women and girls have faced disproportionate rates of conflict-related human rights violations with minimal access to justice or services. 

Last fall, the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law convened an expert panel to discuss international legal precedents that are being used to investigate and prosecute gender-based persecution perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The event was held just before the filing of an Article 15 Communication by MADRE, the Human Rights and Gender Justice (HRGJ) Clinic of the CUNY School of Law, and the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), with help from the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. 

In the days since Turkey launched an air offensive and ground invasion in northwestern Syria, few have stepped forward to condemn these actions, even as the number of casualties has been mounting and thousands have lost their homes. 

We know that violence against women occurs in every country, class and culture. The White House is using this issue, in a racialized context, to close the door on immigrants.

A year after President Trump was sworn into office and millions gathered in protest, resistance has yielded some important victories. Here, leaders of the Women's March and its official partners weigh in on why it's more important than ever to keep up the momentum of activism.

Our longtime partner in Nicaragua and a dear friend, Rose Cunningham, has been inaugurated as the first Indigenous woman mayor of Waspam, Nicaragua, her hometown. It’s from there that she’s dedicated her life to protecting and advancing the rights of women and girls – both in that community and around the world.

After initially excluding Afro-Colombian women’s groups representation, Bibiana Peñaranda was recently appointed to the Special High Level Body on Gender

A few weeks ago, an armed group raided a women’s shelter operated by the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), the only Iraqi organization that has stepped up to meet the critical need for shelter for women at risk of violence. Men armed with assault rifles kidnapped a member of their staff and held him for ransom, and forced OWFI to negotiate for his release. OWFI and other local organizations need protection now for their work meeting the urgent needs of women and girls at risk of violence.