Press and Publications

Women and girls are key to food production and water collection in most parts of the world. Structural inequalities, however, limit the participation of women and girls in decision-making roles, and deny them control over important economic resources, such as land and livestock. 

Efraín Ríos Montt, the Guatemalan dictator responsible for inflicting mass killings, rapes and genocide against Indigenous Peoples in the 1980s, has died. Under his regime, up to 70,000 people were killed, mostly in Mayan communities. MADRE stands with our partners and with all Indigenous women and families still seeking justice and healing more than 30 years later.

Moments of catastrophe that destroy communities often provide opportunities to rebuild them to be more resilient to preexisting harms. The challenge lies in spotting and seizing those opportunities. With the re-takeover of Mosul and other cities formerly controlled by the Islamic State, the rapidly growing demand for shelter in Iraq continues unabated. Yet the dearth of supportive services in many affected communities continues. One obstacle is an Iraqi policy that effectively forbids local organizations from providing shelter. 

Despite the unprecedented security crisis, it remains against public policy for Iraqi NGOs to provide shelter for those escaping gender-based violence.

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.

In summer 2017, 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 fall 2017. 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.

In Colombia, women are demanding an end to the impunity, silence and invisibility that fuel attacks on female human rights defenders

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. 

Right now, our partners in Syria are huddled in bomb shelters, trying to survive as airstrikes explode around them. And we’re acting urgently to save lives.

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.