UNT Women's and Gender Studies Program

College & University in Denton, Texas

An international group of twelve women’s networks and platforms, collectively representing nearly a thousand women’s organizations, has issued a declaration to draw attention to the discrimination, violence, hardship, and human rights violations faced by women worldwide.

The 2020 Declaration on Women’s Rights was conceived at a transnational meeting hosted by the Women’s Platform for Equality, Turkey, on October 15, 2020. At that meeting, participants discussed right-wing groups’ and governments’ attacks on the Istanbul Convention (the Council of Europe convention to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence). Bringing together 170 women from 15 countries from Europe and North America, the October meeting confirmed that the arguments used against the Istanbul Convention in each country stem from similar misogynist, homophobic, and transphobic patriarchal ideologies.

The 2020 Declaration on Women’s Rights draws attention to the interrelated causes of violations of women’s human rights. It also highlights the aggravation of these violations by neoliberal policies, rising authoritarianism, climate change, militarism, and the current COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to demanding that national political institutions and international organizations take action to realize women’s human rights and ensure gender equality, the Declaration reaffirms women’s commitment and determination to work in transnational solidarity, despite the shrinking democratic space, to confront patriarchal violence, misinformation, masculinist discourses, and attacks on their hard-won rights, and to build a world of equality, justice, and peace.

The text of the Declaration is available in English Turkish and Kurdish. For more information please contact info@esikplatform.net

Signatories to the 2020 Declaration on Women’s Rights

Advocates for Human Rights, United States
Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria
Great Coalition for Equality and Choice, Poland
Hungarian Women's Lobby, Hungary
Organization for Promotion of Women's Rights (DOMINE), Croatia
Ukrainian Women Lawyers Association (JURFEM), Ukraine
Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE)
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
Women's Network Croatia, Croatia
Women’s Platform for Equality (EŞİK), Turkey
Women's Rights Center, Poland
Women’s Support and Information Center (NPO), Estonia
European Women’s Lobby (Supporting organization)

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