Training

One of the core activities of the WHRI is providing training to build capacity of women’s human rights defenders to know, claim and assert their rights.  Nascent and established women leaders and their allies need tools to support their efforts to transform their communities, and to hold States and other powerful entities accountable under international human rights standards.

Women’s human rights defenders also need time out of their busy lives on the front lines to reflect, theorize, build new solidarities, to engage with and transform their own internalized oppressions and to explore alternatives to existing or dominant paradigms.  Participants of our programs report returning to their work feeling empowered, renewed, and often, with an entirely new vantage point on their work and even themselves.

Participants of our programs will:

  • Learn about the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) from an engaged feminist activist perspective
  • Explore the practical use of the most relevant mechanisms of the UN System in the struggle for justice and substantive equality with facilitators expert in both theoretical and applied knowledge
  • Plan for effective advocacy using women’s human rights standards and mechanisms
  • Build collective knowledge on transnational feminist movement building
  • Feel empowered to step forward and take leadership on women’s human rights issues in local, national or international spheres
  • Question mainstream understandings of development, peace and global capitalism

The WHRI offers a number of international training programs each year that are widely open for application, and we also work with partners and specific groups to offer training specific to particular issues or needs.  Programs are offered in English or Spanish.  Find out about our different program offerings below.

WHRI Intensive

Our flagship training program cultivates visionary women’s human rights leaders with the tools and confidence they need to become changemakers.  With CEDAW at its heart, this in-depth, small group learning experience connects participants to women’s human rights as a visionary framework for integrative social, collective, and individual change.

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CEDAW For Change

The CEDAW for Change Institute is a capacity building program focussed closely on CEDAW, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, for advocates, activists and women’s human rights defenders who want to use these tools to enhance the impact of their work.

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CEDAW Indígena

The CEDAW Indígena is a training program that approaches CEDAW through the lens of indigenous women’s experiences and activism, explored as a tool for advocacy in conjunction with other important UN instruments including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  This training is offered in collaboration with indigenous-led partner organizations.

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Partnerships & Consulting

We also partner with other organizations to offer training and mentorship programs for a particular target audience or with a thematic focus, or to support our partners’ ongoing advocacy efforts.  Contact us to discuss the possibilities!