This year, WoPAI will be at FiLiA – the largest annual feminist conference in Europe taking place in Brighton UK on 10-12 October 2025. If you are attending, join us at our panel on global feminits organising on 11 October.
PANEL DESCRIPTION
For decades feminists fought to codify women’s rights in international law. From having no legal rights, to treating women’s rights as auxiliary to men’s, to finally, the CEDAW convention in 1978 – it has been a long and arduous journey in which generations of global feminists made sacrifices so that the women of today could enjoy our rights in law and in practice. Who would imagine that in 2025, many of our rights would not only be unfulfilled but rolled back to the pre-CEDAW era. Attacked by the fundamentalists on the right and queer activists on the left, women’s human rights to be protected from discrimination, violence, commodification and stereotyping are erased with the direct participation of powerful industries, UN bodies, global governments and philanthropic corporations. The panel will address how these systems of patriarchal powers converge to undermine women’s human dignity and fundamental freedoms, and the importance of global strategic feminist organising in fighting this backlash against women’s rights.
SPEAKERS
- Blessing Okoedion, WoPAI board member, founder of Weavers of Hope, survivor of trafficking for sexual exploitation and feminist activist
- Susan Smith, WoPAI board member, co-director of For Women Scotland,
- Tatyana Kotlyarenko, WoPAI board member, former OSCE-ODIHR advisor on trafficking
- Anna Zobnina, WoPAI board member, Director of European Network of Migrant Women
- Alyssa Ahrabare, President of French Coordination for the European Women’s Lobby
- Maria Dmytrieva, WoPAI board member, Democracy Development Centre
Source: WoPAI Is Coming to FiLiA! | Women’s Platform for Action International