10 Big Wins for Human Rights Activists

For years, a colonial-era ban on same-sex sexual relations had been used to harass and threaten LGBTQ people and activists. In 2018, the provision was declared unconstitutional by India’s Supreme Court. No fewer than six Fund supported organizations were critical to this landmark win.

There are an estimated 2 million domestic workers in Mexico, 90 percent of whom are women. In 2020, Mexico’s government finally made changes which gave basic labor rights such as paid leave and a cap on working hours to this base of domestic workers. This hard-won victory was led by Fund-supported Centro de Apoyo para Empleadas del Hogar (CACEH).

In 2016, 92 families in southern Honduras awoke to discover a solar energy company was taking over their farms. But in March 2020, the multinational company withdrew from the area. MASS VIDA, a Fund supported volunteer network, had stepped in to provide free legal aid. They filed more than 30 legal complaints and allowed the community to maintain their peaceful protests.

In 2018, the DRC adopted a new mining code that requires companies to share profits with local communities. It gives miners and community members a voice in decision making. Six Fund-supported groups were crucial to its passage through legislative advocacy and collaboration with other civil society organizations.

The Fund-supported Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) has been essential throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This Indigenous and women’s rights group, over 60,000 women, provided essential health supplies, food, water, and information to people who had received zero international aid.

Spaces for Change (S4C) works to infuse human rights into social and economic policies in Nigeria. With an emergency grant from the Fund, the group helped create a 24/7 hotline providing free legal assistance to citizens and activists whose rights were violated under the guise of COVID-19 restrictions.

India’s complete nationwide COVID lockdown threatened the lives of millions of informal and migrant workers, who faced loss of income, separation from family, and overburdened housing. In response, the Fund-supported Jan Sahas formed a Migrants Resilience Collaborative. The initiative provided lifesaving, direct relief for more than 1 million migrant workers.

The Fund partnered with Purposeful—a movement building hub for adolescent girls in the Global South—to pilot a participatory grantmaking fund. Ten projects were selected focusing on youth-identified needs: combating sexual violence, building leadership of girls and young women, and promoting young people’s skills and livelihoods.

In 2020, legislation was drafted in Morocco to apparently curb online misinformation about COVID-19. However, this law would have violated people’s right to freedom of expression. Prometheus Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, a Fund-supported organization, successfully campaigned to suspend the draft bill.

In November 2020, Family Members of the Detained-Disappeared in Guatemala (FAMDEGUA) helped bring a former special forces soldier to trial for his actions in the 1982 Dos Erres massacre. He faces charges of sexual assault and crimes against humanity for his role in the murder of 205 men, women, and children.