Amnesty International (AI)
www.amnesty.org
AI is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognised human rights to be respected and protected. It is concerned with the impartial protection of human rights, envisioning a world in which every person enjoys all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. On 5 March 2004, it launched the Stop Violence against Women campaign, which focuses on violence against women in the family and in conflict. In partnership with women’s organisations and other groups, it seeks to address discrimination as a root cause of violence against women and intends to take action on behalf of particular individuals to stop these violations. Through this campaign, AI has developed and used campaign tools to highlight the profiles and cases of women human rights defenders.

Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
www.apwld.org
APWLD is a network of lawyers, academics, social scientists, grassroots women and other activists from across Asia Pacific. It aims to promote women’s human rights enshrined in the UN international human rights instruments and to enable women in the region to use law as an instrument of change for equality, justice and development. With a membership of close to 150 individuals and organisations, it operates through task forces than run programmes on women’s human rights, violence against women, women’s participation in political processes, labour and migration, women and environment and rural and indigenous women. It has recently adopted a campaign on women human rights defenders, focusing on the concerns of its activist-members facing threats and violations as women human rights defenders. It hosts the women human rights defenders website www.defendingwomen-defendingrights.org

Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM ASIA)
www.forum-asia.org
FORUM ASIA is a membership-based regional human rights organisation in Asia with 36 member organisations in 14 countries in the region. It strives to empower people by advocating social justice, sustainable human development, participatory democracy, gender equality, peace and human security through collaboration and cooperation among human rights organisations in the region. It has a programme on human’s defenders, which aims to protect human rights activists and practitioners by supporting their work and strengthening both domestic and international human rights protection mechanisms in accordance with established human rights standards and norms.  It has integrated women human rights defenders concerns in its training programs, and it organises regional consultations on human rights defenders with the participation of women human rights defenders. 

Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL)
www.cwgl.rutgers.edu
CWGL at Douglass College, Rutgers University seeks to develop an understanding of the ways in which gender affects the exercise of power and the conduct of public policy internationally. The Center aims to build international linkages among women in local leadership. It conducts various activities that support women’s leadership and transformative visions as crucial in every policy area.  It develops effective policy alternatives which demand the full inclusion of gender perspectives and women in all decision-making processes and requires an understanding of how gender relates to race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation and culture. Together with the IGLHRC, it released a report Written Out: How Sexuality is Used to Attack Women’s Organizing.

Information Monitor (INFORM)
INFORM is a Sri Lankan human rights organisation with a special focus on monitoring, documentation human rights in the country. It also functions as a library and documentation centre for journalists, students and others seeking information regarding the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. It was the local host of the International Consultation on Women Human Rights Defenders and it took the initiative to begin writing this guidebook.

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC)
www.iglhrc.org
IGLHRC works to secure the full enjoyment of the human rights of all people and communities subject to discrimination or abuse on the basis of sexual orientation or expression, gender identity or expression, and/or HIV status. A US-based organisation, IGLHRC engages in advocacy, documentation, coalition building, public education, and technical assistance. Particularly, it helps educate its constituencies about human rights and sexual orientation/gender identity. It co-published with CWGL the report Written Out: How Sexuality is Used to Attack Women’s Organizing.  It also runs international alert on lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and other activists at risk.

ISIS Women’s International Cross-Cultural Exchange (ISIS-WICCE)
www.isis.or.ug
ISIS-WICCE is a global action oriented women’s resource centre with the aim of promoting justice and women’s human rights through documentation of women’s realities and sharing of information and ideas to improve women’s status and overcome gender inequality. Since its relocation in Kampala, Uganda, it has focused on building women’s capacity in documentation, peace building and conflict resolution; and the use of information and communication technologies for networking, lobbying and advocacy. It has been the subject of harassment from conservative forces in Uganda as a member of the V Day Host Committee that planned to stage the play “The Vagina Monologues” by Eve Ensler.

The Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights
(CLADEM)
www.cladem.org
ISIS-WICCE is a global action oriented women’s resource centre with the aim of promoting justice and women’s human rights through documentation of women’s realities and sharing of information and ideas to improve women’s status and overcome gender inequality. Since its relocation in Kampala, Uganda, it has focused on building women’s capacity in documentation, peace building and conflict resolution; and the use of information and communication technologies for networking, lobbying and advocacy. It has been the subject of harassment from conservative forces in Uganda as a member of the V Day Host Committee that planned to stage the play “The Vagina Monologues” by Eve Ensler.

Women Living under Muslim Laws (WLUML)
www.wluml.org
WLUML is an international solidarity network that provides information, support and a collective space for women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws and customs said to derive from Islam. The network demands for women’s equality and their rights, especially in Muslim contexts. It aims to increase the autonomy of women by supporting their local struggles from within Muslim countries and communities; linking them with feminist and progressive groups at large; facilitating interaction, exchanges and contacts; and providing information as well as serving as a channel of communication.  WLUML produces analytical pieces on fundamentalisms and runs urgent appeals for women human rights defenders at risk in Muslim countries.

World Organisation against Torture (OMCT)
www.omct.org
OMCT is an international coalition of over 260 NGOs in 85 countries, including the SOS-Torture Network, fighting against torture, arbitrary detention, summary and extra judicial executions, forced disappearances and all other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. In response to the increasing number of cases on gender-specific forms of violence, OMCT established in 1996 the Violence against Women (VAW) Programme, which addresses and analyses the gender-related causes and consequences of torture and other forms of violence against women. The OMCT VAW Programme issues urgent appeals concerning gender-based violence; submits alternative country reports on violence against women to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; and mainstreams a gender perspective into the work of the UN treaty monitoring bodies. Together with FIDH, it runs The Observatory for Human Rights Defenders, which issues urgent appeals on human rights defenders and other defenders under threat.

www.frontlinedefenders.org          
Front Line is an international foundation for the protection of human rights defenders, defending those who champion the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its main focus is on human rights defenders at risk, either temporarily or permanently because of their work. It aims to address some of the needs identified by defenders themselves, including protection, networking, training and access to the thematic and country mechanisms of the UN and other regional bodies. Every two years, it hosts the ‘Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders’, which provides an opportunity for human rights defenders, including women, to come together from an international exchange of experiences and issues. Front Line also provides emergency support and funding to defenders at risk.

www.ishr.ch                
ISHR is an international association that promotes the effective protection of human rights defenders and aims to empower human rights organisations and individuals to access and use human rights mechanisms at regional, national and international levels. It services human rights defenders by providing analytical reports on the UN human rights mechanisms, training on how to use the international norms and procedures, strategic advice for effective lobbying, contributions to human rights standard-setting, practical information and logistical support to enable human rights defenders to take full advantage of international human rights law and procedures.  It organises consultations on women human rights defenders in many countries in Latin America, Middle East and Africa.

Human Rights First
www.humanrightsfirst.org         
Human Rights First is an international human rights organisation based in New York and Washington D.C. It helps promote and protect human rights and the rule of law through the following strategies:  advocacy for change at the highest levels of national and international policymaking; seeking justice through the courts; raising awareness and understanding through the media; building coalitions among those with divergent views and mobilising people to act. Human Rights First runs a programme on human rights defenders through which it has established a human rights defender alert network.  The network includes urgent appeals for women human rights defenders at risk.

Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights (UAF)
www.urgentactionfund.org
UAF is an independent organisation with a strategic mandate to protect and promote women’s human rights through rapid response grantmaking.  It also engages in collaborative initiatives, research and publications.  Grounded in a human rights framework, and focused on women in civil society, UAF supports women human rights defenders responding to conflict and crisis around the world.  It offers emergency funding to respond immediately to the needs of women human rights defenders at risk.