Reducing Discrimination and Violence Against Women

Focus Areas

Application Guidelines  |  Grantee List

Where equality is lacking in law and practice, and where conflict breaks out and security is compromised, women and girls are vulnerable to violence often perpetuated with total impunity by regular armed forces and armed civilians. This legacy of violence can pervade society for generations.

Respect for human rights is vital to the rule of law and good governance. Many governments fail to adopt and enforce laws that protect women and to stop practices that discriminate against them and harm them.

The International Women’s Program supports initiatives that seek to:

• strengthen legal frameworks and enforcement mechanisms that focus on women’s rights;
• build civil society’s capacity to hold governments accountable to implement laws that promote and protect women’s rights; and
• increase women’s capacity to understand and assert their rights.

Geographical Coverage

The International Women’s Program has limited its focus for the next two years to the following countries: Nepal, Colombia, Guatemala, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Palestine, Iraq, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The program will continue to support organizations in Tajikistan, Burma, Cambodia, and Lebanon at a lower scale.

The program supports initiatives of regional or multicountry scope with the objectives of supporting women’s rights advocates sharing experiences, strategies and best practices; creating international, regional and subbing regional initiatives and networks; and promoting access to information.