Promoting Human Rights

 “All humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” United National Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR), Article 1

Global Goods Partners (GGP) works with community based organizations (CBOs) around the world for which advancing human rights is at the core of their mission. By creating income-generating opportunities for women, they promote dignity; by offering education and skills training, they promote democratic participation; by providing access to health care, they promote economic sustainability.

The Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA) offers, as part of its training curriculum, courses for women that explain their rights and legal recourse under Pakistan’s constitution. One such training is entitled Women Have the Right to a Life Without Violence, which teaches women about the options they have to combat domestic violence. PODA also advocates on behalf of the countless Pakistani women denied education and the nearly three million internally-displace persons (IDPs) in the country who formerly lived in the border areas to Afghanistan, and who now face severe restrictions on their movement around the land.

In Peru, the Quechua and Aymara indigenous communities have been severely marginalized, and face systemic discrimination. In addition to the political and social repression faced by these communities, women suffer significant levels of domestic and sexual violence. Manuela Ramos, one of GGP’s partners in Peru, advocates for legislation protecting human rights of Quechua and Aymara women and provides tools to resist chauvinism and protect themselves from violence. Manuela Ramos also provides support and training to women running for office.

Our Burmese partner Women’s Education for Advancement and Empowerment (WEAVE) was founded in 1990 in the wake of rising violence in Burma and the subsequent influx of refugees to the Thai-Burmese border. WEAVE now works in a number of refugee camps along the border, promoting the Women’s Capacity Development Project, which offers educational programs for refugee women. Focusing on topics like women’s studies, community development and peace education, the courses are intended to make women aware of their human rights and to organize their fellow marginalized citizens to effect social change.