The AJWS community has a lot to say about what's happening in the world. Read our insights about the struggle for justice and human rights around the globe.
Here in the United States, it can feel like there is a new attack on our human rights every week — a new headline to make us doubt the strength of our own democracy. As we write this, Americans’ autonomy over their own bodies and reproductive choices is no longer guaranteed. Our ability to safely …Read More
Last month, the world lost a transformational giant in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Urvashi Vaid was a pioneering social justice activist, attorney and award-winning author. She was also one of my great human rights teachers. Urvashi was bold, unflinching, driven. She brought the question of race, nationality and ethnicity into the LGBT space in the …Read More
In Thiaroye, Senegal—less than 10 miles from the country’s bustling, metropolitan capital of Dakar—a rusty metal gate separates bumper-to-bumper traffic and densely-packed produce markets from a painful but forgotten piece of Senegalese history. Inside the gate, the noise of the city disappears. Tall palms offer some shade, but the sun bears down on unmarked stone …Read More
In honor of Pride Month, AJWS asked LGBTQI+ activists around the world what Pride means for them. Koyel Ghosh, a managing trustee at AJWS grantee Sappho in India, shared: “You cannot experience Pride individually; it’s a collective feeling of Pride when we are able to do things for the community that has given us so …Read More
In Kenya, seven women die every single day from complications related to unsafe abortions — conducted at home or in backstreet clinics, often using dangerous methods like knitting needles or bleach. This astounding figure, far higher than the global average, is directly correlated to a simple fact: while abortion is a constitutional right in Kenya …Read More
Photos courtesy of EMAC Empowering Marginalized Communities (EMAC), an AJWS grantee partner in Kenya, has two major goals supporting their local network of LGBTQI+ organizations and fighting against anti-LGBTQI+ stigma in their communities. Amazingly, they found a way to meet both in the most unlikely place: a chicken coop. EMAC supports grassroots groups of LGBTQI+ …Read More