SAFETY FOR VOICES
Safety for voices (SfV) is a collaborative initiative supporting the safety, care and collective protection of Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) in the face of evolving threats, including in the digital domain. Grounded in feminist holistic protection principles, Sfv brings together the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Urgent Action Fund Africa, and Urgent Action Fund Asia & Pacific and IM-Defensoras.
The initiative has been working since 2023, toward the larger goals of,
Goal 1
Preventing risks and unsafe situations for WHRDs through the provision of holistic safety resources.
Goal 2
Protecting WHRDs at immediate risk, during times of crisis and in conflict zones, through the provision of adequate and timely resources and support.
Goal 3
Enhancing the legitimacy of WHRDs’ work through enactment, strengthening, and implementation of relevant laws and policies and creation of formal, gender-sensitive support structures.
To attain results towards these objectives, Safety for Voices has various intervenions within physical, virtual, legal and policy spaces, incorporating an intersectional feminist approach in design, methodology and assessment layers, ensuring that both external and internal factors that contribute to safety challenges for WHRDs are identified, documented and addressed.
As a consortium of women-led organisations, informed by a Feminist Holistic Protection (FHP) framework, the programme is cognisant of the deep-rooted structural and systemic inequalities faced by WHRDs and primarily focuses on their safety. Thus, Safety for Voices centres the safety of WHRDs, across the world, encompassing not only the regions represented by the consortium members, but globally through cross-regional collaborations to create stronger feminist networks.
The initiative sees technology as an essential element to address at both the capacities and policy levels. The integrated approach to safety also means paying special attention to technology, both as an enabler of human rights defence and as a tool that has been abused to create safety challenges for WHRDs.
All four members of the consortium work primarily in global South countries and have extensive networks of WHRDs across the regions, giving them access to knowledge and support structures that are not Eurocentric and are grounded in the lived realities of the WHRDs. For these reasons, Safety for Voices focuses on WHRDs located in the global South as the primary beneficiary group.