About Us

Who We Are?

Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR) is an autonomous women’s organization founded in 1993, to promote women’s human rights and gender equality. Its name was inspired by the affirmation that “women’s rights are human rights,” declared at the United Nations (UN) World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna the same year. 

WWHR works locally, nationally, and internationally to support women’s participation in all spheres of life as free individuals and equal citizens, based on the belief that lasting social change can only be achieved if women’s rights-based struggles are integrated at all levels. 

Accordingly, WWHR takes a holistic view to women’s human rights, and considers all issues concerning women, including violence against women, education, economic and social rights, civil and political rights, sexuality, and reproductive rights, as being interconnected. To advance and improve national legislation and international documents and mechanisms that pertain to women, WWHR plays an active part in women’s platforms and coalitions in Turkey and abroad. 

In the struggle to achieve women’s human rights and gender equality, WWHR has always collaborated with similar-minded women’s and LGBTI+ organizations since its inception, employing methods such as actionresearch, producing feminist knowledge and publications, training, monitoring, reporting, advocacy, and networking. 

Active now for over three decades, WWHR has been the recipient of numerous awards: 

1999: The Leading Solutions Award by the Association of Women in Development (AWID), for contributions to advancing gender equality and social justice 

2004: Recognition as one of the best tactics worldwide by New Tactics in Human Rights (OMCT), for the Human Rights Education Program for Women (HREP) 

2007: The International Women’s Rights Prize by the Gruber Foundation, for founding the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR) and advocacy work 

2015: The Joan B. Dunlop Award by the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), presented to WWHR’s co-founder Pınar İlkkaracan in support of brave women working to build healthy and safe societies for women and girls 

Our Approach

WWHR strives to promote sustainable social change and transformation to achieve gender equality and the fulfillment of women’s human rights on all levels from the local, to the national, regional, and global. It believes that true and permanent change is only possible when the struggle for women’s rights and equality is carried out on all levels in an integrated manner.

To this end, WWHR adopts a holistic perspective to women’s human rights, with attention to the links concerning women between issues such as violence against women, education, economic and legal rights, sexuality, reproductive rights, the rights of girls, and gender equality. It takes active part in women’s platforms and coalitions in Turkey and abroad in order to develop and ameliorate national legislation as well as international documents and mechanisms in favor of women.

Collaborating with women’s and LGBTIQ organizations with similar objectives in the movement for women’s human rights and gender equality ever since its founding, WWHR combines various methods in its efforts, including action-research, the production and distribution of publications and material, training, monitoring, reporting, advocacy, and network building.

Our Aims

Equip women with critical awareness and skills to exercise their rights and encourage them to become catalysts of social change by developing and implementing training programs on women’s human rights;

Raise awareness on women’s and LGBTIQ rights through capacity building for activists and those working in the field of women’s human rights;

Strengthen efforts to promote equality and nondiscrimination by building international, regional, national, and local solidarity networks that bring together individuals and organizations advocating for women’s rights and gender equality issues;

Engage in active advocacy work on the national and international level to actualize and further women’s human rights and gender equality;

Produce and/or share and disseminate feminist strategies, knowledge, publications and tools useful in pushing back against gender discrimination and supporting organizing efforts.