The FAWCO Human Rights Team is a comprehensive network of advocates working to ensure human rights for all women. The Team will keep members aware of new developments impacting women’s rights, including UN updates, through Human Rights Team Bulletins and other publications. We also engage FAWCO Members in awareness and action campaigns.
It is our goal to leverage FAWCO’s unique strength as a global women’s organization to help end violence and discrimination against women and girls.
Team Committees include:
Economic Empowerment for Women
Ending Violence Against Women
Political Empowerment for Women
Women in Peace and Conflict
Learn more about the issues and download information sheets to share with your club members on the Committee pages.
For current information on resources to aid refugees, please visit the FAWCO UN Team's Current Initiatives page.
All FAWCO members are invited to get involved in their area of interest. If you don’t see yours here, let us know. Please email Therese Hartwell, Chair of the Human Rights Team at to discuss participation.
And sign up to receive the Human Rights Team Bulletin at Subscriptions.
Therese Hartwell, AW Eastern Province Chair, Human Rights Team
Mission Statement:
The FAWCO Refugee Network (FRN) weaves the threads of our amazing FAWCO sisterhood of global citizens to inspire each other, share resources and to directly collaborate across club borders in support of the new neighbors in our communities who have arrived from distant and often dangerous places to begin new lives.
FAWCO supports the work of partner Pathways to Safety, which offers services to Americans abroad who may encounter violence in any form- in their home, their workplace or stranger violence. The mission of Pathways is "We educate Americans traveling and living abroad, giving them tools to stay informed about gender-based violence, and we empower victims to survive and...
The FAWCO Human Rights Team is a comprehensive network of advocates working to ensure human rights for all women. The Team keeps members aware of new developments impacting women’s rights, including UN updates, through Human Rights articles, postings, and other advocacy work. We also engage FAWCO Members in awareness and action campaigns. It is our goal to leverage FAWCO’s unique...
Human Trafficking is not an official committee of the Human Rights Team, but FAWCO has committed to raising awareness and fundraising for organizations actively combatting human trafficking against women around the world.
“The trade in and exploitation of human beings through trafficking is one of the gravest violations of human dignity that exist. The purposes of trafficking in persons range...
Ending Violence Against Women is a Committee of the Human Rights Team, addressing issues of domestic violence and sex trafficking, as well as other forms of violence against women. The Ending Violence Team was created in April 2008 to address issues of domestic violence, human trafficking and sexual exploitation in order to increase awareness and empower those women and children affected. Over the years, the Team has put a spotlight on the issues to get people talking about them. We also promote tangible actions that we can all take to help eradicate these forms of violence. When you look at the facts you see that we still have a long way to go.
1 in 3 women has been sexually assaulted in her lifetime;
Rape continues to be used as a weapon during war and conflict;
Globalization and climate change are having the most profound impacts on women and children who are disproportionately displaced and left without options;
Gender-based violence is an affliction that millions of women and children suffer in silence and shame. Many become victimized by those who are supposed to love and protect them.
Women Peace and Security is a committee within the Human Rights Team. Its goal is to raise awareness about violence against women in conflict zones and the role of women in the peace-keeping process.
The theme of women and conflict resonates with the very origins of FAWCO. According to The Red Book, FAWCO: A History 1931-2011: Caroline Curtis Brown founded FAWCO on the belief that "enlightened women, working cooperatively throughout the world, could do much to help achieve permanent international peace; and that this was especially true of American women living abroad who had acquired special experience in living in foreign lands among foreign people and foreign customs. Their American clubs not only provided a home away from home, she felt, but also served to promote sympathetic awareness of the needs and problems in countries other than the United States." Our founder's words are perhaps even more relevant today than in her own time. In our globally connected world, wars have a real impact on the lives of all of us, even when they occur in a distant land. A peaceful world benefits everyone.