"We are treated like animals, just because we are widows"
WRI - Two Years Old
Widow’s
Rights International grew out of our initial activities under the
name of Empowering Widows in Development. We changed our name in 2004 to
reflect more clearly the focus of the organization.
Background History of WRI
Widows Rights International (WRI) is 2 years old, and in celebration of the work of our partner organisations, it was decided by the Trustees at their last meeting to dedicate the next editorial letter to a brief history of the organisation.
WRI grew out of an organisation called Empowering Widows in Development (EWD) - the brainchild of Margaret Owen. Margaret, herself recently widowed, on hearing of the abuse of widows in many developing countries, felt that the women’s movement and international humanitarian aid agencies had neglected this issue and determined to raise it in international fora. She launched the idea of setting up EWD at Beijing and through the support of a charity, money was raised to employ a director, and to finance the work of international advocacy. After a year Margaret stepped into the role of Director.
In 1997 EWD was registered as a charity. Its objectives were cited as: “the relief of poverty of widows by providing information, advice and other assistance to institutions and individuals concerned with the welfare of widows” by means of
1) raising awareness of the urgency and importance of issues relating
to the low status of widows,
2) sensitising the public and the international
and development community to the complex negative social and economic
consequences of widowhood,
3) fostering the creation of and support to
widows, widows’ groups
and organisations (grass-roots and national) and women’s and other
organisations working on behalf of widows in developing countries.
In the following years – up to 2001– EWD involvement in the international advocacy aspect of its mission was predominant, with the bulk of the monies raised being deployed to this end. Margaret proved to be an extremely active and convincing advocate for widows’ rights both at the UN and through the publication of her book: “A World of Widows.”
In 2001 Trustees raised funds to hold a conference on widowhood - “Widows Without Rights”- in London to which the EWD network of widows groups were invited to provide their testimonies and to share experiences. The conference was a great success and and greatly helped the Trustees to refocus the work of the trust.
After the Conference, partners from South Asia and Africa met to discuss EWD’s future direction. Lots of ideas were put forward but almost all started from the premise of the need for a strong widows’ rights movement within the wider women’s movement in Africa and South Asia . While partners greatly appreciated the ground breaking international advocacy work of EWD, they wanted widows from the regions to be able to speak for themselves on the general issue of widows’ lack of rights, and the specific forms that this takes in different cultures. The Trustees therefore agreed that EWD should orient its funding toward building indigenous capacity and highlighting work for widow’s rights. It was evident that, given limited funds, the organisation would find it difficult to continue to fund in full international advocacy costs, however this new direction was strongly endorsed by the founder of EWD as the new strategy was very much in line with EWD’s initial objectives.
Later, after considerable discussion the Trustees also decided that we should adopt a name that would more clearly indicate our main focus, widows’ rights, and thus make its mission more evident to potential partners, funding bodies and others. We chose Widows Rights International (WRI) as the name which most clearly represented our aims.
Margaret Owen wished to continue to engage in international advocacy and set up an e-network Widows for Peace through Democracy (WPD) and more recently Widows for Peace and Security. To prevent duplication of efforts and inefficient use of resources, WRI continued to support Margaret Owen by enabling her, when our funds allowed, to participate on a regular basis at the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN. We were also able to facilitate her getting funds from other trusts, and supported her in other ways such as in 2005 getting accreditation for a key speaker at WPD’s roundtable event. Since 2005 our Trustee Patsy Robertson, who has wide experience of working in UN agencies, has attended CSW with the remit of contacting high level delegates so as to promote greater government concern for harmful widowhood practices and the lack of basic human rights for widows
WRI also backs the very worthwhile work undertaken by other organisations which share the same fundamental concerns. The problems faced by widows are still not sufficiently recognised by domestic governments or international organisations. It is however the Trustees’ firm conviction that WRI’s role must be to promote the development of a strong community based movement for widows’ rights in the countries where widowhood customs and practices most harm women and their children. Such groups can then take up the pledges made by government at international meetings and demand the necessary changes in the law or in practice. While the WRI focus remains on rights for widows, we do highlight in our newsletter the work of other organisations which concentrate on other areas of concern, as well as reproducing articles from other organisations, newspapers etc. We use our website to share information and initiatives such as the widow’s charter being promoted by WPD, research findings, reports from CSW etc
Currently WRI supports a number of widows groups in Africa and South and West Asia and has funded the attendance of partners at regional meetings, and the development of an intra-national network of activist groups. WRI also funds primary research into the situation of widows. Given the serious lack of reliable information on the condition and position of widows, and the laws and policy instruments, or lack of them, which provide support for widows in most African countries and many South Asian countries, this research is vital. As there are many other worthy groups we are anxious to support, we are actively engaged in seeking funds to do this
We look forward to working with existing and new partners as the years pass and look forward to a time when an organisation for human rights for widows is neither essential nor necessary. But that time has yet to arrive and so we continue to work hard for that day along with like-minded organisations.
The Trustees