News

March 6, 2024

Interviewer: Louise Rosenbaum

Interviewee: Stephanie Futter-Orel

New Paths for Women’s Rights

 

Stephanie Futter-Orel is the Executive Director of the Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE). She has been a leader and expert for over 14 years in feminist women’s civil society organizations. Stephanie dedicates her career to fighting violence against women and girls (VAWG) and has substantial expertise in directly tackling various forms of VAWG. As WAVE Executive Director, she focuses primarily on the strategic and resource development of the network, ensuring effective international high-level advocacy about the impact of VAWG and the critical role women’s specialist services (WSS) play in preventing and tackling VAWG.

 

Interview Transcript:

 

Louise: What has been most inspiring about your time at the UN?

 

Stephanie: It is inspiring to learn about new tools women's human rights defenders can use to navigate an increasingly hostile global political climate. Another source of inspiration has been learning about possibilities to advocate at the UN level, especially since WAVE has much more advocacy experience at the European level than at the UN level. It has been a source of hope to learn about some UN advocacy strategies, especially as advocacy tackling violence against women by women's rights defenders has become increasingly challenging at the European level. As a result, it has been useful for WAVE to gain these new perspectives. 

 

Louise: You were at the UN this week; tell me more about your advocacy work while you were there.

 

Stephanie: I enjoyed speaking to country representatives on an individual level about the challenges women's civil society that work on combating and preventing violence against women face, as well as the value of their work. It has been wonderful to meet new potential key allies, such as the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, share information on the situation of women's human rights defenders in Europe, and learn which mechanisms exist at the UN level to help hold states accountable for their poor human rights records. 

 

Louise: How has your experience been partnering with The Advocates for Human Rights to protect women's rights? 

 

Stephanie: It has always been a very supportive, inspiring, and collaborative partnership. I enjoy the fact that The Advocates for Human Rights provide different inputs and perspectives on human rights defenders since they operate in the U.S. and in a wide variety of other countries. Through our collaboration, the Advocates have been sharing new methods to support feminist work against gender-based violence. Simultaneously, our members were also able to provide their perspectives on the challenges feminist civil society experiences on a European level. Having the experience to interact with The Advocates has opened new opportunities for developing and growing WAVE's work. 

 

Louise: Why are women's issues so challenging to protect? Can you give me an example?

 

Stephanie: Since there is a history of thousands of years of structural oppression and discrimination against women, it is often invisible to society. These oppressions have been inherently accepted as social norms like violence against women and discrimination against women that frequently intersect with other forms of oppression, such as discrimination based on race, ethnicity, disability, or being undocumented. For instance, it is very challenging to change institutions especially in the area of laws concerned, as they have been established for a long time and been written by and for people, who hold disproportionate power in society - which in most societies means men. Many societal attitudes and stereotypes are hard to change, and it is challenging to change them quickly. These issues must be tackled through a whole of society approach, starting with primary prevention work in schools to tackle stereotypes and gender-based violence from an early age and providing alternative perspectives on the perception of women and healthy relationships. To achieve structural change, sustainable funding and political commitment to make a difference in the long term are indispensable. It is important not to rely only on NGOs to solve structural forms of violence. 

 

Louise: What are the main challenges that WAVE faces in its advocacy efforts at the international and/or domestic level, and how do you navigate them?

 

Stephanie:  Today, we are facing complex challenges across Europe and globally, that disproportionally affect women and girls, including a rise in armed conflict and an organized backlash against women's rights. This backlash takes two forms: 1) on the one hand through direct attacks on established women’s rights like abortion as well as existing protections against violence and the repression of (feminist) civil society, and we notice the same backlash; and 2) more subtly, through increasingly gender-neutral policy making and legislation that gradually denies violence against women as gender-based. However, the gender we live in significantly impacts our access to rights. Ignoring this fact means perpetuating structural violence. Because it is structures and systems that make people more or less vulnerable to violence and discrimination, not their gender, (nor their race, ethnicity or culture). To ultimately end violence against women and girls, we must change the underlying systems that cause it. We navigate these complex challenges by building our capacity as a network. We offer trainings, collaboration on international partner projects, and regranting to our members and women’s specialist services that work directly with women experiencing violence against women. training, international partner projects and regranting. We prioritize building strong alliances with our members and other regional and international civil society organizations to strengthen the collective impact of our advocacy efforts.

 

Louise: Can you describe a project or initiative you've worked on at the UN that you feel has made a significant difference?

 

Stephanie: WAVE and our member organizations implemented a project collaboration funded by UN Women to strengthen implementation of the Istanbul Convention as well as the collaboration between women's civil society organizations in in 7 Western Balkan countries and Türkiye. This was the first time since the end of the Yugoslavian war in 2001 that there was a comprehensive collaboration amongst women’s NGOs in the area. We focused our efforts on implementing the standards of the Istanbul Convention. Our collaboration work created standards for sexual violence services and the collaboration between primary health care providers, like family doctors and hospitals, and women's civil society organizations to more effectively tackle violence against women, especially after it starkly rose during the pandemic. Even though health sector professionals are often the only public agency in contact with women who have been very isolated by an extremely controlling perpetrator of violence against women and girls, doctors and nurses often do not know where to refer women to get appropriate help. In the project partner countries, we established a referral pathway between the health sector and women's specialist services so the women experiencing gender-based violence, could obtain the tailored support they need. 

 

Another positive collaboration between WAVE and an international institution was our collaboration with the OSCE on effectively preventing and tackling violence against women and girls in war and post-war countries, with a related toolkit and training program. The toolkit was collated through the expertise of WAVE member organizations in four countries affected by war and in post-conflict situations and developed essential tools for effectively preventing and meaningfully tackling gender-based violence against women and supporting women survivors. The toolkit presents the harm and challenges posed by conflicts and documents promising first-hand practices with concrete examples from WAVE members in Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine.  

 

The toolkit named "Preventing and responding to gender-based violence during the war and in post-war settings – Experiences and recommendations of women's NGOs," is available in five languages on the WAVE website: TOOLKIT: Preventing and responding to GBV during the war and in post-war settings - WOMEN AGAINST VIOLENCE EUROPE (wave-network.org)

 

Here is a link to a corresponding training manual from 2023 that addresses facilitators who intend to deliver interactive training on conflict-related gender-based violence and the existing best practices/strategies employed by women's organizations: TRAINING MANUAL: Preventing and responding to GBV during the war and in post-war settings - WOMEN AGAINST VIOLENCE EUROPE (wave-network. org)[SF1] 

 

Lastly, multi-agency collaboration is key as we the WAVE network has over 30 years of experience and expertise in supporting women experiencing VAWG, and the UN, as well as other international partner organizations, have access to information or stakeholders which we would otherwise not have access to. 

 

Louise: How do you maintain your motivation and optimism in the face of the significant challenges tackled by the UN?

 

Stephanie: It is sometimes hard, but I keep in mind that so many other women face similar challenges and are also working on making a difference - so together we can create change. I also keep in mind the progress which we have made as a network and more generally as a women’s movement. Systemic change is always hard, and takes time, so every step in the right direction counts and can create significant progress over time. 

 

Louise: What advice would you give to someone aspiring to work for the UN or international relations?

 

Stephanie: See where you can make a difference and follow that instinct - whether that is within an international organization or at civil society level. I would also say that if it doesn't feel right, don't do it.