Hina Jilani is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and a human-rights activist from Lahore in Punjab. She is the founder of Pakistan’s first all-women law firm, Pakistan’s first legal aid center, and the Women’s Action Forum, an organization focused on campaigning for women’s rights and addressing Pakistan’s discriminatory laws.
Lydia María Cacho Ribeiro is a Mexican journalist, feminist, and human rights activist. Described by Amnesty International as "perhaps Mexico's most famous investigative journalist and women's rights advocate", Cacho's reporting focuses on violence against and sexual abuse of women and children.
Statistics on rape and other sexual assaults are commonly available in industrialized countries, and have become better documented throughout the world. Inconsistent definitions of rape, different rates of reporting, recording, prosecution and conviction for rape can create controversial statistical disparities, and lead to accusations that many rape statistics are unreliable or misleading.
A virginity test is the practice and process of determining whether a woman is a virgin; i.e., to determine that she has never engaged in, or been subjected to, vaginal intercourse. The test typically involves a check for the presence of an intact hymen, typically on the flawed assumption that it can only be, and will always be, torn as a result of vaginal intercourse. It has been practiced since ancient times but its recent use in the United Kingdom dates back to the 1970s. It is still legal for doctors in the United States to perform virginity tests.
Tapestries of Hope is a feature-length documentary that exposes the virgin cleansing myth that if a man rapes a virgin he will be cured of HIV/AIDS. The film focuses on the work human rights activist Betty Makoni has done to protect and re-empower girls who have been victimized through sexual abuse. Tapestries of Hope aims to bring awareness to the widespread abuse of women and girls as well as the efforts of the Girl Child Network and its founder, Betty Makoni.
The rate of sexual violence in South Africa is among the highest recorded in the world. Police statistics of reported rapes as a per capita figure has been dropping in recent years, although the reasons for the drop has not been analysed and it is not known how many rapes go unreported. More women are attacked than men, and children have also been targeted, partly owing to a myth that having sex with a virgin will cure a man of HIV/AIDS. Rape victims are at high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS owing to the high prevalence of the disease in South Africa. "Corrective rape" is also perpetrated against LGBT men and women.
Michealene Cristini Risley is a best selling Author, writer, director and human rights activist. She ran for the Americans Elect nomination for President of the United States in 2012.
Jenni Williams is a Zimbabwean human rights activist and a founder of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). A prominent critic of President Robert Mugabe's government, she was described by The Guardian in 2009 as "one of the most troublesome thorns in Mugabe's side".
The virgin cleansing myth is the belief that having sex with a virgin girl cures a man of HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases.
Ginetta Sagan was an Italian-born American human rights activist best known for her work with Amnesty International on behalf of prisoners of conscience.
Hawa Aden Mohamed is a Somali social activist. She is the founder and executive director of the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development.
Mangala Sharma is a Bhutanese human and women's rights activist, the first winner of the Ginetta Sagan Fund Award in 1997. Born in Tsirang, she was exiled from the country in March 1992 after being outspoken against the government's "One Nation, One People policy and discrimination against ethnic minorities, known as Lhotshampas. Since, she has formed the Bhutanese Refugees Aid for Victims of Violence (BRAVE), a self-help organization dedicated to assisting affected refugees from Bhutan. BRAVE facilitates counseling and training in all eight of the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. In 1995 sharma took some of the women refugees to Beijing in China to the International Women Conference. There she could get the help United States Government, United Nations and Australian Government.
Ljiljana Raičević is a human rights and women's rights activist in Serbia and Montenegro. She was the 2006 laureate of Amnesty International's Ginetta Sagan Fund Award. Raicevic created Montenegro's SOS LINE, the first NGO that in that country which served women by providing resources for women in abusive relationships. After noticing that the women calling the SOS LINE needed additional assistance, such a safe place to stay, as well as medical, psychological, and legal assistance, Raičević established the Women's Safe House, the first shelter in Montenegro for victims of domestic violence. With the Safe House, she successfully lobbied the Parliament of Montenegro for the adoption of a witness protection law.
Rebecca Masika Katsuva was an activist and a survivor of sexual assault from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Julienne Lusenge is a Congolese human rights activist recognized for advocating for survivors of wartime sexual violence. She is co-founder and President of Female Solidarity for Integrated Peace and Development (SOFEPADI) and director of the Congolese Women's Fund (FFC). She is the recipient of the 2018 Women’s International Rights Award from the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy and the 2016 Ginetta Sagan Award from Amnesty International. She received the Human Rights Award from the Embassy of France and named a Knight of the Legion of Honour by the French Government. She was awarded an International Women of Courage Award in 2021. On October 10, 2021, she was awarded the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, at the Armenian Monastery on the island of San Lazzaro in Venice, Italy.
Amal Khalifa Idris Habani is a Sudanese journalist.
Yolanda Becerra Vega is a Colombian feminist and pacifist activist. She is the founder of the National Directorate of the Popular Women's Organization, an entity created in 1972 in the Diocese's Pastoral Ministry, which in 1988 became an autonomous organization based in Barrancabermeja to support women in peaceful resistance against violence and defend peaceful dialogue. She is currently putting her efforts into establishing entities for women such as the construction of a Museum of Memory and Human Rights for Women.
Sexual violence against Tamils in Sri Lanka has occurred repeatedly during the island's long ethnic conflict. The first instances of rape of Tamil women by Sinhalese mobs were documented during the 1958 anti-Tamil pogrom. This continued in the 1960s with the deployment of the Sri Lankan Army in Jaffna, who were reported to have molested and occasionally raped Tamil women.
Jeannine Mukanirwa Tshimpambu is a Congolese women's rights activist. She has been recognised by Amnesty International for her work for women's rights and peace promotion.
Beatrice Mukansinga is a Rwandan women's rights activist who focuses on women who were adversely affected by the Rwanda genocide.
