We are
Women’s Platform
Women’s Platform connects the women’s sector in Northern Ireland to international networks and human rights mechanisms. Our role is to amplify the voices of women and girls in Northern Ireland at the international level, including at the UN. Locally, we build capacity on international human rights standards to help women and girls in Northern Ireland achieve equality, diversity and full participation in decision making.
Our Purpose
It's our story and yours
Women’s Platform is a feminist membership organisation working to achieve gender equality for women and girls in Northern Ireland and make their voices heard in Northern Ireland heard at national and international level.
Our vision is of a Northern Ireland where women and girls, in all our diversity, can live our lives as we choose, in safety and with dignity, free from misogynistic and patriarchal pressures and stereotypes, and supported by policies that meet our needs.
Read moreExploring networks for women peacebuilders: Findings
We are delighted to publish two new reports from a project that explored interest in international networking among women peacebuilders in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Colombia. Findings highlight that there is strong interest in building networks, which participants in this early feasibility study felt would support information sharing, solidarity and developing effective action. However, findings also show that women working within peacebuilding are already at capacity, and developing networks requires resourcing, in terms of time, resources and funding.
Women’s Platform was delighted to work with Gender Action in Peace and Security, who supported engagement with women peacebuilders in Iraq and Colombia. This project identifed clear recommendations for next steps, and there was also significant learning on effective, inclusive and supportive models for engaging with women peacebuilders across (post)conflict regions. The next stage will involve exploring opportunities to develop further work based on project recommendations.
The project included commissioning research into the extent of international networking of women peacebuilders in Northern Ireland, which shows that there has been extensive networking in some areas, but that networks have developed organically and built on key relationships. The evidence base report, produced by Dr Avila Kilmurray through the Social Change Initiative, also sets out clear recommendations supporting resourcing and effective structuring of further networks.
This project was developed and delivered in collaboration with the Northern Ireland Office and supported by the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office through the UK National Action Plan for women, peace and security.
New podcast episode! Making rights real: Rights for all
We’re delighted to launch Episode5 of our podcast series Making Rights Real. This episode explores how rights based policy making can effectively support women from migrant, refugee, asylum seeker and ethnic minority backgrounds. Guests in this episode are Julia Fitzpatrick from Migrant Centre NI and Risa Basselin, who highlight experiences of women from a diversity of backgrounds living in Northern Ireland.
Making rights real is our new podcast series, looking at what human rights mean in practical, everyday life with experts from Northern Ireland and across Europe. The series aims to demystify international human rights standards and connect them to women’s daily lives, to look at how rights based approaches can create better societies for women and girls. We also share good practice from elsewhere in the UK, Ireland and Europe.
The podcast is available below, and also available for free via Podbean, YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music.
Our International Networks
