Overview
Every day, women and girls around the world face violence and discrimination. Sexual exploitation, violence, harmful cultural practices, and systemic inequalities violate their human rights and prevent them from reaching their potential.
Equality Now uses regional and international human rights law to hold governments accountable for their promises and to bring local issues to the attention of human rights bodies.
Equality Now’s work at a glance
Overturning sex discriminatory laws. Almost 60% of the discriminatory laws we’ve highlighted since 1999 have been fully or partially reformed.
Highlighting the urgent need for family law reform. Unafraid of difficult issues, we’re working with activists committed to tackling inequalities in family law, including distribution of marital wealth, child marriage, divorce, and custody.
Ending impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence. From Georgia and Kenya to India and Bolivia, we work with partners to hold states accountable to their international obligations and ensure they enact and effectively implement laws that protect and promote the rights of women and girls to live free from sexual violence.
Our work
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Key resources
Ending Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Women and Girls: A Call for International Standards
Online sexual exploitation and abuse are growing at an alarming pace globally. Women and girls are particularly vulnerable as offenders take advantage of the sex, gender, …
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Statute of Limitations
A statute of limitations is a law that sets the amount of time (usually specified in years) that a victim has to comeforward and report a crime before prosecution is no longer possible. Applied to sexual violence cases, statutes oflimitations add an additional roadblock …
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Consent-based Rape Definitions
Definitions of rape need to be based on voluntary, genuine, and willing consent and recognize a broad range of coercive circumstances where consent cannot be voluntary, genuine, or willing and where the victim is incapable of giving consent. Concerningly, …
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None of us can afford to sit back and wait for equality to arrive – we need to act now. Only by working together will we achieve the legal and systemic change needed to address violence and discrimination against women and girls.
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Social change begins with legal change and people like you — raising your voice against injustice — play a vital role in our collective success.
Take action
Eliminate the ERA Deadline
Surprisingly, women are not protected by the U.S. Constitution. Join our campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment by calling on your Senators to support the elimination of the ERA deadline. Take action today and tell Congress there is #NoDeadlineOnEquality …
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Justice over honor: Kuwait should amend its Penal Code to protect women and girls from sexual violence
Kuwait’s Penal Code defines rape as a crime against honor, positioning women and girls as ‘vessels of honor’ rather than recognizing their human right to bodily …
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Lebanon: Give women equal citizenship rights to men under the nationality law
Lebanese nationality laws discriminate against women, preventing them from passing on their nationality to their children and spouses on an equal basis with men. This law has caused Lebanese women …
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