Women's Human Rights
Overview

Women are human: biologically speaking, there's not much here to debate. But in too many homes, communities and countries worldwide, from the United States to Uganda and beyond, women are not treated as full human beings equal to men, deserving of the same dignity, respect, and opportunity. Women remain the majority of the world's poor, unhealthy, uneducated, and hungry. Even where their rights are spelled out in policy and on paper, millions of women remain second-class citizens.
Only when human rights live in every home can women, men, children, families, neighborhoods, workplaces, communities, institutions, ecosystems, and nations truly thrive.
Breakthrough works to build that world: a world in which everyone regards all others — including women — as fully human, deserving of the same rights and respect we wish for ourselves. We have built women's rights into our programs and campaigns from our founding, beginning with Mann ke Manjeeré and culminating today with the global Ring the Bell: One million men. One million promises campaign calling on men to take concrete action to challenge violence against women. We work to inspire and train the next generation of leaders for women's and human rights. Our lasting impact in this area includes more than:
- 75,000 young people trained to be lifelong ambassadors for local and global women's and human rights through our Rights Advocates program
- 130 million people learned how men can and must stand up against domestic violence through our Bell Bajao campaign, now going global
- 35 million people witnessed the injustice faced by women with HIV/AIDS through our Is this Justice? and What Kind of Man Are You? campaigns
- 7 million people saw the need to stand up for the rights of immigrant women in the U.S. through our #ImHere campaign
- 50,000 adolescent girls came to understand their sexual health and rights through our Rights Advocates program
Join us. Together we can build a world in which all of us are safe in our homes and limitless in our ambitions.
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Be That Guy
Want to win a $50 Visa Gift Card just for watching? Take our quick 30-second survey! AS SEEN IN THE GUARDIAN – AL JAZEERA AMERICA- THE GOOD MEN PROJECT That Guy–like many men–sees women as equals. But That Guy is NOT silent when men treat women otherwise.That guy stands for something better. That Guy is […]
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Bell Bajao’s First Global Champion: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joins Bell Bajao as the first global champion. He invites men all over the world to unite in stopping violence against women.
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Featured ContentView All
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article | Posted: 12/19/2013One year ago, Jyoti Singh Pandey—known in India as Nirbhaya, or “Without Fear”—was brutally raped and murdered in an unimaginable act of violence in a New Delhi neighborhood. Only months before, Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani student and activist, was shot by the Taliban—and, thankfully, survived.
Working to Stop Violence Against Women
article | Posted: 05/13/2013Protesters held a banner against the gang rape of a student in New Delhi, January 13. (Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images) Violence and discrimination against women is a widely discussed topic, but the December gang rape and subsequent death of a student in New Delhi sent shockwaves around the world. New tales of abuse still […]
Not Victims, but Survivors: How to Change India’s Rape Epidemic
article | Posted: 04/05/2013The stage at Lincoln Center was dark. A young Indian woman sat with her back to the audience. She described how, four years ago when she was just 24, a male friend brutally raped her. With a voice that sometimes cracked with emotion, the woman recounted the callousness of police investigators and a defense lawyer […]