Women’s Rights are Human Rights Program

          The WRHRP core project is the Women’s Rights are Human Rights annual conference born out of the concerning conditions in the prisons housing women in Hawaii. On International Women’s Day, HIHR hosts the female forum to eradicate all forms of discrimination against women and empower women and men to work together toward peace. This project moves beyond conversation toward constructive action with multiple results at the conclusion of the day such as a Maui League of Women Voters created as well as a Patsy Mink Women’s Center with the aspiration of providing women’s studies classes at the college.  Another important development from the conferences has been taking information of the incarceration of indigenous women and having students from Hawaii participate at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on theme of Indigenous Women providing first hand information to the experts to be included in the global report.

          The Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Project is in collaboration with Women Helping Women and other women’s groups in Hawaii.  Beyond the candlelight vigils and creative community actions such as These Hands Don’t Hurt campaign and Men Against Violence Marches, HIHR works with the community to increase the peace. HIHR is exploring for CEDAW to be adopted at the county, state and ratified by the U.S.

          The Gender Justice Film Festival features cutting edge documentary and independent footage for human rights. HIHR hosted a female filmmaker that went to trace the route of sex trafficking to share skills of cinema and strategies to stop these human rights violations while also empowering the women to live with dignity and determine their future.