Women, Gender and Human Rights: Women's International Organisations and Solidarity with Chile

Abstract

This article analyses the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's (WILPF) and Women's International Democratic Federation's (WIDF) fact-finding missions sent to Chile in 1974. It explains how women's international organisations presented reports and information about human rights abuses during Genera Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship (1973–1990). By using their publications, oral interviews, memoirs and press reports, the study sheds light on the extensive efforts deployed by the WILPF and WIDF to disseminate knowledge and promote actions designed to improve the lives of Chilean women. The article shows that women's international organisations promoted inclusive ideas of rights, including women's particular experiences under military rule, and that such efforts built in the organisations' previous experiences of human rights activism.