footnotes.¹

At a time when the humanitarian sector is being stretched to its limits, Footage was grateful to participate and share with a global community of advocates, activists and academics at the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69). This year, 2025, commemorating 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, saw the Footage team taking part in multiple transformative events and connecting with those who share our vision for social justice, human rights, and equity.  In an increasingly fractured world, we remain anchored in the belief that compassion is not a luxury — but a necessity. For more than 15 years, compassion, including self-compassion has been central to Footage’s theory of change—rooted in how we listen, connect, and respond to the lived realities of women and gender-diverse people. That commitment feels more essential now than ever. In the spirit of compassionate advocacy, our main event, “Compassion in Action: Feminist and Narrat...

From Mexico City in 1975 to Beijing in 1995 to the celebration of Beijing +30 at the United Nations Commission of the Status of Women (CSW69) this March, an evolution of ideas and strategies leading to the formulation of Feminist Foreign Policies (FFPs) have emerged as transformative approach rooted in principles of gender equality, human rights, and social justice. In a world where these principles face increasing erosion and threat feminist activists can harness FFPs as a tool to support fragmented gender equality efforts on a global scale, ensuring that they serve the interests of marginalized communities whose voices are often ignored and silenced. by Dr. Kristen Ali Eglinton Feminist Foreign Policy did not emerge in a vacuum. It stands on the foundation of decades of feminist activism—on the voices, struggles, and strategies of those who came before us. In this brief article, I focus on a particular kind of Feminist Foreign Policy—one that is deeply rooted in praxis; that is, on ...

Footage's FemSMS is an informational project, specifically for Ukrainian women, launched shortly after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. It focuses on those living in conflict zones, survivors of gender-based violence, or those forced to relocate because of war. FemSMS aims to provide emotional and psychological support, help women overcome trauma, and inform them about ways to maintain their mental and physical health and safety through compassionate SMS messages.  "The feeling that I am not alone, that someone cares about me," says one of the Ukrainian women who, like many others, faces the challenges of living in a war zone. Thanks to the FemSMS initiative, she feels supported in navigating this difficult experience. The initiative was implemented by Footage in partnership with non-profit organizations, Project Kesher and Project Kesher Ukraine . Since the project's launch, Ukrainian women who subscribe to the FemSMS service have recei...

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), is the proposed 28th amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee equal rights to all people regardless of sex. The ERA was first proposed more than a century ago and finally passed the threshold for ratification in 2020 when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify. When President Trump took office in 2017, ERA supporters expressed concern that the incoming administration’s priorities—conservative judicial appointments, skeptical attitudes toward new constitutional amendments, a desire to roll back certain equality measures, and the refusal to acknowledge ratification beyond the original deadline—would slow or even prevent the ERA’s long-awaited addition to the U.S. Constitution. Recently there have been calls from organizations like Indivisible.org for President Biden to instruct the National Archivist to publish and certify the ERA before he leaves office in January 2025. Certification of the ERA by the Archivist now would both guarantee equa...

In September 2019 we worked with Hamrin Hanan, who we met in the Skaramagas refugee camp in Greece. Hamrin participated in Footage’s Her{connect}Her program to create and publish this book. In her book, through her writing and illustrations, she shares her experiences of the devastation that the outbreak of war in Syria had wreaked on her family, her home and her community in Afrin, Northern Syria. Her narrative paints painful testimony to unendurable trauma of war and its impact on women and girls who are subjected to sexual violence as a weapon and means of subjugation and degradation.  Here’s a reminder from her book about the Syrian war which started March 15th, 2011: "It was the worst day of my life, a day that shattered all my dreams and ambitions, destroying homes, killing children and innocents. I was thirteen years old, I left school due to the raids that threatened my life with each bullet, I was behind in my studies and stayed home, counting the faraway sounds of bull...