International Alliance of Women

International Alliance of Women
Alliance Internationale des Femmes

Formation	Berlin, 3 June 1904; 120 years ago (1904-06-03)
Founder	Carrie Chapman Catt
Type	INGO
Purpose	Political advocacy
Headquarters	Geneva
Membership	Over 50 organizations world-wide
Official language	English and French
President	Alison Brown
Secretary-General	Miranda Tunica Ruzario
Affiliations	General Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Participatory Status with the Council of Europe
Website	womenalliance.org

The International Alliance of Women (IAW; French: Alliance Internationale des Femmes, AIF) is an international non-governmental organization that works to promote women's rights and gender equality. It was historically the main international organization that campaigned for women's suffrage. IAW stands for an inclusive, intersectional and progressive liberal feminism on the basis of human rights and liberal democracy, and has a liberal internationalist outlook. IAW's principles state that all genders are "born equally free [and are] equally entitled to the free exercise of their individual rights and liberty," that "women's rights are human rights" and that "human rights are universal, indivisible and interrelated."^[1]

In 1904 the Alliance adopted gold (or yellow) as its color, the color associated with the women's suffrage movement in the United States since 1867 and the oldest symbol of women's rights; through the Alliance's influence gold and white became the principal colors of the mainstream international women's suffrage movement.

The basic principle of IAW is that the full and equal enjoyment of human rights is due to all women and girls. It is one of the oldest, largest and most influential organizations in its field. The organization was founded as the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) in 1904 in Berlin, Germany, by Carrie Chapman Catt, Millicent Fawcett, Susan B. Anthony and other leading feminists from around the world to campaign for women's suffrage.^[2] IWSA was headquartered in London, and it was the preeminent international women's suffrage organization. Its emphasis has since shifted to a broad human rights focus and the importance and value of women`'s contributions as equal partners. The perequisite for securing women's rights is the universal ratification and implementation without reservation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Today it represents over 50 organizations world-wide comprising several hundred thousand members, and has its seat in Geneva.It also accepts individual members.

From 1926, the organization had strong ties to the League of Nations. Since 1947, IAW has had general consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the highest UN status possible for a non-governmental organization, the fourth organization to be granted this status. IAW also has participatory status with the Council of Europe. It has representatives at the UN headquarters in New York, the UN office in Geneva, the UN office in Vienna, UNESCO in Paris, the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome and the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. It also has representatives to the Arab League in Cairo and the Gulf Countries Council in Riyadh, and is a member of the European Women's Lobby in Brussels. IAW's working languages are English and French.

IAW understands sexual and gender diversity as an integral part of feminism. Speaking on trans inclusion, former IAW President Marion Böker said that for the women's rights movement, it is necessary to work on the basis of human rights, which are universal and indivisible, defend democratic values, and fight for an inclusive women's movement, describing anti-trans activists as "right-wing and racist."^[3] In 2021 IAW and its Icelandic affiliate co-hosted a forum on the importance of solidarity between the feminist movement and the trans movement, and expressed concern over "anti-trans voices [that] are becoming ever louder and [that] are threatening feminist solidarity across borders."^[4]