We act as an umbrella organisation for the various, diverse widows associations and organisations within their countries.

We establish networks of partnership to exchange information and best practice.

We provide aide-memoires to the Committee of the convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), providing evidence of the status of widows in reporting countries.

Our mission is to ensure that widows have a voice at peace negotiation tables, since widows and wives of the disappeared confront specific problems vastly different from those of other women.

Our Widows’ Charter provides leverage to inform and influence law reform and the drafting of new constitutions in the post-conflict transition period.

We provide training on how to utilise the international and national laws to protect and promote the human rights of widows.

In the context of the UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) 1325 and 1820, on women’s roles in peace-building and the elimination of sexual violence, we support efforts of widows’ organisations in the country to have their voices heard at international conferences.

WPD supports widows associations to lobby governments, donors, and the international community, to focus on this most neglected of all gender and human rights issues.

We actively encourage the establishment of national federations of widows’ groups in every country where widowhood is a problem. The support and training we give empowers these federations to found their own regional groups giving widows a voice at local, national, and regional levels.