Vision and Values

Vision

Banúlacht is a feminist organisation and as such is committed to political action and part of a global women's movement. Our vision is of a world where transformed relations of power continually challenge norms and structures of injustice and create new ways of relating based on respect, solidarity and justice for all at personal, local and global levels.

The name ‘Banúlacht’ is derived from the Irish word for women, bean, and means ‘of women’, or ‘related to women’.

Core Values

Banúlacht believes in justice and equality for all women and men and in relationships of solidarity between women North and South. At the heart of our approach is the belief that change is possible and necessary. Our understanding of justice, equality and solidarity is informed by our Feminist Principles. Our work is underpinned by our core values, which are outlined under the following headings:

• Banúlacht is a feminist organisation
• Challenging structures of inequality and proposing alternatives
• Creating a strong collective voice through growing membership
• A feminist perspective on women’s human rights
• Contributing to women’s collective empowerment and debate
• Partnerships and strategic alliances

Language

In challenging global structural inequalities, we use the terms North and South, rather than 'First World/Third World' or 'Developed World/Developing World', which imply superiority and inferiority. While we recognise that no terms adequately reflect diverse realities, we use 'North' to refer to the economically and politically powerful countries of North America, the region of Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand; and 'South' to refer to the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Banúlacht’s Anti-racism Policy states our belief that 'race' as such does not exist. This is why we put the word into inverted commas in our documents.

Banúlacht is a feminist organisation

We see women as active agents for change: women have a key role to play in shaping the social and political contexts of our lives, and have a right to have and to make choices that impact upon us. Banúlacht recognises women-only spaces as key to women-centred practice, and an important basis for sharing experiences and perspectives as women. We also recognise that there is great diversity among women and that women have different experiences, perspectives and priorities. We welcome this diversity but we also recognise that some differences are based on and/or experienced through relationships of inequality that must be challenged. Banúlacht believes that to fully understand the conditions and possibilities of women’s lives we need to explore the interconnections between the local, national, regional and global levels, specifically the interconnections between women in Ireland and women in the global South. This belief is expressed through our particular focus on gender, development, trade and women’s human rights.

Challenging structures of inequality and proposing alternatives

Banúlacht aims to be a critical feminist voice and to play a visible role in challenging existing unequal power structures and proposing alternatives. We carry out policy work in order to inform and influence the development, trade and human rights policies of a range of actors, including State and non-government development organisations. We develop policy positions on gender and development, trade and human rights, as well as internal employment and management policies that are coherent with our values and our core principles as a feminist organisation. We work to strengthen feminist analyses of human rights, trade and development discourses and policies of NGOs, State, regional and international agencies.

Creating a strong collective voice through growing membership

A broad membership within the women’s sector creates the possibilities of creative synergies and strategic connections. Banúlacht is committed to developing our membership base in order to develop a stronger collective voice to articulate the values we promote and the policies we develop, to increase the visibility of the issues we focus on, and to enhance the capacity of key agents within the women’s sector to carry out advocacy informed by our policy positions.

A feminist perspective on women’s human rights

We are committed to a critical holistic human rights perspective. This is a global vision of interconnectedness, which recognises the indivisibility of civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights. We see the international human rights framework of the United Nations, in particular the Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, as global tools for transforming decision-making processes at all political levels. Our work on human rights is underpinned by a feminist perspective and informed by an anti-racist position as a framework for analysis and action. Our approach to women’s human rights includes a critical engagement with the development of human rights frameworks that attempt to recognise, protect and promote women’s rights as human rights.

Contributing to women’s collective empowerment and debate

Banúlacht works primarily through development education and policy work. In our education work, we work through development education processes that are based on the ideals of collective empowerment for social change. Banúlacht regards critical thinking and reflection on the complexities of development issues as an essential tool in addressing the causes of inequality and the multiple effects of global and local power relations, especially on women. Women’s personal experiences are shaped by wider social and political decisions and circumstances; our education strategy is focused upon global themes of particular relevance to the experiences of different women in Ireland and through identifying the synergies between community education and development education. The relationship between the local and the global and the belief that ‘the personal is political and the political is personal’ are at the heart of Banúlacht’s approach to development education. Integrating ‘Southern’ perspectives into development education activities and policy work in an Irish context is integral to Banúlacht’s approach to critical engagement on development issues. We aim to facilitate women in the community education sector to develop their own visions of gender equality globally, and ultimately of a more just and a better world.

Partnerships and strategic alliances

Banúlacht aims to support and be strengthened by the global women’s movement through the creative and dynamic synergies of partnerships and strategic alliances with other feminist and likeminded organisations in Ireland and internationally. As part of the international women’s movement, we actively seek to work in partnership with women’s networks and women’s organisations in Ireland, Europe and in the South. Such partnerships aim to contribute to the transformative potential of the women’s movement and to strengthen alternative perspectives on globalisation through the creation of mutually supportive global strategies for change.