On this Human Rights Day, the WAVE Network reaffirms a fundamental truth: we are one humanity, bound together by rights that belong to us all. Human rights are not abstract principles or bureaucratic hurdles. They are the foundation of our shared future and inseparable from our collective wellbeing.

As we close the 16 Days of Activism to end violence against women, we recognise that this moment calls for more than acknowledgement. It calls for us to see ourselves in one another, to build longer tables instead of higher walls, and to remember that what happens to one of us matters to all of us.

The Fractures We See

In 2025, we have been witnessing a troubling shift. Human rights were once understood as universal and now are increasingly dismissed as red tape or luxuries we can no longer afford. Across multiple regions torn by conflict, in rising inequalities, and in protections being rolled back for women and the most vulnerable, we see what happens when rights are treated as negotiable rather than foundational.

This isn’t happening in isolation. When women’s rights are pushed aside as secondary concerns, when refugees are turned away from safety, when people of colour face discrimination, when people with disabilities are excluded from spaces that should be accessible to all, when young people’s voices are dismissed in decisions that shape their futures, these are not separate crises but fractures in our shared foundation. When those bonds break, we all feel the impact.

What Holds Us Together

Yet even as we name these challenges, we see something more powerful: people who refuse to let those bonds break.

Every day across Europe, more than 1,600 women’s specialist services in the WAVE Network open their doors to survivors of violence, providing not just shelter but trauma-informed support and real pathways to recovery. Young activists are rightfully leading the way in addressing technology-facilitated violence and demanding accountability for online harm. People with disabilities navigate systems never designed with them in mind, yet persist in fighting for genuine accessibility and inclusion. People of colour challenge the discrimination that compounds violence, pushing for intersectionality to become practice, not just theory.

Volunteers stand at borders offering dignity to migrants and refugees: water, blankets, recognition that they matter. Civil society organisations deliver food and medical care to communities devastated by conflict. Leaders in some corners still stand firm, resisting the politics of division, understanding that our differences strengthen us when built on shared rights.

These are not symbolic gestures, but quiet, persistent acts that rebuild the social fabric others try to tear down. They’re proof that another way is already happening, not in theory, but in the everyday choices of people who believe we belong to each other.

Rights Are Interconnected, And So Are We

Human Rights Day reminds us that no right exists in isolation. The right to life depends on the right to safety. The right to safety depends on access to justice. Access to justice depends on equality and non-discrimination. And equality cannot exist while half of humanity, women and girls, face systemic violence and exclusion.

Women’s rights are human rights. At WAVE, we work to ensure that a world of dignity and justice for women and girls is possible. A world where people do not face violence simply because of their gender. When we protect survivors, when we fund the specialist services that save lives, we strengthen the entire framework of human rights.

Women’s specialist services prove something crucial every single day: recovery is possible, and survivors can rebuild their lives when they have access to the right support. This is not a privilege to be rationed but a protection that must be guaranteed.

All Of Us, Together

The path forward needs all of us. It needs the frontline workers: feminist organisations, human rights defenders, activists, service providers who show us daily what it means to centre care and dignity in our responses to violence and crisis. It needs governments to move beyond rhetoric and provide the sustainable funding and political will necessary to uphold their obligations. And it needs each of us to seek common ground, to resist narratives that pit us against one another, to remember that we belong to each other.

Our differences do not divide us. They are threads that, woven with respect and solidarity, create something far stronger than uniformity ever could. Likewise, Human rights aren’t obstacles. They’re the architecture of the world we’re trying to build together. They’re the promise that every person, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, ability, age, origin, or circumstance, deserves safety, dignity, and the chance to live without violence.

As a pan-European network, WAVE knows that real change happens through connection. The counsellor supporting a survivor in Vienna, the advocate protecting refugees in Athens, the activist challenging harmful laws in Ankara, the service provider offering shelter in Tbilisi – they’re all doing the same essential work: building a future where human rights are real, accessible, and universal.

Together, we are stronger.

WAVE Network
Empowering Women. Ending Violence. Building One Humanity.