ADLIGA was created from a simple yet profound conviction: democracy cannot flourish where women are excluded.

For generations, women have played a vital role in sustaining communities, defending human dignity, preserving social cohesion, transmitting knowledge, and resisting authoritarianism. Yet throughout history, women have repeatedly found themselves excluded not only from political institutions and decision-making processes, but also from the production of knowledge, the shaping of public narratives, and the definition of what is recognised as politically relevant and socially valuable.

The question that has guided ADLIGA since its earliest beginnings is therefore not merely a question of women’s rights. It is a question of citizenship.

Who has the right to participate in public life? Whose experiences are recognised as politically meaningful? Whose knowledge is considered legitimate? Who is allowed to influence the decisions that shape our collective future? And who is denied the possibility to belong?

These questions remain as urgent today as ever.

Across Europe and neighbouring regions, democratic backsliding, political repression, armed conflict, forced displacement, shrinking civic space, and growing social polarisation continue to undermine both democratic institutions and women’s participation in public life. Women who defend human rights, engage in civic initiatives, contribute to public debate, create independent cultural spaces, challenge discrimination, produce critical knowledge, or resist authoritarian practices often face intimidation, exclusion, violence, persecution, and exile.

ADLIGA emerged in response to these realities and in response to a broader democratic challenge that extends beyond individual crises.

We believe that the struggle for women’s rights cannot be separated from the struggle for democracy itself. Whenever women are excluded from participation, democratic institutions become weaker. Whenever women’s voices are silenced, societies lose diversity, resilience, creativity, and the capacity for self-renewal. Whenever women are pushed to the margins, democracy loses part of its social foundation.

For this reason, our mission is not limited to protecting women from harm. Our mission is to ensure that women affected by repression, conflict, displacement, political persecution, discrimination, or exclusion remain visible, active, connected, influential, and able to participate fully in shaping the societies in which they live.

ADLIGA works with women affected by authoritarianism, political repression, armed conflict, forced displacement, exile, discrimination and shrinking civic space. Through education, research, leadership development, civic participation initiatives, solidarity networks, public dialogue and advocacy, we seek to strengthen women’s ability to participate in democratic life and contribute to social change.

We seek to create conditions in which women can continue exercising their rights, contributing their knowledge and experience, building communities, influencing public debates, and participating in democratic life regardless of the obstacles they face. We work not only to respond to immediate challenges but also to strengthen the long-term democratic capacities that allow individuals and communities to withstand crises, recover from them, and transform them into opportunities for social change.

Our work is guided by three interconnected principles: Protection, Participation, and Power.

Protection

We believe that safety is a precondition for democracy.

No meaningful participation is possible where fear, insecurity, violence, repression, or persecution dominate everyday life. Protection therefore means far more than emergency assistance. It means preserving dignity, safeguarding agency, building solidarity networks, creating spaces of belonging, and ensuring that women remain connected to communities, opportunities, and democratic processes even under the most difficult circumstances.

Protection preserves the possibility of participation.

Participation

We believe that democracy is sustained not only by institutions but by active citizens.

Participation extends beyond elections and formal political structures. It includes civic engagement, education, public dialogue, cultural expression, advocacy, community leadership, and collective action. It is through participation that individuals become citizens, communities become democratic actors, and societies develop the capacity to shape their own futures.

Participation transforms experience into action and belonging into citizenship.

Power

We believe that democratic transformation requires influence.

Women need not only access to participation but also the ability to shape institutions, public narratives, policies, knowledge systems, and collective futures. For ADLIGA, power is not a form of domination but a form of democratic capacity. It is the ability to generate ideas, challenge exclusionary structures, influence public discourse, create alternatives, and contribute to lasting social change.

Power transforms participation into impact.

We also believe that democratic transformation requires knowledge.

Authoritarian systems are sustained not only through repression but also through the control of narratives, memory, expertise, and public discourse. For this reason, ADLIGA considers research, education, critical reflection, and feminist knowledge production to be essential democratic practices rather than supplementary activities. Knowledge creates the conditions under which societies can question inherited inequalities, imagine alternatives, and build more inclusive futures.

Our understanding of change is rooted in a simple principle:

Protection enables participation.

Participation creates influence.

Influence generates power.

When women are safe, they can participate.

When women participate, they build leadership, influence, and collective capacity.

When women gain influence, they contribute to stronger democratic institutions, more inclusive communities, and more resilient societies.

Through this process, individual resilience becomes collective strength, collective strength becomes democratic capacity, and democratic capacity becomes social transformation.

ADLIGA therefore works at the intersection of feminism, democracy, citizenship, human rights, education, civic participation, and knowledge production because we believe that democratic societies can only remain resilient when all people have the opportunity not merely to be represented, but to participate, contribute, influence, and belong.

Women are not merely beneficiaries of democratic development.

They are among its authors, its defenders, and its architects.

Women at Risk. Democracy at Stake.