It is with great sadness that we learnt of the recent passing of Carmen de la Cruz, a strong activist who strived for women’s rights and gender equality in Europe, Latin America and worldwide. Since its early days, Carmen was an active contributor to WIDE’s mission and, throughout the years, she was involved in the network in many different capacities- as a representative of the Spanish national platform, an active member of various working groups, a contributor in many of its research and positions papers. Most notably she was WIDE’s Chairperson from 1998 till 2001. In recent years, she was a co-organizer of different WIDE+ events, including the 2015 workshop: “Women’s Human Rights and the Gender Justice in the post-2015 era” and the 2016 conference: “Movement, borders, rights, feminist perspectives on global issues in Europe”.
Carmen not only always contributed her strong commitment, her hard-work and lucidity to WIDE and WIDE+, she was also a passionate feminist and a determined networker who connected other activists like her and truly supported her younger colleagues on their path to empowerment. Carmen, we will always remember you very dearly, THANK YOU for everything you did for making this world a better place, for WIDE, WIDE+, and for us.
Carmen de la Cruz speaking with participants during the 2015 WIDE+ workshop