The Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD IC) was born in 2005 from the necessity to understand and respond to the gendered dimensions of violence against WHRDs, as well as their needs for support both in urgent responses and long-term security. In order to improve protection of WHRDs and responses––including funding––to violence against them, the WHRD IC created an Urgent Responses Working Group, chaired by AWID. This publication was developed by the working group as a result of the WHRD IC’s collaborative efforts, its analysis of the needs of WHRDs, and a review of existing resources and responses. Effective gender-sensitive responses to WHRDs must go beyond ensuring they have access to existing resources; the specific risks that they face and their circumstances in their families and communities demand an approach that is attentive to the realities of WHRDs, which often differ from their male counterparts.