Today is International Women Human Rights Defenders Day. In recognition of this important day, AWID collaborated with the Guardian to publish Remembering women killed fighting for human rights in 2017. 25 women are profiled in the piece.
While thousands of men defend human rights, women face particular challenges for their activism. They are targeted for who they are, as women, not just because they are protesting. In countries that view a woman’s role as being in the home, female human rights defenders are more prone to attack than men because they are seen as breaking social norms.
To mark international Women Human Rights Defenders’ Day on Wednesday, we honour some of the women who have been killed this year.
TruthOut published a timely op-ed titled, Calling Out Violence Against Women Human Rights and Environmental Defenders. Author Jeanette Sequeira wrote about the violence women face in defending the environment.
Our legal and policy frameworks are giving more fuel to our prevailing neoliberal economic model. This allows tolerance and lack of accountability around corporate-led land grabbing and violent and patriarchal criminalization of Indigenous Peoples and women. This is the same neoliberal model that worsens patriarchy and gender inequality, disrupts communities’ rights. It is clear that we need an alternative model and vision for development, that respects communities right to food, water, nature and simply, to life.