Women fight for a voice, space in civil society
The space for civil society organizations is shrinking around the world, with particular impacts on women activists and human rights defenders who face additional barriers due to their gender.
Civil society organizations (CSOS) and activists from around the world convened in Fiji over the last week to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges, Ipsnews reported.
Participants attended workshops and donned shirts saying “activism is the rent I pay for living on this planet” and “we will never give up on our beautiful planet.”
Among the challenges discussed is the rise in populism which has led to restrictions in rights to expression and public assembly and thus actions taken by CSOS.
According to civil society alliance CIVICUS, only two of every 100 people live in a country with decent protections for civil society.
From Venezuela to Russia, state actors have put significant pressure on CSOS, preventing them from accessing foreign funding and registrations due to their role in defending human rights.
“When there is little or no support from government, the activist is in danger of discrimination and abuse by police and other authorities,” Pacific Women Advisory Board member Savina Nongebatu told IPS.
Human rights defenders (HRDS) have been increasingly subject to intimidation, harassment, and are at times killed for the work they do around the world.
Last year was the deadliest year ever recorded for HRDS with almost 300 killed across 25 countries, 49 percent of whom were defending land, indigenous, and environmental rights.
In addition to threats they face for their work, women human rights defenders (WHRDS) are frequently targeted because of their gender, experiencing attacks that are traditionally perpetrated against women including rape, defamation campaigns, and acid attacks.
Indian tribal rights activist Soni Sori who has been an outspoken critic of police violence towards her community was attacked with a chemical substance in February 2016.
Two years before she was murdered, indigenous and environmental rights activist Berta Caceres said that it was her gender as much as her work that threatened her life.
“We are women who are reclaiming our right to the sovereignty of our bodies and thoughts and political beliefs, to our cultural and spiritual rights — of course the aggression is much greater,” she said.
Analysts have found that the trend of closing civic space and restrictions to civil society often go hand in hand with the intensification of a fundamentalist discourse on national identity and traditional patriarchal values.
Such threats and actions work to silence WHRDS, limiting their resources and capacity to do work in already restricted civic spaces.
“When we have defenders with limited resources and capacity, the possibility of not being heard or consulted is high,” Nongebatu said.
“The ability to work rests squarely on the few women activists who may have learnt to work smarter from lessons learnt in their journey,” she added.
Such threats and restrictions do not stay isolated within borders, but are often brought over to international fora like the UN.
During International Civil Society Week (ICSW) in Fiji, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and former UN Development Program Administrator Helen Clark noted UN’S continuous struggle to include civil society voices, reminding participants that the UN Charter begins with the words “We the peoples.”
“It doesn’t say we the countries or we the member states,” she said, adding that barriers to civil society participation often comes from member states.
“Not all member states like civil society very much…you just have to keep banging on the door and force it to respond,” Clark said.
It was only recently that women were formally recognized for their role in climate action during the UN Climate Change Conference in Germany, kickstarting a process to integrate gender equality and human rights into climate action.