Women’s struggles for freedom and equality have been a vibrant part of all social movements for transformation and social justice through history. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote in 1792 in her Vindication of the Rights of Women1 that the struggle for rights of women is located within the personal space – the home and the family; and within the public space – the political and economic world.

Two hundred years later, women activists defined their experiences of violence, subordination and disadvantage as located within patriarchy. Patriarchy is a social formation that gives privilege to male power and separates the public and the private worlds. It constructs ‘gender’ (the socially constructed meaning assigned to the sexes) as a binary of male and female and assigns particular roles and privileges to these.

It assigns to women roles within the private sphere which are attributed lesser value - creating and perpetuating inequality. Patriarchy also privileges heterosexuality, establishing sexual hierarchies and marginalising sexual and gender identities that do not fall within this power dynamics. A pattern of violence, oppression, silencing and marginalisation are used to enforce this value system.

Preface:

Women human rights defenders are women who defend human rights as well as those who defend sexuality-related rights. By naming the specific violations, risks and constraints that they face, this guidebook aims to continue advocacy, research, and documentation, which could advance the rights of women human rights defenders as well as bring further recognition and acknowledgment to their work.

This guidebook provides the basis for continuing engagement with issues regarding the protection of women human rights defenders at both the conceptual and practical levels. It is a contribution towards enriching the use and interpretation of human rights, drawing from the special collaboration among women’s rights, human rights, and sexual rights advocates who produced this guidebook together. As a result, this document demonstrates the many links between human rights, women’s rights, and sexual rights, and represents one specific initiative towards the continuing struggle for the advancement of human rights for all.

The idea to develop a guidebook was first explored in the international campaign on women human rights defenders entitled Defending Women Defending Rights. It was a mobilisation to move the activism for women’s rights forward focusing on the human rights of the activists themselves. The campaign brought together an international coalition of representatives from women’s rights, human rights, and lesbian, gay and transgender movements who were committed in the advocacy for the concerns of women human rights defenders. The campaign was launched in 2004, and it culminated in an international consultation on women human rights defenders in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 29 November – 2 December 2005.

One of the key recommendations from the participants in the consultation was the creation of “a documentation system on violations and abuses against women human rights defenders in order to develop protection mechanisms that are more responsive to their needs”. Claiming Rights, Claiming Justice: A Guidebook on Women Human Rights Defenders was written to respond to this recommendation.

Based on the calls of the campaign, this guidebook was written to highlight the following major categories of perpetrators or political contexts:

- resistance to state violence and repression of women human rights defenders, with a focus on state actors’ responsibility;

- responsibility for violations by non-state actors, including violations perpetrated by family and community members and obstacles faced in those arenas;

- violations perpetrated in relation to heightened fundamentalisms on a global level; and - violations perpetrated in relation to regulation of, and attack on women’s sexuality.

This guidebook reflects the rich perspective of activists working from different areas of expertise and backgrounds. Women human rights defenders from women’s rights, human rights, and gay, lesbian and transgender groups who were involved in the campaign and the international consultation committed themselves to the production of this book. Many of the insights and examples used in this book were drawn from their stories.

In addition, two consultations were organised in Nepal (with participants from South Asia) and in Indonesia (with participants from Asia and the Middle East) to test assumptions and draw more insights from women at the forefront of defending human rights. Ideas and comments coming from those consultations were incorporated in the finalisation of this book.

This guidebook is intended to be of primary use to women human rights defenders themselves as part of a continuous process of acknowledging, validating, and transforming their practical experiences and insights into a body of knowledge, theories and tools for use by them and by others. It is intended to complement current human rights documentation manuals and training, and to further a gender perspective in many of the existing human rights documentation and monitoring systems.

It is our hope that this guidebook will support the courageous women human rights defenders who work for the promotion and protection of human rights for all.

Download Claiming Rights, Claiming Justice: A Guidebook on Women Human Rights Defenders

PDF format, 7.11MB, 168Pages.

Copyright © 2007 Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
ISBN: 978-974-7348-92-7

Resource Team: Sunila Abeysekera, Mary Jane Real, Julie de Rivero, Lisa Pusey, Edna Aquino, Immaculada Barcia, Cynthia Rothschild
Coordination of the Project: Lisa Pusey
Copy editor: Laura Perry
Layout and Design: Blueprint Design

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Annex C: A List of Organisations Supporting Women Human Rights Defenders

This is a list of women’s rights, human rights and some sexual rights organisations that support women human rights defenders. Most of them participated in the international campaign on women human rights defenders, and have continued to work in this area to date.

This is a preliminary list, it is not exhaustive as we hope that there will be many other organisations that will join this initiative.

Amnesty International (AI)
www.amnesty.org

AI is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognised human rights to be respected and protected.

It is concerned with the impartial protection of human rights, envisioning a world in which every person enjoys all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. On 5 March 2004, it launched the Stop Violence against Women campaign, which focuses on violence against women in the family and in conflict. In partnership with women’s organisations and other groups, it seeks to address discrimination as a root cause of violence against women and intends to take action on behalf of particular individuals to stop these violations. Through this campaign, AI has developed and used campaign tools to highlight the profiles and cases of women human rights defenders.

Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
www.apwld.org

APWLD is a network of lawyers, academics, social scientists, grassroots women and other activists from across Asia Pacific. It aims to promote women’s human rights enshrined in the UN international human rights instruments and to enable women in the region to use law as an instrument of change for equality, justice and development.

With a membership of close to 150 individuals and organisations, it operates through task forces than run programmes on women’s human rights, violence against women, women’s participation in political processes, labour and migration, women and environment and rural and indigenous women. It has recently adopted a campaign on women human rights defenders, focusing on the concerns of its activist-members facing threats and violations as women human rights defenders. It hosts the women human rights defenders website www.defendingwomen-defendingrights.org

Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM ASIA)
www.forum-asia.org

FORUM ASIA is a membership-based regional human rights organisation in Asia with 36 member organisations in 14 countries in the region. It strives to empower people by advocating social justice, sustainable human development, participatory democracy, gender equality, peace and human security through collaboration and cooperation among human rights organisations in the region. It has a programme on human’s defenders, which aims to protect human rights activists and practitioners by supporting their work and strengthening both domestic and international human rights protection mechanisms in accordance with established human rights standards and norms. It has integrated women human rights defenders concerns in its training programs, and it organises regional consultations on human rights defenders with the participation of women human rights defenders.

Astraea
www.astraea.org

Astaea is a dynamic global foundation providing critically needed financial support to lesbian-led, and progressive organisations to claim their human rights. It has an international emergency fund which is a rapid response grant-making mechanism, providing support for organisations to address time-sensitive and strategic emerging political opportunities and crises affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender communities.

Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL)
www.cwgl.rutgers.edu

CWGL at Douglass College, Rutgers University seeks to develop an understanding of the ways in which gender affects the exercise of power and the conduct of public policy internationally. The Center aims to build international linkages among women in local leadership.

It conducts various activities that support women’s leadership and transformative visions as crucial in every policy area. It develops effective policy alternatives which demand the full inclusion of gender perspectives and women in all decision-making processes and requires an understanding of how gender relates to race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation and culture. Together with the IGLHRC, it released a report Written Out: How Sexuality is Used to Attack Women’s Organizing.

Front Line
www.frontlinedefenders.org

Front Line is an international foundation for the protection of human rights defenders, defending those who champion the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its main focus is on human rights defenders at risk, either temporarily or permanently because of their work. It aims to address some of the needs identified by defenders themselves, including protection, networking, training and access to the thematic and country mechanisms of the UN and other regional bodies. Every two years, it hosts the ‘Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders’, which provides an opportunity for human rights defenders, including women, to come together from an international exchange of experiences and issues. Front Line also provides emergency support and funding to defenders at risk.

Human Rights First
www.humanrightsfirst.org

Human Rights First is an international human rights organisation based in New York and Washington D.C. It helps promote and protect human rights and the rule of law through the following strategies: advocacy for change at the highest levels of national and international policymaking; seeking justice through the courts; raising awareness and understanding through the media; building coalitions among those with divergent views and mobilising people to act. Human Rights First runs a programme on human rights defenders through which it has established a human rights defender alert network. The network includes urgent appeals for women human rights defenders at risk.

Information Monitor (INFORM)

INFORM is a Sri Lankan human rights organisation with a special focus on monitoring, documentation human rights in the country. It also functions as a library and documentation centre for journalists, students and others seeking information regarding the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. It was the local host of the International Consultation on Women Human Rights Defenders and it took the initiative to begin writing this guidebook.

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC)
www.iglhrc.org

IGLHRC works to secure the full enjoyment of the human rights of all people and communities subject to discrimination or abuse on the basis of sexual orientation or expression, gender identity or expression, and/or HIV status. A US-based organisation, IGLHRC engages in advocacy, documentation, coalition building, public education, and technical assistance. Particularly, it helps educate its constituencies about human rights and sexual orientation/gender identity. It co-published with CWGL the report Written Out: How Sexuality is Used to Attack Women’s Organizing. It also runs international alert on lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and other activists at risk.

International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
www.ishr.ch

ISHR is an international association that promotes the effective protection of human rights defenders and aims to empower human rights organisations and individuals to access and use human rights mechanisms at regional, national and international levels. It services human rights defenders by providing analytical reports on the UN human rights mechanisms, training on how to use the international norms and procedures, strategic advice for effective lobbying, contributions to human rights standard-setting, practical information and logistical support to enable human rights defenders to take full advantage of international human rights law and procedures. It organises consultations on women human rights defenders in many countries in Latin America, Middle East and Africa.

ISIS Women’s International Cross-Cultural Exchange (ISIS-WICCE)
www.isis.or.ug

ISIS-WICCE is a global action oriented women’s resource centre with the aim of promoting justice and women’s human rights through documentation of women’s realities and sharing of information and ideas to improve women’s status and overcome gender inequality. Since its relocation in Kampala, Uganda, it has focused on building women’s capacity in documentation, peace building and conflict resolution; and the use of information and communication technologies for networking, lobbying and advocacy. It has been the subject of harassment from conservative forces in Uganda as a member of the V Day Host Committee that planned to stage the play “The Vagina Monologues” by Eve Ensler.

The Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CLADEM)
www.cladem.org

CLADEM is a network of women’s organisations and individuals united to achieve the effective defence of women’s rights in Latin America and the Caribbean. It engages in various activities for the promotion of women’s rights such as: formulating legislative proposals, research, training, informing, communicating and exercising solidarity actions. Like APWLD, it is a regional network that empowers women to use law as a tool for change.

Women Living under Muslim Laws (WLUML)
www.wluml.org

WLUML is an international solidarity network that provides information, support and a collective space for women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws and customs said to derive from Islam. The network demands for women’s equality and their rights, especially in Muslim contexts. It aims to increase the autonomy of women by supporting their local struggles from within Muslim countries and communities; linking them with feminist and progressive groups at large; facilitating interaction, exchanges and contacts; and providing information as well as serving as a channel of communication. WLUML produces analytical pieces on fundamentalisms and runs urgent appeals for women human rights defenders at risk in Muslim countries.

Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights (UAF)
www.urgentactionfund.org

UAF is an independent organisation with a strategic mandate to protect and promote women’s human rights through rapid response grantmaking. It also engages in collaborative initiatives, research and publications. Grounded in a human rights framework, and focused on women in civil society, UAF supports women human rights defenders responding to conflict and crisis around the world. It offers emergency funding to respond immediately to the needs of women human rights defenders at risk.

World Organisation against Torture (OMCT)
www.omct.org

OMCT is an international coalition of over 260 NGOs in 85 countries, including the SOS-Torture Network, fighting against torture, arbitrary detention, summary and extra judicial executions, forced disappearances and all other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. In response to the increasing number of cases on gender-specific forms of violence, OMCT established in 1996 the Violence against Women (VAW) Programme, which addresses and analyses the gender-related causes and consequences of torture and other forms of violence against women.

The OMCT VAW Programme issues urgent appeals concerning gender-based violence; submits alternative country reports on violence against women to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; and mainstreams a gender perspective into the work of the UN treaty monitoring bodies. Together with FIDH, it runs The Observatory for Human Rights Defenders, which issues urgent appeals on human rights defenders and other defenders under threat.

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