About Defending Women Defending Rights website

Introduction

In her 2002 report before the UN Commission on Human Rights, Ms. Hina Jilani, UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders (UN SRSG HRD) addressed the critical situation of women human rights defenders (WHRDs). The UN SRSG HRD indicated that out of the 161 urgent appeals she had sent to Governments during that year, 70 concerned women defenders or women’s organizations.

The world over, against all odds, WHRDs work tirelessly for the protection and promotion of human rights. Yet, WHRDs have got little attention in the human rights arena and face gender-specific risks and vulnerabilities in addition to those faced by all human rights defenders. They are confronted by difficult challenges when they work in male dominated environments, are often stigmatized and sometimes become victims of gender specific violations that need to be addressed.

WHRDs face risks in addition to the shared risks/ vulnerabilities that they experience with their male colleagues. The risks and vulnerabilities faced by WHRDs are as follows:

A). Shared risks and vulnerabilities: These are risks and vulnerabilities that they face at par with their male colleagues which are of a general character, i.e. those experienced by all HRDs— men and women.

B). Gender-specific risks and vulnerabilities: These are vulnerabilities faced by WHRDs due to their being a woman or that impact disproportionately on them because they are women, for instance, sexual abuse, harassment, violations from husbands/partners and male colleagues in addition to violations by the state.

C) Risks and vulnerabilities due to their work on women-specific rights/issues: WHRD also face heightened risks and vulnerabilities because of their work on women-specific rights/issues that frequently challenge cultural stereotypes and religion. Such challenging of cultural and religious norms can raise high levels of hostility, more so because women are considered markers of culture and religion.

All of these problems require strategies to be gender specific rather than gender neutral.

This website began as part of the international WHRD campaign which culminated in an international consultation in Sri Lanka in 2005. There are both video and written resources available from the consultation. Although the initial campaign has concluded, WHRDs remain an urgent issue, and this website aims to be a resource for them and for their supporters.

Contextualising the International Campaign on Women Human Rights Defenders

The International Campaign on Women Human Rights Defenders is an international initiative for the recognition and protection of women who are activists advocating for the realization of all human rights for all. The campaign asserts that women fighting for human rights and particularly focusing on women's human rights face specific violations in the course of their work because of their sex and gender. In addition, the Campaign focuses on the situation of human rights activists defending women's rights and in particular calls attention to the violations experienced by lesbian, gay, bisxeual, transgender and other rights activists on grounds of their sex and gender identities. The identities of these actors as well as the nature of the rights they strive to uphold are both factors that make them the focus of the Campaign. read more