Consultation
on Women Human Rights Defenders
Bangkok, Thailand
April 4-6, 2003
Organised by APWLD, IWRAW Asia Pacific and Amnesty International
Women human
rights defenders (WHRD) have been at forefront in the struggle
for the promotion and protection of human rights. They have contributed
to human rights in par with their male colleagues. To highlight
their contributions, rights, risks and needs, a Consultation on
Women Human Rights Defenders was convened by Asia Pacific Forum
on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), Amnesty International (AI)
and International Women's Rights Action Watch-Asia Pacific (IWRAW
Asia Pacific) on April 4-6, 2003 in Bangkok, Thailand. It was
attended by 30 participants from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Costa Rica,
Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines,
Switzerland, Thailand, United States and the United Kingdom. The
UN Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders, Ms. Hina
Jilani, also participated in the consultation.
Introduction
On December
9, 1998, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration
on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs
of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms also known as the Declaration
on Human Rights Defenders [1]. The Declaration is the first UN
instrument that focused on the right to defend human rights as
a right in itself. It puts emphasis on the importance of the work
of human rights defenders (HRDs) worldwide and the need to ensure
that they function in an environment conducive to the exercise
of the right to defend human rights. The position of Special Representative
of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders was created
to ensure the promotion and implementation of the Declaration
and the effective functioning of HRDs [2]. In her 2002 report,
the UN Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders called
for the need to specifically address the situation of WHRDs. [3]
Inspired by the focus made by the UN Special Representative on
Human Rights Defenders, the consultation was convened.
Below are
excerpts from the report of the Consultation:
"[The
Consultation based its scope on the presentation by UN Special
Rapporteur, Ms. Hina Jilani where] she emphasised that she has
not adopted a firm definition of HRDs as any definition will have
the tendency to exclude. Instead she put forward the guideline
that: 'all activity for the protection and promotion of human
rights is in defense of human rights. Any person who does this
activity, whether once or consistently, is a human rights defender'.
HRDs therefore include those who have put forward resistance where
the State (or non-State actors) conduct is reprehensible. They
are found among NGO workers, journalists, lawyers, trade unionists,
health workers and students, to enumerate a few.
Ms. Jilani
pointed out that women have been at the forefront of HRD work
and are of significant numbers. Women have been defenders of human
rights but their engagement lacks recognition and visibility.
Furthermore, in certain cases, there is a need to emphasise that
a WHRD is an HRD in her own right. Ms. Jilani also highlighted
that relative to other social movements, WHRDs have spotted serious
trends against human rights and have brought attention to the
patterns of violations, especially those involving militarisation
and fundamentalism.
Key Consultation
Points
[Participants
consolidated their observations and concepts into key consultation
points from which a framework on WHRD could then emerge. The following
points were made:]
(a) WHRDs
are integral in the promotion and protection of human rights.
They have been at the forefront in the struggle for civil, political,
economic, social and cultural rights. They are defenders in their
own right and not merely extensions of their husbands, brothers,
fathers and male colleagues. They are among the pioneers of the
human rights movement and they continue to be the leading forces
in the defense of human rights. Their contributions to and work
on human rights must be acknowledged and honored.
(b) It is
crucial to support the work of WHRDs and to build their capacities
to enable them to better promote and protect human rights. Of
vital concern is ensuring that WHRDs understand the importance
of using the human rights framework in their work and guaranteeing
that they are able to do so…
(c) In their
work to promote and protect human rights, WHRDs experience distinct,
additional and/or heightened risks, vulnerabilities and violations
to their rights. They are subjected to violations, risks and vulnerabilities
which are (a) of a general character (i.e., those shared/experienced
by all HRDs); (b) gender-specific or gender-intensified (i.e.
abuses due to their being a woman or impacts disproportionately
on them because they are women); and (c) due to their work on
women-specific rights or issues. All these highlight the need
for special protection for WHRD that addresses these risks, vulnerabilities
and violations.
(d) In ensuring
the exercise of the right to defend, the State must undertake
both preventive and remedial measures to address the violations
of rights, risks and vulnerabilities of WHRDs.
Also, conditions
that fully enable WHRDs to access and exercise of the right to
defend (enabling conditions) are of equal importance. It is obvious
that gender discrimination, including the culture of silencing
women, inhibits WHRDs' work. Patriarchial values in cultural,
social, religious and political institutions discriminate against
women and therefore, must be confronted.
Gender discrimination
also has a disproportionate effect on the promotion and protection
of women's rights; this is because in the women's movement almost
all WHRDs are women. Furthermore, the blurring of the line between
women victims/survivors on the one hand and WHRDs, on the other
hand, impacts heavily on the work of WHRDs. The discrimination
experience by the women victims/survivors are permeated to the
WHRDs because of their common gender.
It is vital
to consider the multiple forms of discrimination (gender, race,
nationality, class, caste, among others) and its consequences
as experienced by WHRDs. It is also important to look at other
contexts within which WHRDs work. Situations such as armed conflict
and fundamentalisms, provide a more hostile environment for WHRDs.
WHRDs in these contexts are exposed to more risks and vulnerabilities
and thus appropriate measures to ensure their protection and to
create and secure an environment conducive to human rights work
are necessary.
All measures
must be rights-based and centered on the WHRDs' total well being.
(e) The basis
of HRD's work is the human rights framework. This framework has
already recognised that women's rights are human rights. Therefore,
engendering the HRD discourse is vital. This engendering means
constructing and questioning the standards on HRDs from WHRD's
perspectives and experiences. In particular, there is need to
address the contributions, risks and vulnerabilities experienced
by WHRD and the pervasive and systematic discrimination of women
in the political, economic, religious and cultural systems. Notions
of fairness and equality that apply sameness or protectionism
must also be questioned. Measures that respond to the public and
private realities of WHRDs must be put in place.
Engendering
the HRD discourse also means making women's rights visible and
providing spaces for women's rights as central in the human rights
agenda. Marginalising women's rights undermines and trivialises
the work of WHRDs and increases their vulnerability.
(f) In being
an HRD, multi-tasks are assumed by women. While they are advocating
for human rights, they are simultaneously expected to ensure the
well being of the household/family and even of their own community.
This multi-tasking places a greater burden psychologically and
politically on WHRDs. Women's roles in this respect do not change
whether in conflict, post-conflict or other situations. Male HRDs
are commonly not burdened in the same way. Measures and enabling
conditions for WHRDs must include practical support that recognises
their multiple roles and responsibilities in the exercise of their
right to defend human rights.
(g) The status
of WHRDs fleeing their country on account of their human rights
work and those WHRDs working outside their country on issues concerning
human rights violations committed by their State must be addressed.
In this regard, the rights of women HRDs to seek asylum in their
own right must be recognised, especially in situations where there
is a well-founded fear of gender-based violence or where they
are being persecuted due to their espousal of women's human rights.
(h) Violations
committed against WHRD are not limited to those by the State and
its institutions. Non-State actors violate the rights of WHRDs.
State complicity or tolerance as well as the lack of a framework
for holding these actors accountable results in impunity. There
is an urgent need to develop a concrete set of guidelines to hold
these actors accountable for their acts, without diluting the
primary obligation of the State to protect and ensure the right
to defend [4]. A higher benchmark must be set for UN bodies, e.g.
peacekeeping forces.
(i) The enduring
source of support for and protection of WHRDs lies in the strength
of their own movement/network. Strategies are needed, however,
to reach out to, involve and engender other movements and sectors.
Working with them and within them is crucial for the protection
of WHRDs.
It was noted
that the exclusion or de-prioritisation of women's issues in the
political agendas of other movements has led to the formation
of separate spaces for women to raise their own concerns among
themselves. This tends to isolate women's rights from the other
social movements. There is an emerging need to make the connections/alliances
with these movements especially. These movements have already
provided an environment in which human rights consciousness is
heightened and thus, it is a good starting point for engendering
the discourse on HRD.
(j) Visibility
of WHRDs work is a crucial issue since visibility can offer protection.
It was noted though that visibility can also be a source of risk
and vulnerability. It projects their activities and may result
in WHRDs becoming targets of violations.
(k) The consultation
noted that political and human rights consciousness does not automatically
translate to gender sensitivity. Some HRDs are blind to women's
issues and may themselves violate women's rights. The dichotomy
between the personal and political conduct of HRDs must be bridged.
To the extent that HRDs advocate respect for all human rights,
they should respect women's rights in both their public and private
spheres."
[Recommendations
addressed to the State, to the human rights movement, to the international
community and to women human rights defenders have also been drafted
by the participants to the consultation.]
Notes
[1] Promotion and Protection of HR Defenders Report to the UNCHR
57th Session, 26 January 2001, E/CN.4/2001/94 p. 5. For text of
the Declaration, see A/RES/53/144, 8 March 1999.
[2] See Commission on Human Rights Resolution 2000/61.
[3] Promotion and Protection of Human Rights Defenders Report
to the UNCHR 58th session, 27 February 2002.
[4] It was noted that a basis for holding non-State actors liable
is already provided under Art. 2(e) of Convention on the Elimination
of Discrimination Against Women; Art. 124 of Beijing Platform
for Action; and Art. 2(1); Art. 9; Art. 10; Art. 12 pars. 2 and
3; and Art. 16 of the Declaration, among others.
