Endangering Women Human Rights Defenders

Endangering Women Human Rights Defenders
By Christine Ahn and Erika Guevara-Rosas – 29 November, 2012 – Foreign Policy in Focus

With the U.S. elections now over, many are speculating over who will succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State to oversee U.S. foreign policy and the $47-billion U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) annual budget. While a significant chunk of USAID spending goes to education and health programs, pockets of aid enlarge the already bloated military budgets of recipient governments. The result: less security and more violence against women, particularly women human rights defenders.

Indeed, the plight of these activists is so pervasive, yet unrecognized, that November 29th has been declared International Day of Women Human Rights Defenders. On the fifth anniversary of its founding, we take a look into Colombia and Mexico, the two countries with the largest number of documented instances of death threats against women human rights defenders—and coincidently two major recipients of U.S. aid.

Why Women Human Rights Defenders?

According to reports from the United Nations and Inter-American Human Rights Commission, although both men and women human rights defenders are subjected to political violence, the situation of women must be analyzed and addressed separately given the particular nature of their experience.

Within Latin American societies (as in many others), women face significant social and cultural discrimination. Furthermore, because of their gender, women’s rights defenders endure sexual assault and harassment, including having to regularly deflect offensive sexual slurs aimed at discrediting their reputation and work. Women activists are increasingly leading efforts to demand the respect of women’s human rights and the end of violence and discrimination. Their struggles not only challenge the political and economic establishments in their countries, but also the patriarchal nature of power relations in their communities. This is why violence against them is more severe. …more