STATEMENT BY WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS PARTICIPATING IN THESPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS’

REGIONAL CONSULTATION ON THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTSDEFENDERS IN THE AMERICAS

Guatemala, January 27, 2015

We, women human rights defenders participating in the Regional Consultation of the Americaslaunched by the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, havedenounced the attacks and violations of our right to defend human rights and have proposedrecommendations regarding the situation we face across 15 countries in the continent.

We appreciate the openness and sensitivity shown by Rapporteur Michel Forst in creating aspace for women human rights defenders to share the specific risks and needs we face in order toimprove the conditions in which we work to defend human rights.

Some of the major concerns we shared with the Rapporteur during the consultation include:

● The ongoing gender discrimination by our societies and governments that limits thework of women human rights defenders and creates specific risks that are often notcovered by government or civil society protection mechanisms.

● The increase in violence against women in most countries of the region that has createda climate of risk for women who defend human rights.

● Women human rights defenders often defend rights with little to no social or legalrecognition and receive secondary or limited attention from governments. This is the casefor sexual and reproductive rights, the right to equality between women and men, theright to land and natural resources or the right to a life free of violence.

● Many women either do not recognize themselves as human rights defenders or are notrecognized as such by the State and, sometimes, not even by the human rights movement.Such is the case for many indigenous and community advocates, migrant rightsadvocates, advocates for victims of trafficking or relatives of victims of violence orforced disappearance, trans-women, among others. The lack of recognition of thesewomen as human rights defenders puts them at risk and limits their work.

● Women defending land rights and natural resources are among the groups suffering themost attacks and assaults by both the State and companies with the complicity ofauthorities.

● Women human rights defenders often do not have the support networks to face attacksand assaults committed by virtue of our work. This is because our work is not alwaysrecognized by our families, communities and organizations. We even face abuse anddiscrimination in these spaces.

● In conflict situations, under authoritarian governments or in areas controlled bycriminal groups with the complicity of the authorities or zones where extractive projectsare imposed, violence against women increases, spaces for dialogue disappear as do theminimum guarantees for women's political participation and social empowerment. Thesesituations not only hamper the work of women human rights defenders, but they restrictthe participation of all women, who then abandon efforts to promote human rights.

● Attacks against women human rights defenders often have gender components. Someexamples include smear campaigns that question our sexual morals, sexual violence orthreats of violence, threats or attacks against our daughters and sons.

● Many of us women human rights defenders do our work in conditions that areprecarious and in which we face discrimination. Some do not have sufficient financialresources or shoulder all family care and housework alone. This situation not only limitsour work but has a negative impact on our physical and mental health.

In light of this situation we've made the following proposals to the Special Rapporteur on theSituation of Human Rights Defenders and call on our national governments to:

● Strengthen the framework for the protection of women's rights at national levels,embedding within constitutions or ensuring compliance with treaties, conventions andhuman rights instruments of which these countries have signed onto. In particular thatthey adopt, if they have not yet done so, the Optional Protocol to CEDAW and torespect international standards on sexual and reproductive rights.

● Recognize the role of human rights defenders as one that creates a social environmentrespectful of the work of WHRDs and reduces possible aggression. Specific concretemeasures to support that recognition include:

➢ That State officials refrain from issuing any statement that questions ordelegitimizes human rights work and any statement that promotes stigma,defamation, discrimination and sexism against a WHRD.➢ Publicly acknowledge State obligation to protect women human rightsdefenders.

➢ Recognize publicly WHRDs and women's organizations as validinterlocutors and as essential for governments in meeting their human rightsobligations, as well as the legitimacy of their work, particularly whendenouncing human rights violations.

● Ensure the legal implications of the adoption of the Resolution on the "Protection ofhuman rights defenders," adopted in November 2013 by the UN General Assembly.

● Develop (in countries where there are none) and strengthen (in cases where there are)legal and institutional mechanisms for the comprehensive protection of human rightsdefenders that integrate a gender perspective both in the law's conception and in itsimplementation mechanisms. To do this, it is essential that women human rightsdefenders and feminist organizations participate actively in the formulation,implementation and evaluation of these legal/institutional frameworks.

● Under these institutional protection mechanisms, ensure the design of a protocol-specific integrated protection for women human rights defenders that includes fullreparation measures that, among other things, combats the stigmatization of womenhuman rights defenders.

● Refrain from criminalizing or threatening the criminalization of women human rightsdefenders who are championing rights that are enshrined in international instruments butnot recognized in the national framework, such as abortion and sexual diversity.

● Adopt and apply international frameworks against sexual torture.

● Acknowledge the essential role and contribution of women human rights defendersnetworks in strengthening, tracking, monitoring and generating recommendations both inregards to specific cases and in the overall implementation of protection policies.

The work of women human rights defenders strengthens democracy and the rule of law andensures the full and equal participation of all women in society. It is a State obligation and theresponsibility of society as a whole to protect and recognize the work and contribution of womenhuman rights defenders.

Sincerely,

Haydee Castillo, Instituto de Liderazgo de las Segovias (Nicaragua); Mayte Ochoa, IPAS Centroamérica; Azahalea Solis, Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres (Nicaragua); Natividad Obeso, Asociación Civil de Derechos Humanos: Mujeres Unidas Migrantes y Refugiadas en Argentina; Marlin Sierra, Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos; Regina Fonseca, Centro de Derechos de Mujeres (Honduras); Dalia Figueredo, Asociación Brasileña de Defensa de la

Mujer de la Crianza y la Juventud; Beatriz Bataszew, Colectivo Mujeres Sobrevivientes de Chile;Tarcila Rivera, Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indígenas de las Américas; Susana Chavez, PROMSEX Perú y Consorcio Latinoamericano contra el Aborto Inseguro (CLACAI); Gabriela Redondo, Colectivo Unidad Color Rosa de Honduras; Emma Bolshia Bravo Cladera, Instituto deTerapia e Investigacion sobre las Secuelas de la Tortura y la Violencia de Estado (Bolivia); Miriam Miranda, Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH); Consuelo Castillo, Observatorio Permanente de Derechos Humanos del Aguán (OPDHA- Honduras) y Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en Honduras; Maria Luisa Aguilar Rodriguez, Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña “Tlachinollan” (México); Leyla Días, CLADEM Honduras; Elizabeth Cunya Novillo, Asociación de mujeres Protectoras de cuencas de agua, bosques, páramos y biodiversidad (Perú), miembra de la Unión Latinoamericana de mujeres (ULAM); Bettina Cruz Velázquez, Asamblea de los Pueblos Indígenas del Istmo de Tehuantepec en Defensa de la Tierra y el Territorio and Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos enMéxico; Ángela Fuentes, Red Nacional de Defensoras de Guatemala; Claudia Samayoa, UDEFEGUA (Guatemala) and IM-Defensoras; Marusia López, JASS and IM-Defensoras; Daniela Fonkatz AWID and IM-Defensoras; Yésica Sánchez, Consorcio Oaxaca, Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en México and IM-Defensoras; Alejandra Burgos Agrupación Ciudadana por la Despenalización del Aborto (El Salvador) and IM-Defensoras.