“Every year, International Women’s Day serves as a wake-up call. None more so than this year, which has been marked by the COVID-19 pandemic that has exacerbated existing inequalities. It is a stark reminder for those who tend to forget the inherent discrimination women face in their day-to-day lives, even more so when they are broadcast on a national or international stage. This deserves our utmost attention, especially when speaking about human rights issues and gender-based violence.
Women face abuse when trying to make their voices heard. This attack on women’s freedom of expression is a worrying trend, given the essential role women play in promoting and defending human rights within their communities. Moreover, women who experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, such as indigenous women, LGBTI activists and migrant women and girls, are particularly at risk. In 2020, at least 44 women human rights defenders were killed, amongst them six trans women defenders, all in the Americas.
Make no mistake - this abuse is gender-based. Women’s voices are still feared, which explains why retaliation against them manifests in gender-specific threats and gender-based violence, since their work is often seen as challenging society’s traditional notions of gender roles.
Women human rights defenders continue to be targeted across the world through intimidation. Property is attacked, as is the case for Patricia Gualinga, a Kichwa indigenous leader in Ecuador. They face criminal and tax charges, and arbitrary arrests - as is the case of Maria Ressa, the founder of news website Rappler in the Philippines. The physical assault and harassment of Egyptian journalist Solafa Magdy while in detention is a sobering reminder of the risks women human rights defenders face. Judicial harassment is frequently used to silence women activists, for example Waad Bahjat of Sudan who currently faces criminal charges for her role in organising peaceful protests to promote civil and economic rights in Sudan. I particularly wish to highlight the situation of women imprisoned for their bravery, such as Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer and 2012 Sakharov Prize laureate; Maria Kalesnikava, imprisoned since 9 September 2020 for her political and human rights activism in Belarus and 2020 Sakharov Prize laureate; Agnes Chow, a visible figure of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, imprisoned under the provisions of the national security law applying to Hong Kong. While Loujain al-Hathoul was released after almost three years in detention in Saudi Arabia, she is subject to a travel ban and forbidden from speaking to the media. Her conviction in the state terrorism court following her peaceful activism further demonstrates the threat facing women human rights defenders today.
On this International Women’s Day we remember Ebru Timtik, a Turkish-Kurdish human rights lawyer who prior to her death defended Turkish political dissidents. She died in August 2020 following 238 days on hunger strike after she was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment in 2019 for alleged membership of a terrorist organisation.
Women human rights defenders play a vital role in promoting human rights and the rule of law across the world. It is therefore our common responsibility to keep promoting and protecting human rights and women’s rights within and outside EU borders by amplifying women’s voices and ensuring they are not silenced. We must keep fighting against impunity and gender-based violence, because these crimes must not evade justice.”
*Source: European Parliament
By: N. Peter Kramer
