.
Around the world, it’s an especially challenging time to be a human rights activist. From the United States—once considered a bastion of democracy—to Thailand, governments are tightening restrictions on citizens’ rights to the freedoms of expression, association, and assembly.
As global civil society alliance CIVICUS notes in its recent 2017 State of Civil Society report, the vast majority of the world’s population—roughly 85%--lives in countries where these fundamental rights are seriously challenged. According to the CIVICUS Monitor, an online tool that tracks threats to civil society globally, only three percent of people in the world live in countries where the space for civil society—civic space—is regarded as open and governments not only enable basic human rights but protect them. The space for civil society organizations (CSOs) to critique government policies that reduce social spending and increase corporate influence or to challenge human rights violations is indeed shrinking.
In this climate, if it is increasingly challenging for human rights defenders to work in the face of constant intimidation and harassment, it is all the more so for civil society advocates striving for women’s rights, and the rights of sexual and other minorities and indigenous communities. Women human rights defenders face all the risks of attack that other defenders do, but they are also at risk because they are exposed to gender-based violence and gender-specific threats that come when they challenge gender norms in their communities and societies.
Women’s rights organizations have time and again been subjected to threats and physical and emotional violence by those who have vested interests in maintaining a patriarchal status quo.
The actions of civil society organizations working on gender equality and women’s rights are seen as disruptive of cultural, religious and societal norms, bringing backlash. Governments have become increasingly adept at using bureaucratic and legal tools to marginalize and obstruct civil society organizations and brand them as anti-national. In May 2017, for example, five LGBTI activists were arrested in Russia and Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, a prominent Ugandan LGBTI activist, was arrested.
Complex registration licensing procedures and auditing requirements create ample opportunities for authorities to target CSOs that they find threatening. For example, Cambodia passed a draconian law in 2015 that forbade all activities that endanger the peace, stability, public order, culture or traditions of the country. Some other countries have exploited legislation meant to protect citizens, to target activists. Latoya Nugent, a prominent LGBTI activist in Jamaica and co-founder of the Tambourine Army, was arrested in March, 2017 and charged with three counts of breaching the country’s Cybercrimes Act. In India, recent cases against prominent women’s rights advocates such as Bela Bhatia, Sudha Bhardwaj Malini Subramaniam, Teesta Setalvad, Indira Jaisingh (and her organization Lawyers Collective) and others reflect an environment where the rights of marginalized groups, minorities and women are being deliberately trampled upon.
But it’s not only the actions of governments that threaten to roll back the advances made in women’s rights in recent decades. Dwindling resources are also a problem. Over the past five years, direct donor funding to women’s rights organizations has more than halved, according to an Oxfam report released earlier this year.
However, the meaningful participation of women’s rights organizations is a must if the targets for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on Gender Equality are to be met. Across the world, these organizations play a key role in challenging social norms and proactively raising the issue of violence with relevant actors, and delivering crucial services to poor and marginalized women. As the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, notes: “Far more important than governments and international donors are the individuals and civic organizations that will help design, carry out, and monitor the development projects on which the whole scheme depends. Without vibrant civil societies, the Sustainable Development Goals are dead in the water.”
The restriction of civil society space, particularly for women’s rights advocates, is undermining the ability of citizens to advance human rights, hold their governments accountable and serve marginalized and vulnerable populations. If UN Member States are serious about achieving the SDGs, they need to recognize that attempts to discourage and discredit civil society organizations from functioning effectively would only add to their own burden in meeting the SDGs.
But there are glimmers of hope. Women’s movements across the globe are offering resistance to these authoritarian regimes. The Women’s March in Washington DC, which was held in January this year, was supported by more than a million people across the U.S. and worldwide. We have seen the power of transnational feminism in the past as well, the most powerful evidence being the formulation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The task before civil society is to convert these pockets of resistance into a movement that is successful in overturning current gender norms. These moments of disruption can also represent opportunities to take away power from authoritarian regimes.
We know that civil society organizations that work exclusively on women’s rights have to negotiate on a much more complicated terrain and overcome stronger challenges than other organizations. They are often under-resourced, have no access to capacity building initiatives and have limited space to come together for collective action. Donors need to think more innovatively on how to support women’s organizations in a manner that enables their immediate survival, strengthens long term sustainability, helps them maneuver the regulatory framework and political roadblocks and develop creative strategies to counter ideological backlash.
About the author: Sudarsana Kundu is the Country Director for India for global gender rights organization, Gender at Work.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
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Women’s Rights Struggle as Restrictions Deepen Globally
BELGRADE SERBIA - SEPTEMBER 20 2015: LGBT oriented people carrying a flag in Gay Pride Parade in Belgrade Serbia
September 20, 2017
Around the world, it’s an especially challenging time to be a human rights activist. From the United States—once considered a bastion of democracy—to Thailand, governments are tightening restrictions on citizens’ rights to the freedoms of expression, association, and assembly.
As global civil society alliance CIVICUS notes in its recent 2017 State of Civil Society report, the vast majority of the world’s population—roughly 85%--lives in countries where these fundamental rights are seriously challenged. According to the CIVICUS Monitor, an online tool that tracks threats to civil society globally, only three percent of people in the world live in countries where the space for civil society—civic space—is regarded as open and governments not only enable basic human rights but protect them. The space for civil society organizations (CSOs) to critique government policies that reduce social spending and increase corporate influence or to challenge human rights violations is indeed shrinking.
In this climate, if it is increasingly challenging for human rights defenders to work in the face of constant intimidation and harassment, it is all the more so for civil society advocates striving for women’s rights, and the rights of sexual and other minorities and indigenous communities. Women human rights defenders face all the risks of attack that other defenders do, but they are also at risk because they are exposed to gender-based violence and gender-specific threats that come when they challenge gender norms in their communities and societies.
Women’s rights organizations have time and again been subjected to threats and physical and emotional violence by those who have vested interests in maintaining a patriarchal status quo.
The actions of civil society organizations working on gender equality and women’s rights are seen as disruptive of cultural, religious and societal norms, bringing backlash. Governments have become increasingly adept at using bureaucratic and legal tools to marginalize and obstruct civil society organizations and brand them as anti-national. In May 2017, for example, five LGBTI activists were arrested in Russia and Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, a prominent Ugandan LGBTI activist, was arrested.
Complex registration licensing procedures and auditing requirements create ample opportunities for authorities to target CSOs that they find threatening. For example, Cambodia passed a draconian law in 2015 that forbade all activities that endanger the peace, stability, public order, culture or traditions of the country. Some other countries have exploited legislation meant to protect citizens, to target activists. Latoya Nugent, a prominent LGBTI activist in Jamaica and co-founder of the Tambourine Army, was arrested in March, 2017 and charged with three counts of breaching the country’s Cybercrimes Act. In India, recent cases against prominent women’s rights advocates such as Bela Bhatia, Sudha Bhardwaj Malini Subramaniam, Teesta Setalvad, Indira Jaisingh (and her organization Lawyers Collective) and others reflect an environment where the rights of marginalized groups, minorities and women are being deliberately trampled upon.
But it’s not only the actions of governments that threaten to roll back the advances made in women’s rights in recent decades. Dwindling resources are also a problem. Over the past five years, direct donor funding to women’s rights organizations has more than halved, according to an Oxfam report released earlier this year.
However, the meaningful participation of women’s rights organizations is a must if the targets for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on Gender Equality are to be met. Across the world, these organizations play a key role in challenging social norms and proactively raising the issue of violence with relevant actors, and delivering crucial services to poor and marginalized women. As the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, notes: “Far more important than governments and international donors are the individuals and civic organizations that will help design, carry out, and monitor the development projects on which the whole scheme depends. Without vibrant civil societies, the Sustainable Development Goals are dead in the water.”
The restriction of civil society space, particularly for women’s rights advocates, is undermining the ability of citizens to advance human rights, hold their governments accountable and serve marginalized and vulnerable populations. If UN Member States are serious about achieving the SDGs, they need to recognize that attempts to discourage and discredit civil society organizations from functioning effectively would only add to their own burden in meeting the SDGs.
But there are glimmers of hope. Women’s movements across the globe are offering resistance to these authoritarian regimes. The Women’s March in Washington DC, which was held in January this year, was supported by more than a million people across the U.S. and worldwide. We have seen the power of transnational feminism in the past as well, the most powerful evidence being the formulation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The task before civil society is to convert these pockets of resistance into a movement that is successful in overturning current gender norms. These moments of disruption can also represent opportunities to take away power from authoritarian regimes.
We know that civil society organizations that work exclusively on women’s rights have to negotiate on a much more complicated terrain and overcome stronger challenges than other organizations. They are often under-resourced, have no access to capacity building initiatives and have limited space to come together for collective action. Donors need to think more innovatively on how to support women’s organizations in a manner that enables their immediate survival, strengthens long term sustainability, helps them maneuver the regulatory framework and political roadblocks and develop creative strategies to counter ideological backlash.
About the author: Sudarsana Kundu is the Country Director for India for global gender rights organization, Gender at Work.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
