Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractive Industries - AWID

›› Approach8Approach›› Who are Women Human Rights Defenders? ‹‹According to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Women Human RightsDefenders are “both female human rights defenders, and any other human rights defenders who workin the defence of women’s rights or on gender issues” (A/HRC/16/44)1.AWID and WHRDIC broadly understand WHRDs to encompass individuals who defend rights andare subject to gender-specific risks and threats due to their human rights work and/or as a directconsequence of their gender identity or sexual orientation.For the purposes of this report, the term ‘Woman Human Rights Defender’ (WHRD) refers to womenworking for rights and justice, including individual and collective rights of people and planet.Whether individuals work within formalorganizations, in loose networks, oras community leaders and activists,those who work to uphold rights areHuman Rights Defenders and must be recognizedas such.The United Nations Declaration on Human RightsDefenders2 identifies defenders as rights holders,and outlines States’ obligations in protecting themand preventing violations of their rights. The HumanRights Defender framework incorporates protectionmechanisms from various human rights systems,1. United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. “Women human rights defenders.” United Nations Human RightsOffice of the High Commissioner. Defenders.aspx.Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractive Industries: An Overview of Critical Risks and Human Rights Obligations

›› Introduction9including regional bodies, like the European Union(and its guidelines on Human Rights Defenders),the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights(and its Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders),and the African Commission for Human andPeople’s Rights (and its Special Rapporteur onHuman Rights Defenders).The Women Human Rights Defenders frameworkadjusts the HRD framework to analyze realitiesand challenges of women defending human rights.This framework acknowledges that patriarchyand gender oppression are deeply rooted andnormalized in societies, in forms of violence, andsometimes even in rights-based frameworks.Although States bear the main responsibility forprotecting defenders, the Special Rapporteuron the situation of human rights defenders hasstated, that Article 10 of the Declaration on HumanRights Defenders establishes that non-stateactors, including individuals, groups and organsof society “have a responsibility to promote andrespect the rights enshrined in the Declarationand, consequently, the rights of human rightsdefenders.”3The WHRD framework validates the work ofWHRDs, recognizes the particular forms of violencethey face because of their gender identity andtheir struggles for rights and justice, and providesgender-sensitive mechanisms for protection andredress.2. The full name is: Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and ProtectUniversally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.3. Margaret Sekaggya. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, (A/65/223). 4 August, 2010,para. 2.Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractive Industries: An Overview of Critical Risks and Human Rights Obligations

›› What are Extractive Industries and Why Confront Them?10What are Extractive Industriesand Why Confront Them?Extractive operations can be describedas any that ‘extract’ or otherwise exploitraw materials from the earth. Mining,timber, gas and oil industries arejust some examples. Extractivism is a term thatdescribes “an economic and political model basedon the unbridled commodification and exploitationof nature”4. Not all extractive operations fall underthis model. It is in fact important to recognizethe potential value of small-scale artisanalmining and other extractive operations carriedout by indigenous communities in responsibleand sustainable ways, centering social andenvironmental considerations rather than sheerprofit. Nonetheless, extractivism is the dominantmodel of extractive operations and the globalcapitalist economy, and the subject of this report.WHRDs consistently voice their opposition toextractivism. Globally, extractivism intensifies theinequality between global North companies andcountries that profit the most from the extraction ofresources, and the global South, where resourcesare being extracted, communities’ livelihoodstaken away in exchange for temporary precariousemployment, and the environment harmed;it is essentially a neocolonial model. Locally,extractivism fails to deliver the development that itpromises, and instead inflicts poverty and deepenseconomic, social and gender inequalities insocieties and communities.WHRDs argue for sustainable, holistic and community-based visions and models of development.These alternatives assume the right of communitiesto assert power on the future of their territories, to decide on their ways of living, and to sustain ancestral,cultural and spiritual relations to their lands. Suchmodels are rooted in what development means formembers of the community - economically, socially and culturally- and consider both short-term andlong-term impacts of operations.Women experience disproportionate harm fromextractive operations. They often are the first toexperience what is happening to the water, how4. Urgent Action Fund For Latin America and The Caribbean. Extractivism in Latin America: Impact on Women’s Lives and Proposalsfor the Defense of Territory (Bogotá: Alternativa Gráfica, 2016) 6. cacionesWomen Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractive Industries: An Overview of Critical Risks and Human Rights Obligations

›› What are Extractive Industries and Why Confront Them?their lands are being contaminated, and theimpact of polluted environments on their healthand the health of their families. Where women arethe primary caretakers, environmental damageincreases their workload and impacts their ability toprovide food and clean water for their families andcommunities.5The issue of water affectswomen directly. Access to wateris becoming scarce and policiesregulating the use are absolutelyprecarious. While the miningindustry in the area spends millionsof liters of water in related miningactivities, women do not even haveenough water for personal hygiene.11consequences like increased domestic violenceare extensively documented in research on miningcommunities.6 Community displacement is alsoparticularly burdensome for primary caregivers,mostly women, who must cope with the physicaland psychological distress it causes to childrenand other dependents as well as themselves.7Rural and indigenous communities often describeland as a source of life. Women have specificancestral and spiritual ties to lands and territories.Mama Aleta Baun, an indigenous woman fromIndonesia, relates how women obtain textiles anddyes from their land to make the traditional dress,which signify the identity of each community.In strong identification and rootedness in theirlands, women also claim the sovereignty over theirterritories as inherently linked to the sovereignty oftheir bodies. Their struggle to free their bodies fromoppression and violence resonates with the struggleto resist the exploitation of their lands and resources.—Dora Arias, ColombiaExtractive industries also generate far-reachingeconomic and social re-structuring of communities.While this impacts everyone, gender-specificWomen confront extractive industries for differentreasons. Some have decided to take actionbecause of seeing the negative impact of extractiveoperations on people and nature. Others havelong been human rights defenders, struggling forsocial, economic and environmental justice fortheir communities. Many indigenous and Black5. Oxfam Australia. Women ,communities and mining: The gender impacts of mining and the role of gender impact assessment(Victoria:Oxfam Australia, 2009)See also: Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD). Mining and Women in Asia: Experiences of womenprotecting their communities and human rights against corporate mining (Chiang Mai:Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law andDevelopment (APWLD), 2009) 3.See also: Bermúdez Rico, Rosa Emilia ,Karol Ivonne Zambrano Corredor and Lilia Tatiana Roa Avendaño. LOS TERRITORIOS,LA MINERÍA Y NOSOTRAS: LAS MUJERES NOS PREGUNTAMOS GUÍA DE TRABAJO, (Bogota: Censat Agua Viva – Amigos dela Tierra Colombia, 2014) 24. Translated into English from the Spanish version.6. Chatiza, Kudzai, Davison Muchadenyka, Dorcas Makaza, Fanny Nyaunga, Ronnie James K. Murungu, and Lillian Matsika. “WhenExtractives Come Home: An Action Research on the Impact of the Extractives Sector on Women in Selected Mining Communitiesin Zimbabwe.” OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development 8, no. 12 (2015): 45-72.7. Jenkins, Katy. “Women, mining and development: an emerging research agenda.” The Extractive Industries and Society 1.2(2014): 329-339.Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractive Industries: An Overview of Critical Risks and Human Rights Obligations

›› What are Extractive Industries and Why Confront Them?women and communities have suffered land grabsand dispossession since the colonial period. Theyclearly identify that the current rights violations byextractive operations are enabled by the legaladministrative, social and economic mechanismsenacted at the time of colonization, and maintainedby the state apparatus.The high profits of extractivism mean thatinterests are powerful, and any opposition canbe a dangerous endeavor. Not only are violationsagainst WHRDs common, they take place ina sophisticated architecture of impunity. Thisimpunity is the result of weak and ineffectivejudicial systems, as well as government allianceswith foreign and national corporate interests. It isperpetuated by other local or national forces suchas religious or ‘traditional’ institutions aiming toprevent the assertion of women and peoples’ selfdetermination, and access to justice for abuses.This web of power is captured by theterm corporate power.Impunity in many cases is compounded by the lackof recognition of HRDs as such, and WHRDs inparticular. Governments, corporations and in somecases their own communities, organizations andmovements have collectively failed to recognize the12status of WHRDs, and to address their integratedprotection.Women community leaders, organizers andactivists may themselves not be familiar with humanrights frameworks and may also not identify ashuman rights defenders. But, however they chooseto identify themselves, it is the legal obligationof state actors to recognize all people defendinghuman rights as human rights defenders, in all theirdiversity.The political participation of women is a breakaway from patriarchal gender stereotypes andredefines their roles in their communities. Assumingresponsibility for the rights and future of theircommunities, women challenge their exclusion fromthe public sphere. By organizing and leading theircommunities, women are redefining social andgender roles.8While opposing extractive industries, womenhuman rights defenders are advancing alternativeeconomic and social models based on thestewardship of land and common resources inorder to preserve life, thereby contributing to theemergence of new paradigms.98. Bermúdez Rico, Zambrano Corredor, Roa. LOS TERRITORIOS, LA MINERÍA Y NOSOTRAS, 20.9. Miriam Gartor, “América Latina: El feminismo reactiva la lucha contra la explotación de recursos naturales” Tiempo de Mujeres (blog),February 22, 2014, 2/america-latina-el-feminismo-reactiva-la.htmlSee also: Bermúdez Rico, Zambrano Corredor, Roa. LOS TERRITORIOS, LA MINERÍA Y NOSOTRAS, 20-21.Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractive Industries: An Overview of Critical Risks and Human Rights Obligations

›› Critical Risks faced by Women Human Rights Defenders13Critical Risks faced by WomenHuman Rights DefendersWomen Human Rights Defenders(WHRDs) confronting extractiveindustries around the world areregularly harassed and threatened.Violations include violence, intimidation andthreats against WHRDs, as well as membersof their families. Rape, sexual harassment andabuse are used to exercise power over womenand their communities.10 WHRDs are more likelyto be slandered, discredited and exposed tostigmatization, exclusion and public repudiation bystate actors and corporations, as well as membersof their communities.Extractive operations have forced many WHRDsto abandon their communities because of threatsagainst their lives. Such threats come from securityforces, private security companies and paramilitarygroups. This forced displacement severely impactsthe lives of WHRDs, their families and communities.WHRDs who are primary caretakers are forced toeither take their children with them or leave thembehind, moving away and losing the support oftheir families and communities. At the communitylevel, such displacement generates an organizingvacuum, increases a sense of vulnerability andinsecurity among community members andWHRDs, and weakens their collective capacity torealize their rights.Threats against children of WHRDs are notuncommon. These terrorizing tactics are oftenused to intimidate and pressure WHRDs to stoptheir work. A defender from Thailand receivedthe message: “We know where your daughter’skindergarten is, so be careful when you go to pickup your daughter, you won’t see her.”Violations can become further aggravatedwhen gender intersects with racial and ethnicdiscrimination. Lolita Chavez, an indigenous WHRDfrom Guatemala, explains:10. Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD. Mining and Women in Asia, 4.Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractive Industries: An Overview of Critical Risks and Human Rights Obligations

›› Critical Risks faced by Women Human Rights DefendersWhen they threaten me, they saythat they will kill me, but beforethey kill me they will rape me.They don’t say that to my malecolleagues. These threats are veryspecific to indigenous women.There is also a very strong racismagainst us. They refer to us as thoserebel Indian women that havenothing to do, and they considerus less human.The following sections illustrate some of thechallenges that WHRDs who confront extractiveoperations in their communities face in relation totheir lives, work and safety.“Nameless and faceless” 11- Exclusion from negotiationsand decision-makingWomen’s right to participate in decision-makingprocesses, including decisions related todevelopment projects, is made explicit in severalinternational human rights instruments.12 Theextractive industries however tend to exclude localcommunities from decision making processesconcerning their lands and resources.14When there are attempts at communityconsultations, it is common for companies toprimarily consult with traditional leadership aboutproposed plans. These traditional, which oftenexcludes women.Corporations and state actors can become thedriving force in excluding women from negotiationprocesses and reinforcing existing genderhierarchies. For example a mining companyin La Guajira, Colombia ignored the electedcommunity representative — an indigenous woman— and initiated talks with men from the samecommunity, creating a parallel male leadership.When community members complained, the localgovernment still did not recognize her position asthe community representative.Angeline Leguuto from Kenya explains:Women in Samburu don’t takepart in negotiations [ ]. There isstill the sentiment that a woman’splace is the kitchen. Issues of thecommunity are discussed in menonly spaces where women have noaccess and this is used as a reasonto exclude women from discussionsabout resources.11. Description from interview with Cristina Karapatan. Philippines, August 5, 2014.12. Such as the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Beijing Declaration and Platform of Actionalso highlight the need to ensure women’s participation in decision-making processes related to the environment. Report of theFourth World Conference on Women, Beijing. 4-15 September 1995, para. 253.a. Available at: nt.Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractive Industries: An Overview of Critical Risks and Human Rights Obligations

›› Critical Risks faced by Women Human Rights DefendersWHRDs draw attention to other factors that intersectwith gender in their exclusion from negotiations.Economic oppression also compounds genderedoppression in excluding women from discussionand negotiation. Lack of access to formal educationand the inaccessible technical language usedby extractive corporations in communication withcommunities present a substantial challenge toparticipation.Racism permeates relationships between localcommunities, corporations and state. In Guatemala,for example, indigenous Mayan women faceexclusion by male leaders in their communities andalso by state agents and company officials. Theseactors hold prejudice against indigenous women,doubt their capacity for good judgement, andbelieve that their participation would diminish thesubstance of the negotiations.Despite the barriers that WHRDs face in theirefforts to be included in consultations, they havemade significant breakthroughs. Wendy WanjaMutegi, a human rights lawyer and communityorganizer defending indigenous and environmentalrights in Kenya, explained her role working with thecouncil of elders to ensure that women’s leadershipwas made possible:››15I made up my mind that I wasnot going to be compromised andin the public forum [.] I actuallymade it very clear that the peoplewho suffer most by the loss of thenatural resources are the women. So, I asked them to incorporatewomen in the board of trusteesand I made sure and insisted thatfor every meeting held, we have tohave some women in the meeting[ ] now we have six women in theleadership position.Participation in negotiations should be a means toexercise influence, although it is often manipulatedto manufacture ‘consent’. As corporations usemisinformation and other strategies to prevent themeaningful participation of communities, or enternegotiations in bad faith, WHRDs may refuseto negotiate if they perceive the projects to bedamaging or the negotiations futile.What are the human rights standards in this area? ‹‹The right to participate in decision-making processes is well recognized in numerous international human rights instruments.The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders provides in article 8 that “everyone has the right, individually or in association with others and on a non-discriminatory basis, to participate in the conduct of public affairs. That right is said to include the right to submitWomen Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractive Industries: An Overview of Critical Risks and Human Rights Obligations

›› Critical Risks faced by Women Human Rights Defenders16to governmental bodies and agencies concerned with public affairs criticism and proposals forimproving their functioning and to draw attention to any aspect of their work that may hinder orimpede t

extractive industries are not only challenging corporate power, but also a deeply rooted patriarchy. As a result, they are targeted both as defenders of rights, land and natural resources, and as women defying gender norms. In these struggles, women experience all the hardships of human rights defenders, but also cope with