women human rights defenders

• We are tired, so we must take turns to rest: Women's advocacy during crisis

  

  Source: Wikicommons

  By Masana Ndinga-Kanga, the Crisis Response Fund Lead and Advocacy Officer for the Middle East/North Africa region at CIVICUS

  In recognising how moments of crisis heighten already existing inequalities, it is worth reflecting on how women activists have been able to conduct advocacy during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this time, as advocacy meetings have predominantly moved online within the context of a gendered digital divide, the consequences for women activists and their ability to work are yet to be fully understood.

  Read on Advocacy Accelerator

• Women Human Rights Defenders Face Greater Risks Because of their Gender

  By Masana Ndinga-Kanga, Crisis Response Fund Lead with CIVICUS.

  The rallying calls of #SudanUprising, have been led by Sudanese women who are teachers, stay-at-home-mothers, doctors, students and lawyers. And yet, when President Al Bashir stepped down on April 11, the names of the women who spearheaded this political shift, were largely missing from the headlines. This erasure is not uncommon. Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) are often erased or slandered in efforts to intimidate them into quitting continuing their human rights work. In Egypt, Guatemala, Saudi Arabia, Uganda or the Philippines they are often called agents of international interests.

  Read on: Inter Press Service

• Women’s bodies are the battleground for civil liberties

  By Teldah Mawarire and Sara Brandt

  Around the world, civic spaces are shrinking. In many countries, activists are under threat as governments increasingly use the law and violence as tools of oppression, according to a new report. For women human rights defenders, this means their bodies have become the battleground on which the fight for civil liberties is being waged.

  Read on:Mail and Guardian: Bhekisisa