Women and LGBTQI* human rights defenders around the world are targeted for repression, harassment, persecution, violence, and sometimes even death. Publicized cases, including the assassination of Berta Cáceres, a Honduran environmental, indigenous rights, and land rights advocate, exemplify the dangers these human rights defenders face. Patterns of similar incidents are evident across a wide range of issues and countries, such as in the widespread persecution of feminist activists in China, ongoing impunity for sexual violence in India, and the systematic use of brutal violence and institutional barriers to silence LGBTQI* activists and sex workers organizing in Russia. These human rights defenders work with and serve the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized communities, and are themselves particularly vulnerable to these threats.
States employ a variety of legal and policy measures to restrict the ability of these activists to operate in civil society, including burdensome registration requirements, restrictions on funding and activities, judicial harassment, and campaigns of social stigmatization. Neither the gendered nature and impact of these efforts, nor the creative strategies used by these activists to resist State efforts to restrict their work are widely known, even among their sister activists. To address this, during the 2016-17 academic year, the Clinic partnered with Oakland-based Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights (UAF) — an organization which provides grants to women and LGBTQI* human rights defenders around the world. Students conducted extensive research on international and domestic laws in 17 countries, and interviewed nearly 20 frontline activists to prepare a briefing report. The final report, launched in December 2017, will be used by UAF and its sister funds in Africa, Latin America, and Asia to advocate for policy change among funders and international actors, as well as to share successful strategies for resistance among women and LGBTQI* human rights defenders.
Read the full report: Rights Eroded A Briefing on the Effects of Closing Space on Women Human Rights Defenders