Upholding Human Rights - Bridging the gender-environment divide
Both ENDS and some partners started a four-year project Upholding Human Rights, bridging the gender-environment divide in 2014, with the aim to empower women and human rights defenders, to improve sustainable resource management and to further explore the potential of the human rights system to enhance the position and protect the rights of women.
Both ENDS has been supporting marginalized communities whose environment and resources they depend on are (threatened to be) damaged or taken away from them for years. People who have no voice in decisions taken regarding their land and their resources, who can make no legal claim to the land they and their ancestors have been living on for centuries, and who usually are not (enough) compensated for the loss of their livelihood. Women suffer disproportionally from unsustainable developments based on the exploitation of natural resources, because of their specific role in feeding the family and fetching water on the one hand, and their lack of decision-making power over natural resources on the other hand. At the same time, international recognition of universal human rights, such as access to food, clean water and having a healthy environment, do not seem to make a difference for these people.
Using the Human Rights system to guarantee women's rights
Experiences, both in the effective implementation of these rights by governments and in the claiming of these rights by citizens, are limited. The project is meant to explore how the Human Rights system can be better used to support especially women whose rights are abused by large-scale development activities such as mining or land conversion for commercial agriculture or forestry.
Specific case-building work is taking place in India, Kenya and South Africa, to generate evidence and strong examples of gendered human rights impacts of large-scale development projects. The first step is to make communities aware of their rights, and work with them to see how to claim them in an effective way. For example, ActionAid Kenya works with communities in Kilifi, Magarini Sub-County, where people were forcefully evicted from their ancestral land to allow for salt companies to extract salt. The fertile land has turned into salt goons, the water wells have been contaminated with salt deposits, and many trees have been cut down to fuel the salt industries. As women are responsible for their family's food and energy supply and for taking care of the ill, they suffer most from the consequences of these developments. The majority of the population still does not have land and a large part is living as squatters in lands that they believe rightfully belong to them but which are currently under the ownership of the salt companies. Organised meetings in 2014 between the communities and the salt firms as an alternative dispute resolution has led in some cases to the salt company returning land to the rightful owners.
For more information
Read more about this subject
-
External link / 31 May 2018
A human rights perspective on women and the environment (Annual Report 2017)
Although the human rights to water, food and a healthy environment have been incorporated in international legal instruments, in many countries these rights are violated on a massive scale. Women suffer disproportionally, because it is mostly still their role to feed the family and fetch water, but also because they lack decision-making power over the use of natural resources.
-
Publication / 3 November 2017
-
Video / 3 November 2017
Reality of Mine: South Africa
In this video we see Maria Mkhatswa, who is claiming the right of her people to have access to clean water, like they had years ago, when the coal mining industry had not yet polluted the whole area. The three part series 'Reality of Mine' gives a voice to women affected by mining in India, Kenya and South Africa. With the support of international NGOs Both ENDS and ActionAid, they have begun to stand up for their rights.
-
Video / 3 November 2017
Reality of Mine: Kenya
In this video, Trivinia Mwanga Mwamburi from Kenya takes you with in her fight to get the land back which was taken from her because of the expansion of large scale salt mines. The three part series 'Reality of Mine' gives a voice to women affected by mining in India, Kenya and South Africa. With the support of international NGOs Both ENDS and ActionAid, they have begun to stand up for their rights.
-
Video / 3 November 2017
Reality of Mine: India
This short video takes you to Panna, India, where traditional adivasi women successfully oppose forced evictions. The three part series 'Reality of Mine' gives a voice to women affected by mining in India, Kenya and South Africa. With the support of international NGOs Both ENDS and ActionAid, they have begun to stand up for their rights.
-
Publication / 16 December 2016
-
Publication / 9 September 2016
-
Video / 31 May 2016
Women's rights undermined in South Africa
The population of the informal settlement Masakhane, South Africa is highly affected by the pollution and environmental damage caused by the the coal-fired Duvha power station. Before the mining and power station developments, families had access to and control over the land, even if they did not own it. Farming used to be the main source of livelihood. Today, mining companies and investors own most of the land, and as a direct consequence people have lost a lot of their farming and grazing land. This video shows testimonies of victims and their efforts to turn the tide.
-
Publication / 14 February 2016
-
Publication / 14 February 2016
-
Publication / 14 February 2016
-
News / 3 March 2015
Sengwer people evicted for controversial - World Bank funded - project in Kenya
Under the pretext of a ‘Natural Resource Management Project’ funded by the World Bank, the Kenyan Forest Service has, again, started to forcibly evict the indigenous Sengwer people from their ancestral lands in the Kerangany Hills and to burn down their houses. This was documented on March 2nd, by a fact-finding team that was sent to the ground by the World Bank’s own inspection panel.