WUNRN
Direct Link to Statement:
CENTER FOR WOMEN'S GLOBAL LEADERSHIP
“Everyone has the
right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive
for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at
the national and international levels.”
Whether they focus on women’s
human rights or other rights issues, women defenders are subjected to arbitrary
imprisonment, torture, forced disappearances, death threats, violations of
privacy, sexual violence, name calling and other threats to their credibility,
closures of their organizations and a host of other violations because of their
activism and claims to exercise rights. Many women defenders have lost
their lives because of their advocacy.
In 2007, women activists around
the globe face continued restrictions on their advocacy and many forms of
violations, such as:
In Pakistan, under the current state of emergency, many women activists and
lawyers have been arrested:, prominent women’s rights activists such as UN
Special Rapporteur Asma Jahangir were placed under house arrest or
threatened with arrest, as was UN Special Representative on human rights defenders,
Hina Jilani, who was abroad when the warrant was issued.
In
In
In Iran, over 30 women demonstrating peacefully were arrested as they protested
state pressure against women human rights defenders.
In the
In
And only last week in
CWGL stands in solidarity with
these and other women defenders and with all activists who have defended
women’s rights during 2007.
For more information about
women human rights defenders and the International Campaign on Women Human
Rights Defenders, or to download the WHRD guidebook, Claiming Rights,
Claiming Justice, see http://defendingwomen-defendingrights.org.
Center for Women's Global Leadership
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Email: cwgl@igc.org
Website: http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu
================================================================
To leave the list, send your request by email to: wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com.
Thank you.