WUNRN
VIDEO TRIBUTE TO FEMINIST &
WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS NO LONGER WITH US - AWID
This video
presentation is part of the Tribute to Feminist and Women Human Rights
Defenders who are no longer with us, which took place at the AWID Forum in
Istanbul Turkey, 19-22 April, 2012. The exhibit featured Women Human Rights
Defenders who died, were killed, or were disappeared since the last AWID Forum
in 2008. Produced by Breakthrough, 2012.
http://awid.org/Our-Initiatives/Women-Human-Rights-Defenders/WHRD-Tribute
Honoring Feminist and Women Human Right
Defenders Who are No Longer with Us
At the 12th AWID
International Forum on Women's Rights in Development, AWID created a special
exhibit to celebrate the lives of women who are no longer with us and whose
contributions to the advancement of women's rights are very much missed. The
tribute featured photographs and biographies of
women¹s rights leaders from around the world, hung on delicately
rotating prints in the Forum venue. Over 2.000 feminist activists participated
in the Forum and many of them participated in the commemorative event on 21
April organized with Breakthrough
Collaborative, which included an audiovisual presentation
of the Tribute alongside music and poetry, as well as testimonies from Women
Human Rights Defenders presented in Spanish, French, English, Arabic, and
Turkish. The poem "Maati" was included in the Tribute program and
translated into all the Forum languages.
This tribute to
Feminist and Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) commemorates and
celebratesthe work and lives of women activists who have passed away since our
last AWID Forum in 2008. In addition to paying homage to these incredible
women,we seek toshed light on the plight of all WHRDs who have been
assassinated or disappeared in an effort to silence and end their
activism. We bring them all into our collective memory and carry their
legacy of struggle as our torch in the feminists and women’s rights movements.
AWID received
contributions from all over the world for this tribute. And while many of
these women have passed away due to accidents, illnesses and natural disasters,
aboutone third of those honored in this tribute were killed or disappeared due
to their activism. Women like Marisela Escobedo Ortiz from Mexico, who
was killed while peacefully demonstrating to demand that authorities take
action to arrest her daughter’s assassin; South African organizer and LGBTI
activist Noxolo Nowaza,murdered as a result of a hate crime; Natalia
Estemirova,a journalist murdered for her work on human rights abuses in
Chechnya; and human rights lawyer Concepcion Brizuela from the Philippines, who
was forcibly disappeared for advocating on behalf of women, peasant farmers,
and indigenous peoples. Not surprisingly, most of these crimes remain in
impunity.
We honor our sisters
and we denounce the high levels of violence against feminists and WHRDs across
the world. These killings and disappearances are not isolated cases; they are
meant to weaken our movements and stop us from challenging patriarchy,
heteronormativity, and fundamentalisms that oppress women and prevent the
realization of human rights for all. Increased militarization, strong presence
of organized criminal groups, crises in democracy and governance, and growing
tensions as a result of increasing inequality generated by dominant economic
systems, are all contexts around the world in which women’s rights activism
becomes more dangerous and at times deadly.
As we grieve, we also
have much to celebrate and be proud of in remembrance of the legacy, passion
and commitment of these WHRDs and feminists activists. Women like Wangari
Maathai from Kenya who began an entire movement by planting trees; Adrienne
Rich from the United States who inspired us with her poems and militancy, and
brought the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of political and
artistic discourse; Wedad Mitry from Egypt, a feminist activist who fought for
independence and understood that national freedom was tied to women’s freedom
and equality; and Dicle Koğacioğlu a Turkish scholar and feminist
activist whose work on power, modernity, and bureaucratic forms of authority,
influenced many during her brief life.
As feminists and
women’s rights activists in all our diversity, we need to build solidarity
across social movements and strengthen our collective capacity to respondto
violence against WHRDs and violations of their rights. Recognizing that
security, safety and self-caremust be a priority in all our political agendas
is a crucial step to collectively respond to violence against feminists and
WHRDs, and toensure the sustainability of our movements for gender equality,
women’s rights, and justice for all.
AWID would like to
thank the families and organizations who shared their personal stories and
contributed to this memorial. We join them in continuingthe remarkable
work of these women andforging efforts to ensure justice is achieved in cases
that remain in impunity.