WUNRN
International Coalition for Human Rights in The Philippines
WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS CITE GOVERNMENTS, TRANS-NATIONAL
CORPORATIONS: ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ATTACKS ON WOMEN, COMMUNITIES
8 June 2015 - Women human rights defenders
from across the globe scored governments and trans-national corporations for
the plunder and their lands and resources that adversely affected women and
their communities.
To cap the International People’s
Conference on Mining, 37 women human rights defenders from Argentina,
Spain, Canada, Cambodia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Australia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia,
the United Kingdom, and the Philippines issued a collective statement, which
pointed to the “governments and trans-national corporations exacerbate the dire
impacts of extractive industries on women and their communities through the
plunder of their lands and resources, and multi-lateral and bilateral trade and
investment agreements that infringe on women’s rights, the right to
self-determination, and sovereignty of peoples.”
DECLARATION ON GENDERED IMPACTS OF MINING
& List of Participants: http://www.karapatan.org/Workshop+Group+on+the+Gendered+Impacts+of+Mining+DECLARATION
The signatories of the
declaration participated in the Workshop on the Gendered Impacts of Mining
on Women Human Rights Defenders at the international conference in Manila,
Philippines from July 30 to August 1, 2015. The workshop was organized by
Karapatan, Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), Cordillera
Women’s Education, Action and Research Center (CWEARC) and KAIROS Canada.
“There are numerous cases of extrajudicial
killings, and use of criminal and civil cases being brought against defenders
by governments, companies and security forces based on vague definitions of
crimes in the context of the leadership roles they take on in their communities
resisting ‘development projects’. Criminalization, which is reinforced by
gender-based discrimination and violence, is an attack against women
defenders,” they further stated, through the declaration.
Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary
general and one of the workshop organizers said indigenous people’s leader Aida
Seisa, is among the Filipina rights defenders who are facing these forms of
attacks.
Seisa, spokesperson of Paquibato District
Peasant Alliance (PADIPA) and vice-chairperson of Sabokahan Indigenous
Women Organization in Paquibato, Davao, face false charges of
murder and frustrated murder. On June 14, 2015, Seisa’s house was strafed by
soldiers of the 69th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA). She
and her family survived the said attack, but three other peasants were killed.
Palabay said the trumped up charges against
Seisa should be dropped, and the perpetrators of the massacre and the
frustrated killing of Seisa’s family should be held accountable.
In the workshop, the women rights defenders vowed to continue to organize and mobilize their communities to resist the onslaught of repression.