Indigenous Women’s Innovating Actions for the Elimination of Violence.
Within the framework of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, FIMI’s Indigenous Women's Watch Against Violence joins the celebration and raises its voice along with all the indigenous women of the world to reaffirm that all forms of discrimination and Violence against indigenous women and girls continue to be among the worst and most widespread forms of human rights violations perpetrated against Indigenous Peoples. There is clear legal progress in the recognition of individual and collective human rights of indigenous women both internationally and nationally, recognizing that the violation of the human rights of Indigenous Peoples has a double impact on the lives of Indigenous women, because of their dual status as a woman and as a member of Indigenous Peoples. These impacts are reflected in the different spheres of women's lives, causing spiritual, social and economic violence
The loss of language, culture, resources and territories that often accompanies colonization and assimilation policies puts great pressure on indigenous peoples' own conflict resolution mechanisms and makes indigenous women and children vulnerable to suffering all kinds of violence, generating permanent effects of fear, sadness, psychological traumas, low selfThe Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, describes violence against indigenous women as “endemic violations of collective, civil and political, and economic, social and cultural rights as a form of structural violence against indigenous women and girls.” Data from the same report suggests that Indigenous women are significantly more likely to be victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, militarized violence resulting from conflict, are highly vulnerable to trafficking, and are also vulnerable to gender based killings, and in some communities violence in the name of tradition. Indigenous women and girls faced compounded forms of discrimination, which heightened their exposure to different forms of violence due to various factors, such as illiteracy, stereotypes and lack of access to justice, and certain cultural practices. Lack of access to resources, and the conduct of extractive industries were also linked to the magnitude of violence against women. For Mirna Cunningham, Miskita activist from Nicaragua and First Vice-President of the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC), stated that the situation of violence against indigenous women must be highlighted from the holistic point of view of indigenous peoples:
“We do not want to focus the discussion on violence against indigenous women only on domestic violence because we see that violence is related to globalization, to colonization, to racism, to structural changes that need to be improved in different countries. Because of that, there are conditions that increase violence against women – economic measures, militarization, lack of security, ecological problems, contamination – a lot of these affect indigenous women, and these increase violence.” There is concerned about the current level of violence Indigenous Women Human Rights Defenders are experiencing in Meso-America in particular, but also around the world. The international community grieved and demanded justice after the March 3rd 2016 assassination of Berta Caceres, the Lenca warrior who co-founded and lead the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).
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For several years, FIMI has followed up the issue of violence against women, insisting that violence against indigenous women human rights defenders must be tackled from a deep analysis taking into account various aspects of identity and domination. According to the reports received by the Indigenous Women’s Watch Against Violence promoted by FIMI, indigenous women also suffer from violence derived from structural and institutional racism, violence by the economic model, ecological violence for the loss generated, expulsion and contamination of territories and natural resources, among others. The Special Rapporteur on violence against women its causes and consequences Dubravka Simonović, pointed out that, although the obligations of States were well established, they had not been fully implemented. She stressed that the principle of equality between men and women was integral to Sustainable Development Goal 5, which applied equally to indigenous women.
Empowering women through educational measures and capacity-building is the best measure to address violence against indigenous women and girls. Women’s empowerment should be included in policies to eradicate genderbased violence and to ensure that indigenous women can act as agents of their own development, or to build their capacity for leading and managing Tarcila Rivera Zea, Quechua activist from Peru and Executive President of FIMI, during the 33rd Session of the Human Rights Coundil (A/HRC/33/68) stated that “for indigenous women, inclusion should be accompanied by addressing power imbalances and racist ideologies that result in discrimination against indigenous women and girls. There is a need to improve the access of indigenous girls and women to education. The inclusion of the cultural diversity and historical background of indigenous peoples in educational material is crucial for non-indigenous children to be aware of the positive contribution of indigenous peoples to society.”
While these conditions of inequality, racism and discrimination against indigenous women persist, they have played a key role in developing proposals on their own to guarantee their rights and give visibility to the different forms of violence suffered by indigenous women and girls. For this reason, we wish to highlight and value the hard work that indigenous women leaders have been doing to advance towards the elimination of violence: which paths, struggles and proposals have they devised to defend their physical and spiritual integrity and create the conditions that allow them to achieve justice, equality, harmony and balance? .lorem ipsum :: [Date]
Consolidation of collective work The collective work within inside and outside their communities, has allowed indigenous women to obtain important legal advances in the recognition, protection and promotion of their rights as women. They have established networks of local, national and international organizations and have played a key role in raising awareness and demanding positive change in community attitudes and practices in relation to violence.
the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and the Commission on the Status of Women CSW, among others.
They are strengthening their institutional capacities and promoting their own spaces for reflection, conversation and concertation of actions through forums, meetings, gatherings and so on; and include in their action plans joint work with various governmental community and other strategic allies.
Thanks to the continued work of indigenous women, there is a greater awareness of the situation of violence against indigenous women by the traditional community authorities and how to deal with it.
From the local to the international level, they are carrying out various processes of advocacy and transformation of norms, laws, policies and practices, creating bridges for dialogue and interaction with other broader movements such as the International Association of Women and Development –AWID-, CEDAW,
They have promoted awareness-raising campaigns against violence, such as the Women Campaign Seeders of Peace, Justice and Dignity, implemented and promoted by the Alliance of Indigenous Women of Central America and Mexico.
Indigenous women have established local, national and international networks.
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Strengthening the Cosmovision, Spirituality and Intergenerational Dialogue. Strengthening traditional knowledge through the recognition of history and articulating new initiatives with processes already initiated is fundamental to the process of building women's autonomy, developing their economic empowerment, and strengthening their political leadership. Revaluate those aspects of Indigenous Peoples' own cosmovision, which contribute to a dignified and harmonious life between women and men in the communities, as an important step towards collective action and construction of the autonomy of indigenous women. The contribution of traditional knowledge of women and men has promoted complementary visions on how to deal with situations of violence, where the promotion of good treatment, deconstruction and reconstruction of concepts and the focus of individual and collective human rights have a fundamental role.
Through these spaces, it has been possible to define the concept of violence against women from the indigenous women’s cosmovision, recognizing that, in order to combat violence against indigenous women, a deep contextual analysis is necessary to take into account the different aspects of identity that go beyond gender such as social class, caste, religion, sexual orientation, geographical situation and ethnic group. At the same time, it has managed to classify the different manifestations of violence that were generally not measured and affect women. Intergenerational dialogue has allowed the revaluation of traditional practices such as "group reciprocity", which promote the harmony and spiritual healing of women who have suffered violence.
as the set of ancestral knowledge and practices transmitted by grandmothers, grandparents and spiritual guides, and which is present in all indigenous cultures and serves to maintain, restore balance and harmony of the individual and collective being to prevent damage, release impotence, pain, fear, fright, anger and guilt. It is used to expose the oppression that women experience, and help them to return to themselves, to recognize themselves, and to be recognized once again in their dignity and integrity.
Intergenerational dialogue has allowed the revaluation of traditional practices such as
"group reciprocity"
Spiritual healing, defined by the indigenous women themselves,
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Generation of knowledge from the indigenous women themselves
Indigenous Women have been organized to provide knowledge of ancestral medicine, to improve treatment in sexual and reproductive health services with intercultural relevance.
Indigenous women protagonists of community development with identity, based on their indigenous cosmovision and promoting the responsible use of natural resources.
The generation of knowledge through the research done by the indigenous women themselves, is another important step towards the empowerment and development of being subject to rights, and also provides important bases for planning, budgeting and generation of public policies. The permanent questioning and reasoning promotes the self-recognition of the different situations and conditions that affect their lives, as well as the
responses, in particular the alternatives to prevent and eliminate violence. One of the main characteristics of intercultural research from the perspective of indigenous women is the community, to reflect and investigate together enables encounter and healing, credibility, opens their presence, mediation of the shared language, the understanding of codes; and Brotherhood and accompaniment.
Within the framework of the Indigenous Women’s Watch Against Violence, FIMI promoted and accompanied the development of four participatory diagnoses, designed and executed by indigenous women's organizations in Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Guatemala and Nicaragua under the name "Mairin Bila Baikra: The voices of the Indigenous Women". This experience has a great value for indigenous women, not only for what it means to live with the survivors of the impact and consequences of violence, but also to recognize themselves as researchers, and for the opportunity to contribute to a new research theoretical-methodological approach from their own vision and knowledge.
International Indigenous Women’s Forum FIMI-IIWF info@iiwf.org www.fimi-iiwf.org