Confrontando al extractivismo y al poder corporativo
Defensoras de derechos humanos de todo el planeta defienden sus tierras, medios de subsistencia y sus comunidades ante las industrias extractivas y el poder corporativo. Ellas hacen frente a fuertes intereses económicos y políticos que promueven el robo de tierras, el desplazamiento de comunidades, la pérdida de los medios de subsistencia y la degradación del medioambiente.
¿Por qué resistir a las industrias extractivas?
El extractivismo es un modelo económico y político de desarrollo que mercantiliza la naturaleza y prioriza la ganancia por sobre los derechos humanos y el medioambiente. Arraigado en la historia colonial, refuerza las desigualdades sociales y económicas tanto a nivel local como global. Muchas veces, las mujeres negras, rurales e indígenas son las más afectadas por el extractivismo, y además son notablemente excluidas de la toma de decisiones. Desafiando estas fuerzas patriarcales y neocoloniales, las mujeres se alzan en defensa de los derechos, las tierras, las personas y la naturaleza.
Riegos críticos y violencia específica de género
Las defensoras que enfrentan a las industrias extractivas, experimentan una diversidad de riesgos, amenazas y violaciones, incluidas la criminalización, la estigmatización, la violencia y laintimidación. Sus historias dan cuenta de marcados aspectos de violencia sexual y de género. Entre los perpetradores se incluyen autoridades estatales y locales, las corporaciones, la policía, el ejército, las fuerzas paramilitares y de seguridad privada, y en algunos casos, sus propias comunidades.
Actuar juntxs
AWID y la Coalición Internacional de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos (WHRDIC por su sigla en inglés) tienen el placer de anunciar «Defensoras de derechos humanos confrontado al extractivismo y al poder corporativo»; un proyecto interregional de investigación que documenta las experiencias vividas por las defensoras de Asia, África y América Latina.
Alentamos a activistas, integrantes de movimientos sociales, la sociedad civil organizada, donantes y responsables de políticas públicas, a leer y utilizar estas producciones para el trabajo de incidencia, con fines educativos y como fuente de inspiración:
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«Defensoras de derechos humanos confrontando a las industrias extractivas: un panorama de los riesgos críticos y las obligaciones en materia de derechos humanos» es un informe sobre políticas desde la perspectiva de género (en inglés, pronto disponible en español). Analiza las formas de violaciones y los tipos de perpetradores, hace referencia a las obligaciones relevantes en derechos humanos e incluye recomendaciones de políticas para los estados, corporaciones, la sociedad civil y donantes.
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«Tejiendo la Resistencia a través de la Acción: Las Estrategias de las Defensoras de Derechos Humanos contra a las Industrias Extractivas» es una guía práctica que expone formas creativas y deliberadas de acción, tácticas exitosas e inspiradoras historias de resistencias.
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El video «Defendiendo a las Personas y al Planeta: Mujeres Confrontando a las Industrias Extractivas» está protagonizado por defensoras de derechos humanos de África, Asia y América Latina, que comparten sus luchas por la tierra y la vida, y hablan de los riesgos y desafíos que enfrentan en su activismo.
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«Desafiar al poder corporativo: Las luchas por los derechos de las mujeres, la justicia económica y de género» es un informe de investigación que explica los impactos del poder corporativo y ofrece ideas sobre estrategias de resistencia.
¡Comparte tu experiencia y tus preguntas!
◾️ ¿De qué manera estos recursos pueden ayudarte en tu activismo y tu trabajo de defensa?
◾️ ¿Qué informaciones o conocimientos adicionales necesitas para la mejor utilización de estos recursos?
¡Gracias!
AWID reconoce con gratitud las invaluables contribuciones de cada Defensora de Derechos Humanos que ha sido parte de este proyecto. Esta guía ha sido posible gracias su generosidad y apertura al compartir sobre sus experiencias y lecciones. Su coraje, creatividad y resiliencia son una inspiración para todxs nosotrxs. ¡Muchas gracias!
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Snippet FEA Avellaneda, Gran Buenos Aires (EN)
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WEAVING
LIVES
Benoîte Groult
Benoîte était une journaliste, écrivaine et militante féministe française.
Elle a publié plus de 20 romans et de nombreux essais sur le féminisme
Son premier livre « Ainsi Soit-Elle » a été publié en 1975. Le livre explore l’histoire des droits des femmes ainsi que la misogynie et la violence à l’égard des femmes.
Son dernier livre, « Ainsi Soit Olympe de Gouges», a exploré la question des droits des femmes pendant la Révolution française, se concentrant sur la figure de l’ancienne féministe française Olympe de Gouges. De Gouges fut guillotinée en 1793 pour avoir défié l'autorité des hommes et publié la « Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne » deux ans auparavant.
Snippet - WITM Who should - AR
من يجب أن يجيب على الاستطلاع؟
الاستطلاع هذا مخصّص للمجموعات، المنظمات والحركات التي تعمل بالأساس أو فقط على حقوق النساء، أفراد مجتمع الميم - عين، والحقوق الجندرية، في جميع السياقات، على جميع المستويات، وفي جميع المناطق. إن كان واحد من هذه المبادئ اساسًا لمجموعتكم/ن، تنظيمكم/ن أو شبكتكم/ن، أو أي نوع تنظيم آخر، إن كان مسجلاً أم لا، جديداً أو طويل العمر، ندعوكم/ن للإجابة على الاستطلاع.

*في الوقت الحالي، لا نطلب من الأفراد أو الصناديق النسوية أو النسائية تعبئة الاستطلاع.
تعرف على المزيد حول الاستطلاع: راجع/ي الأسئلة الشائعة
Challenging the economic growth model
Context
Contesting the premise that a country’s economy must always ‘grow or die’, de-growth propositions come to debunk the centrality of growth measured by increase in Gross domestic product (GDP).
Definition
A de-growth model proposes a shift towards a lower and sustainable level of production and consumption. In essence, shrinking the economic system to leave more space for human cooperation and ecosystems.
The proposal includes
- Downsizing resource-, energy- and emission-intensive superfluous production, particularly in the North (e.g. the automotive and military industries)
- Directing investments instead into the care sector, social infrastructure and environmental restoration
Feminist perspective
Feminist perspectives within de-growth theory and practice argue that it also needs to redefine and revalidate unpaid and paid, care and market labour to overcome traditional gender stereotypes as well as the prevailing wage gaps and income inequalities that devalue care work.

Learn more about this proposition
- In “The Future WE Want: Occupy development” Christa Wichterich argues that in order to break up the hegemonic logic of unfettered growth and quick returns on investment, three cornerstones of another development paradigm must combine: care, commons and sufficiency in production and consumption.
- Equitable, Ecological Degrowth: Feminist Contributions by Patricia Perkins suggests developing effective alternative indicators of well-being, including social and economic equity and work-time data, to demonstrate the importance of unpaid work and services for the economy and provide a mechanism for giving credit to those responsible.
Part of our series of
Feminist Propositions for a Just Economy
Snippet FEA trans and travesti people in Argentina (ES)

Solo el 18% de las personas trans y travestis en Argentina acceden a un trabajo formal
Susana Chavez
Stella Mukasa
Stella began her career at the Ministry of Gender and Community Development in Uganda engaging with policymakers for law reform, including the 1995 Ugandan Constitution, which established some of the most progressive reforms for women in the region.
She is revered throughout the region for her tireless efforts to create and enforce gender-responsive laws and policies. She played a key role in drafting Uganda’s Domestic Violence Act and in mobilizing support for gender-responsive constitutions in both Uganda and in Rwanda.
Through her work with International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), she worked on violence against children, and worked to strengthen the capacities of grassroots organizations addressing gender-based violence. She was a lecturer on gender rights and the law at Makerere University and served on the boards of Akina Mama wa Afrika, ActionAid International Uganda and the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa.
Snippet - WITM To Strengthen - RU

Укрепить наш коллективный голос и влияние на увеличение и улучшение финансирования феминистских организаций, организаций по защите прав женщин, ЛГБТКИ+ и смежных организаций по всему миру
Key opposition discourses
Ultra conservative actors have developed a number of discourses at the international human rights level that call on arguments manipulating religion, culture, tradition, and national sovereignty in order to undermine rights related to gender and sexuality.
Anti-rights actors have increasingly moved away from explicitly religious language. Increasingly, we see regressive actors - who may previously have derided human rights concepts - instead manipulating and co-opting these very concepts to further their objectives.
Protection of the family
This emerging and successful discourse appears innocuous, but it functions as a useful umbrella theme to house multiple patriarchal and anti-rights positions. The ‘protection of the family’ theme is thus a key example of regressive actors’ move towards holistic and integrated advocacy.
The language of ‘protection of the family’ works to shift the subject of human rights from the individual and onto already powerful institutions.
It also affirms a unitary, hierarchical, and patriarchal conception of the family that discriminates against family forms outside of these rigid boundaries. It also attempts to change the focus from recognition and protection of the rights of vulnerable family members to non-discrimination, autonomy, and freedom from violence in the context of family relations.
The Right to Life
The Holy See and a number of Christian Right groups seek to appropriate the right to life in service of an anti-abortion mission. Infusing human rights language with conservative religious doctrine, they argue that the right to life, as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, applies at the moment of conception.
The discourse has no support in any universal human rights instrument. Yet this is an appealing tactic for anti-rights actors, because the right to life cannot be violated under any circumstances and is a binding legal standard.
Sexual rights
Anti-rights actors use a number of rhetorical devices in their campaign to undermine sexual rights: they argue that sexual rights do not exist or are ‘new rights,’ that they cause harm to children and society, and/or that these rights stand in opposition to culture, tradition or national laws.
Conservative actors engaged in advocacy at the UN attack the right to comprehensive sexuality education from several directions. They claim that CSE violates ‘parental rights’, harms children, and that it is not education but ideological indoctrination. They also claim that comprehensive sexuality education is pushed on children, parents, and the United Nations by powerful lobbyists seeking to profit from services they provide to children and youth.
Attempts to invalidate rights related to sexual orientation and gender identity have proliferated. Ultra conservative actors argue that application of long-standing human rights principles and law on this issue constitutes the creation of ‘new rights’; and that the meaning of rights should vary radically because they should be interpreted through the lens of ‘culture’ or ‘national particularities.’
Reproductive Rights
Christian Right organizations have been mobilizing against reproductive rights alongside the Holy See and other anti-rights allies for several years. They often argue that reproductive rights are at heart a form of Western-imposed population control over countries in the global South. Ironically, this claim often originates from U.S. and Western Europe-affiliated actors, many of whom actively work to export their fundamentalist discourses and policies.
Regressive actors also cite to ‘scientific’ arguments from ultra-conservative think tanks, and from sources that rely on unsound research methodologies, to suggest that abortion causes an array of psychological, sexual, physical, and relational side effects.
Protection of children and parental rights
Just as anti-rights actors aim to construct a new category of ‘protection of the family,’ they are attempting to construct a new category of ‘parental rights,’ which has no support in existing human rights standards.
This discourse paradoxically endeavours to use the rights protections with which children are endowed, as articulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to support the rights of parents to control their children and limit their rights.
Violence against women
Increasingly, anti-rights actors are attempting to infiltrate and subvert standards and discourses developed by women human rights defenders, such as violence against women (VAW).
At the Commission on the Status of Women and other spaces, one rhetorical move is to treat VAW as a concept in which to embed anti-reproductive rights and patriarchal arguments. Ultra conservative actors, for example, have argued that non-heteronormative or traditional intimate partner relationships are a risk factor for violence, and emphasize that fathers are necessary to protect families from violence.
Gender and ‘gender ideology’
The Holy See has set off a sustained critique of gender, ‘gender ideology’, ‘gender radicals,’ and gender theory, and anti-rights actors often read the term as code for LGBTQ rights. Gender is used by the religious right as a cross-cutting concept that links together many of their discourses. Increasingly, the hysteria on this subject fixates on gender identity and trans rights.
Complementarity and human dignity
Complementarity of the sexes is a discourse employed by a number of ultra-conservative actors today. Its rhetoric is structured around an assumption of difference: men and women are meant to have differing but complementary roles in marriage and family life, and with respect to their engagement in the community and political and economic life.
Reference to ‘natural’ roles is meant to fundamentally reject universal human rights to equality and non-discrimination.

It is also used to justify State and non-State violations of these rights, and non-compliance with respect to State obligations to eliminate prejudices and practices based on stereotyped roles for men or women.
National sovereignty and anti-imperialism
This discourse suggests that national governments are being unjustly targeted by UN bodies, or by other States acting through the UN. This is an attempt to shift the subject of human rights from the individual or marginalized community suffering a rights violation to a powerful and/or regressive institution - i.e. the state, in order to justify national exceptions from universal rights or to support state impunity.
Religious freedom
Anti-rights actors have taken up the discourse of freedom of religion in order to justify violations of human rights. Yet, ultra-conservative actors refer to religious freedom in a way that directly contradicts the purpose of this human right and fundamentally conflicts with the principle of the universality of rights. The inference is that religious liberty is threatened and undermined by the protection of human rights, particularly those related to gender and sexuality.
The central move is to suggest that the right to freedom of religion is intended to protect a religion rather than those who are free to hold or not hold different religious beliefs.
Yet under international human rights law, the right protects believers rather than beliefs, and the right to freedom of religion, thought and conscience includes the right not to profess any religion or belief or to change one’s religion or belief.
Cultural rights and traditional values
The deployment of references to culture and tradition to undermine human rights, including the right to equality, is a common tactic amongst anti-rights actors. Culture is presented as monolithic, static, and immutable, and it is is often presented in opposition to ‘Western norms.’
Allusions to culture by anti-rights actors in international policy debates aim to undermine the universality of rights, arguing for cultural relativism that trumps or limits rights claims. Regressive actors’ use of cultural rights is founded on a purposeful misrepresentation of the human right. States must ensure that traditional or cultural attitudes are not used to justify violations of equality, and human rights law calls for equal access, participation and contribution in all aspects of cultural life for all, including women, religious, and racial minorities, and those with non-conforming genders and sexualities.
Subverting ‘universal’
Anti-rights actors in international policy spaces increasingly manipulate references to universal or fundamental human rights to reverse the meaning of the universality of rights.
Rather than using the term universal to describe the full set of indivisible and interrelated human rights, ultra conservative actors employ this term to instead delineate and describe a subset of human rights as ‘truly fundamental.’ Other rights would thus be subject to State discretion, ‘new’ rights or optional. This discourse is especially powerful as their category of the truly universal remains unarticulated and hence open to shifting interpretation.
Other Chapters
Snippet FEA What Challenges Story 3 (FR)
À quels défis les personnes Trans et Travesti sont-elles confrontées en Argentine ?
Sunila Abeyseke
Juana Ramírez Santiago
Juana fue una de las fundadoras y era actualmente integrante de la junta directiva de la Red de Mujeres Ixiles de Nebaj, una organización por los derechos de las mujeres indígenas que es parte de la Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos (IM-Defensoras).
También era partera y madre de siete hijxs. Había recibido amenazas de muerte que fueron denunciadas ante la Fiscalía. Juana es la tercera defensora de derechos humanos indígena asesinada en el área durante 2018. El Ombudsman de Guatemala informa que un total de 20 defensorxs de derechos humanos fueron asesinadxs este año en el país.
Juana Ramírez Santiago fue baleada de muerte por atacantes desconocidos mientras cruzaba un puente en Nebak, Quiché, Guatemala. Están en curso las investigaciones para identificar a los perpetradores.
Snippet - WITM About the survey - AR
عن الاستطلاع
- عالمي ومتنوع يعكس وقائع التمويل للتنظيم النسوي على المستوى العالمي ومقسّم حسب المناطق
- مقسم حسب النطاق يضع أصوات، وجهات النظر والتجارب المعاشة للحركات النسوية في المركز ويسلط الضوء على ثروتها، شجاعتها وتنوّعها، كل واحدة في نطاقها
- مشترك: تم تطوير وتجربة الاستطلاع باستشارة أعضاء/ عضوات جمعية حقوق المرأة في التنمية والشركاء/ الشريكات في الحركة
- تكميلي يساهم ويعزّز الأدلة المتواجدة عن وضع التمويل للحركات النسوية والنسائية وحركات العدالة الجندرية من النشطاء/ الناشطات، الممولين/ات النسويين/ات والحلفاء/ الحليفا
- متعدد اللغات متاح باللغة العربية، الانجليزية، الفرنسية، البرتغالية، الروسية والاسبانية
- إعطاء الأولوية للخصوصية والأمان نحن ملتزمون/ات بالحفاظ على سرية وسلامة بياناتك. اقرأ/ي سياسة الخصوصية الخاصة بنا لمعرفة المزيد حول التدابير التي نتخذها لضمان حماية معلوماتك.
- متاح متاح لأشخاص مع درجات سمع، حركة، رؤية، وقدرات فكرية مختلفة، ويحتاج تقريباً 30 دقيقة لإتمامه.
- قابل للنسخ يمكن للحركات نسخ الاستطلاع لما يتناسب مع نطاقاتها. ستكون أدوات الاستطلاع متاحة لإجراء أبحاث إضافية ومناصرة مشتركة.
When development initiatives, religious fundamentalisms and the state of women’s rights collide
Nuestro nuevo documento de investigación El diablo se esconde en los detalles aborda la falta de conocimientos sobre los fundamentalismos religiosos en el sector del desarrollo, y se propone comprender mejor de qué manera estos fundamentalismos inhiben el desarrollo y, en particular, los derechos de las mujeres. Propone recomendaciones para que quienes trabajan en temas de desarrollo desafíen la labor de los fundamentalismos y eviten fortalecerlos inadvertidamente. [CTA download link: Leer el documento completo]
Seven pointers to consider
| Graphic1 | 1. Control of women’s bodies, sexuality, and choice are “warning signs” of rising fundamentalisms. |
| 2. Neoliberal economic policies have a particularly negative impact on women, and fuel the growth of religious fundamentalisms. | Graphic2 |
| Graphic3 | 3. Choosing religious organizations as default for partnerships builds their legitimacy and access to resources, and supports their ideology, including gender ideology. |
| 4.Everyone has multiple identities and should be defined by more than just their religion. Foregrounding religious identities tends to reinforce the power of religious fundamentalists. | Graphic4 |
| Graphic5 | 5. Religion, culture, and tradition are constantly changing, being reinterpreted and challenged. What is dominant is always a question of power. |
| 6. Racism, exclusion, and marginalization all add to the appeal of fundamentalists’ offer of a sense of belonging and a “cause”. | Graphic6 |
| Graphic7 | 7. There is strong evidence that the single most important factor in promoting women’s rights and gender equality is an autonomous women’s movement. |
Auge global de los fundamentalismos religiosos.
El Diablo se esconde en los detalles proporciona detalles de las graves violaciones a los derechos humanos y, en particular, de las violaciones a los derechos de las mujeres, causados por los fundamentalismos auspiciados por los Estados, así como por actores fundamentalistas no estatales como milicias, organizaciones comunitarias confesionales e individuos. La profundización fundamentalista de normas sociales atávicas y patriarcales está provocando el aumento de la violencia contra las mujeres, las niñas y las defensoras de derechos humanos (WHRDs). El informe propuesta estas ideas clave para abordar el problema:
- [icon] Fundamentalismos religiosos están ganando terreno en el seno de las comunidades
- [icon] Sistemas políticos
- [icon] Escenarios internacionales, con efectos devastadores para la gente común y para las mujeres en particular.
Los agentes de desarrollo deben actuar urgentemente.
Quienes trabajan en el desarrollo están de capacidad de asumir una posición más firme. Su capacidad colectiva para reconocer y enfrentar conjuntamente a los fundamentalismos religiosos resulta crucial para promover la justicia social, económica y de género y los derechos humanos de todas las personas en el marco del desarrollo sostenible. Resulta fundamental promover que el poder y los privilegios se entiendan desde la óptica del feminismo interseccional y aplicar esta comprensión a los interrogantes sobre religión y cultura. Las organizaciones de mujeres ya poseen conocimientos y estrategias para oponerse a los fundamentalismos. Quienes trabajan en el desarrollo deberían apoyarse en estos e invertir en coaliciones enfocadas en múltiples temáticas. Lo anterior, les ayudará a alcanzar nuevos horizontes.
Snippet FEA Brisa Escobar Quote (EN)
"My dreams and objectives have always been the same as those of Lohana Berkins: for the cooperative to continue standing and not to close. To continue to give this place to our travesti comrades, to give them work and a place of support"
Brisa Escobar,
president of the Cooperative