Rural women’s activism when it comes to land rights is our key area of focus. Land grabbing, unfair land distribution, development projects, environmental degradation, extractive industries, and climate change have all placed increased stress on many rural communities. In many cases, increasing contestation around land has resulted in mass displacement, which has particularly detrimental impacts for rural women. Rural women have been at the forefront of many of the efforts to resist unfair demands to concede their lands, and many have met with extreme and sometime even fatal violence. Most recently, we are seeing an increase of attacks environmental and indigenous rights advocates. There is an upsurge in violence against land rights activists, many of whom are rural women.
In 2016, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women issued its new General Recommendation No. 34 on the Rights of Rural Women. In it, the Committee highlights that 'Rural women human rights defenders are often at risk of violence when working, for example, to protect victims, transform local customs or secure natural resource rights.
General Recommendation No. 34 not only highlights the problem, it also provides that States parties are obligated to implement measures to prevent and address threats and attacks against rural women human rights defenders, with particular attention to those engaged on issues related to land and natural resources; women’s health, including sexual and reproductive rights; elimination of discriminatory customs and practices; and gender-based violence. It also highlights that such efforts must be in line with two of the Committee’s previous General Recommendations: No. 19 on violence against women and No. 33 on access to justice. This new standard is important because RUWODNET is working to support rural women Human Rights Defenders to hold governments accountable for failing to protect them from violence, harassment and abuse.