Bagnolet,
10/11/23 |
Call to Action
– International Day
for the Elimination
of Violence against
Women
On
25 November, the International
Day for the
Elimination of
Violence against
Women,
La Via Campesina is
sounding the alarm
about the various
forms of violence
experienced by women
around the world.
During crises and
violence such as wars,
occupations and
expulsions from our
territories, peasant
women, fisherwomen,
shepherds, indigenous
women, quilombolas and
indigenous peoples,
landless, migrants and
agricultural workers
continue to resist in
Palestine, Haiti,
Cuba, Niger, Peru and
other territories
around the world,
making history in the
struggle against
capitalism,
patriarchy, racism,
colonialism and the
advance of fascism.
In
Palestine, in the span
of 25 consecutive days
of these attacks
against civilians,
8,525 Palestinians
have tragically lost
their lives, and 67%
of the victims were
women and children.
This has not only
resulted in loss of
life but has also led
to the widespread
destruction of
numerous homes,
hospitals, schools and
critical
infrastructure, all of
which occurred without
any prior warning of
evacuation. Women
enduring the harsh
realities of this
occupation are forced
to live in appalling
conditions as they
have been forcibly
displaced. Among them
are pregnant women who
need essential medical
care and other basic
necessities to feed
their babies, while
enduring the lack of
even the most basic
standards of living.
The Israeli occupation
has imposed a total
siege, severely
limiting access to
food, water and fuel
for the past three
weeks. This siege
employs starvation as
a cruel and inhumane
tactic, causing
immense suffering
among women who have
no safe place to live
and provide urgently
needed care for their
children.
On
this day, we denounce
the inability of the
States to guarantee
their commitments in
the construction of a
public policy of
equality, the
complicit and
patriarchal judicial
system that protects
aggressors and
promotes a culture of
impunity and violence
against women, girls
and diversity.
As
Morris Tidball-Binz,
UN Special Rapporteur
on extrajudicial,
summary or arbitrary
executions, noted in
his 2023 report, “Femicide is a global tragedy of
pandemic proportions,
with tens of thousands
of girls and women,
including transgender
women, murdered every
year because of their
gender, and many more
at risk of dying from
gender-based violence
because States don’t
fulfil their duty to
protect victims’ lives
and ensure their
safety.”
Since
the foundation of our
movement, in these 30
years of struggle and
organisation, food
sovereignty as a
political principle
has allowed rural
women to denounce the
capitalist system, the
generator of the
multiple injustices
and inequalities that
we are experiencing
today, which has
turned food into a
commodity for
agribusiness, putting
market interests
first, poisoning the
soil and threatening
the subsistence of
humanity and life on
the planet.
Rural
women are essential in
the fight against
hunger and in the
defence of food
sovereignty, in the
care of biodiversity,
in the recovery of
indigenous seeds, in
the care of water,
soil and ancestral
knowledge. At the same
time, we are a front
of struggle,
resistance and
resilience in the face
of political, economic
and environmental
crises. Through
agroecological
practices we ensure
the sustainable
management of Mother
Earth and promote a
feminist, supportive
and just economy.
At
the same time, we
denounce the
neoliberal and fascist
policies on women’s
bodies and lives: the
lack of fundamental
rights such as
education, housing,
health, sexual and
reproductive rights,
as well as freedom of
mobility, organisation
and communication.
The
world is currently
experiencing a setback
and a serious loss of
fundamental and
historical rights in
multiple crises caused
by wars, the climate
crisis, poverty and
pandemics, which have
a clear gendered
impact and unequally
affect women and
girls.
Before,
during and after the
COVID-19 pandemic, as
peasant women we have
affirmed food
sovereignty as a
concrete way to face
these crises, and we
continue to produce
more than 70% of the
food we represent 50%
of the labour power in
the field. However, we
own less than 2% of
the land,
infrastructure and
necessary services.
In
this sense, we see the
UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants, adopted
in 2018, as a
political tool to
defend and fight for
our rights, and to
guide public policies
that guarantee a
dignified life in the
countryside and
healthy food for
humanity and life on
the planet.
On
this day of action
#25Nov23,
together with
organised and
rebellious women from
all over the world, we
will call for a day of
mobilisation, training
and exchange, with
forums, direct
actions, fairs and
other events
denouncing the daily
and structural
violence that women
and peasants
experience. We will
take to the streets
and networks to put
forward our political
proposals to condemn
capitalism,
patriarchy, the states
and the judiciary as
the main accomplices
of the violence and
crises we are
experiencing today.
Towards
our 8th Conference and
6th International
Women’s Assembly in
Bogotá
Since
its birth, La Via
Campesina has sought
to guarantee the
participation of rural
women at all levels of
action, power and
representation, in
order to build a
broad, democratic,
international
movement, politically
and socially committed
to the defence of
peasant agriculture,
food sovereignty, the
struggle for land,
justice, equality and
the fight against all
forms of gender
violence.
Since
the First Conference
and the Women’s
Assembly of La Via
Campesina, we have
achieved key
objectives such as
gender parity, peasant and popular feminism and the fight
against violence.
We have also gained
recognition for our
strategic role in food
sovereignty and food
systems and in the
construction of the
Declaration of Peasant
Rights.
“These
spaces are key to
talking about the
context, the
strengthening of the
right, fascism and
neo-fascism. All this
means a lot in the
lives of rural women.
There is still a lot
of political violence,
so during the Assembly
we have to deal with
the causes of this
violence. With
conviction, as our
slogan says, but
without fear,”
commented Adriana
Mezadri of the
Brazilian Women’s
Peasant Movement and
the Women’s
Articulation of the
South American Region
of La Vía Campesina.
The
International Women’s
Assemblies that have
been held during these
years, within the
framework of our
International
Conference (1-8
December 2023), give
the movement a
political base and a
horizon, since it is
here that the actions
for the following
period are evaluated
and planned. Our 1st
Assembly took place in
Bangalore, India, in
2000; the 2nd Assembly
in Sao Paulo, Brazil,
in 2004; the 3rd
Assembly in Maputo,
Mozambique, in 2008;
the 4th Assembly in
Jakarta, Indonesia, in
2013; and the 5th
International Women’s
Assembly in Derio,
Basque Country, in
2017.
Petra
Ortiz, from the
Panamanian Peasant
Union of the Central
American Region, says
that several
face-to-face and
virtual meetings, schools, gatherings and assemblies have taken
place in the run-up to
the 6th International Women’s Assembly, which
will take place in
Bogotá on 2 December.
“We
have reviewed the
history of
articulation, the
journey of
articulation in La Via
Campesina, and the
advance of peasant and
popular feminism in
the search for
justice. Also to look
inwards and say that
there is still
violence in
organisations, so we
are also working on
training our
colleagues in feminism
and new masculinities
against all
patriarchal practices.
We have the challenge
of continuing to
integrate young
people, strengthening
solidarity, and
migration is also a
serious issue in the
region and globally,
as is the
environmental crisis,
which is aggravating
the situation in the
countryside,” she
says.
Global
Campaign to ‘Stop the
Violence Against
Women’ – 15 Years of
Breaking the Silence
The
International Campaign
to Stop Violence
Against Women is
celebrating its 15th
anniversary since it
was launched at the
5th Conference in
Maputo in 2008, where
La Via Campesina
“broke the silence”
and conceived it as a
way of dialogue within
the movement and with
society on the
importance of building
new and better human
relationships as part
of the construction of
new societies.
Anuka
De Silva, from MONLAR
Sri Lanka and the
Asian continent, says
that the peasant
population is a large
one, with a lot of
rural areas and
cultures. This region
is promoting a
campaign against
micro-lending, which
enslaves peasant women
with unpayable bills.
“This
is also a form of
violence. We want to
include it in our
campaign, which will
celebrate its 15th
anniversary at the 8th
World Conference. We
don’t have land in our
patriarchal societies.
That’s why we demand
changes in the laws
and fight for joint
ownership.
At
the same time, she
mentioned the
importance of stepping
up the campaign
against agrochemicals,
which are not only
related to food. In
Asia, they are causing
the deaths of women
and children.
“Migration is also a
serious problem in a
number of countries in
the region. There are
no labour rights. We
are calling for women
and countries to be
mobilised for rights.
In addition, the
environmental crisis
has caused floods and
droughts, so we demand
climate justice and
real policies,” she
adds.
Food
sovereignty cannot be
sown with violent and
toxic relationships!
It also seeks to
denounce the violence
of agribusiness, which
greatly affects rural
women, peasants,
fishermen, shepherds,
landless women,
migrants and farm
workers, displacing,
poisoning, exploiting,
criminalising and
killing them.
Download
our communication
materials and
campaign poster here.
Follow
us on social media
using the hashtag: #PopularPeasantFeminism
#StopViolenceAgainstWomen #25Nov23 #8ConfLVC
