On the occasion of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the Journalists and Writers Foundation organized a panel discussion “Protecting Women Human Rights Defenders for Sustainable Peace” on March 7, Tuesday at 2:30 PM at the Church Center for the United Nations.

Meaningful participation of women human rights defenders (WHRDs) is required to establish sustainable peace and development across the world. However, as WHRDs continue to be at the forefront to establish just and cohesive societies and lead social movements to advance human rights for all, they are also targeted to be subjects of life-threatening violations and their civic space has been shrinking. Structural inequalities and increasing discrimination against women in patriarchal societies have direct implications for the crucial work of WHRDs for sustainable peace and security. Lack of recognition for the transforming role of women human rights defenders aggravates intersecting forms of violations including cyber-attacks, physical violence, and legal harassment thus increasing impunity against such crimes. 

JWF`s In-person CSW67 Panel Discussion was moderated by Cemre Ulker, UN Representative of the Journalists and Writers Foundation. In her opening remarks, Ulker mentioned that “As in every case though, women human rights defenders combat intersectional violence of many different forms. Especially with the rise of authoritarianism, one-man regimes, and patriarchal societies across the globe, we see a drastic increase in cyber-attacks against women journalists, defamation campaigns against women politicians, legal harassment, and physical violence of all forms as Iranian, and Afghan women human rights defenders are facing. Since the military unleashed a brutal crackdown, women of Myanmar are also subject to grave violations as gender-based violence is deeply systemic in Myanmar as well.” 

As a human rights expert focusing on civil and political rights violations, Ms. Ulker presented various cases from Turkey. She underlined that being a competitive authoritarian regime with judicial bodies under the control of pro-government officials, jailing women human rights defenders, politicians, and journalists has been among the most embraced strategies of the state in an attempt to silence dissidents and opposition women voices in Turkey. Stressing that the capacity of prisons in Turkey is over the maximum already, Ms. Ulker underlined that incarceration of women human rights defenders with alleged accusations and forms of violations, and inhuman, degrading treatments taking place inside prisons have been increasingly reported as well.

The first panelist of the session was Azra Jafari, Afghanistan`s first elected female Mayor of Nili, the capital of Daikundi province. Ms. Jafari talked about the gender-specific challenges women human rights defenders encounter under the brutal rule of Taliban forces. In her remarks, Azra called on the international community to stand in solidarity with the women and girls of Afghanistan, who are deprived of all of their fundamental human rights. She reminded the international audience that Afghanistan is the only country in the world, where women and girls are banned from schools. Her remarks put stress on the implications of gender-apartheid regimes as violating the right to access quality education for women and girls has various inevitable impacts on sustainable peace and development. 

In her remarks, Ms. Jafari talked about the social and cultural obstacles hindering women`s meaningful participation as human rights defenders in Afghanistan. Ms. Jafari shared various gender-related barriers that she encountered during her time in the office leading the municipality of Nili. The former Mayor said that requesting financial assistance was regarded as incompetence and that she was not supported by any economic assets to foster development in Nili. She says “I was asked to prove that I am a good mayor” without any means to operate in my role as a decision-maker. 

The first panelist of the session was Azra Jafari, Afghanistan`s first elected female Mayor of Nili, the capital of Daikundi province. Ms. Jafari talked about the gender-specific challenges women human rights defenders encounter under the brutal rule of Taliban forces. In her remarks, Azra called on the international community to stand in solidarity with the women and girls of Afghanistan, who are deprived of all of their fundamental human rights. She reminded the international audience that Afghanistan is the only country in the world, where women and girls are banned from schools. Her remarks put stress on the implications of gender-apartheid regimes as violating the right to access quality education for women and girls has various inevitable impacts on sustainable peace and development. 

Saghar Erica Kasraie also talked about the global advocacy campaigns led by Iranian women human rights defenders. One of the impactful results of diplomatic engagements led by Iranian women advocates were calling the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) running under the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to remove the Iranian regime from the CSW following the grave and systemic state-led violence against women and girls. Ms. Kasraie said that this was a great step forward but is not enough until the women and girls of Iran live in freedom. She ended her remarks by underlining that Iranians should have a new constitution where people choose their politicians and decide on who should be the government as we want to see a free and democratic Iran soon. In conclusion of her remarks, Ms. Kasraie also informed the participants about the best practices of Empower Women Media to support women human rights defenders, particularly in the MENA region. 

The last speaker of the JWF CSW67 In-person Panel “Protecting Women Human Rights Defenders for Sustainable Peace” was Haw Hser Hser, Political Initiative and Advocacy Team leader of the Women’s League of Burma. She briefed the CSW audience about the 2017 genocide of Rohingya and the 2021 military coup which created an even further crackdown in Myanmar specifically targeting women`s rights and girls’ wellbeing. Ms. Hser said that more than 3000 women were killed and 60,000 were detained after the military coup in Myanmar. There are numerous women`s rights organizations to advocate for women’s rights in Myanmar but they face threats from the government. Naw Hser Hser underlined that rape and other forms of sexual violence as well as taping by the military forces are among the common practices of the Myanmar military to oppress women human rights defenders. 

Ms. Hser called on intergovernmental agencies, in particular, United Nations bodies to address these systemic atrocity crimes against women as in Myanmar there is no rule of law, there is no mechanism to seek justice and report human rights violations and gender-based violence against women. Naw Hser Hser requested the support of the international community to impose pressure on the Myanmar government and military to end impunity on violence against women.

The event concluded with the courageous remarks and feedbacks the panelists received from the audience standing in solidarity with the women of Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, and Turkey. Cemre Ulker, Azra Jafari, and Saghar Erica Kasraie were later interviewed by the Voice of America Dari Correspondent Zafar Bamyani.