From Frontlines to Headlines—Women Human Rights Defenders

Safia Ahmed-jan was slain outside the front gate of her home in Kandakhar, a southern Afghan city, as she was walking to her office.  Her only fault was her commitment to women’s rights, to education, and the full participation of women in economic and social life, which she worked to implement through her position as the provincial director of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs. She was murdered because she was an outspoken human rights advocate who dared to challenge social norms and women’s roles in society.  She was a woman human rights defender.

Discriminatory cultural and social norms hinder women human rights defenders from conducting their work. Direct violence sanctioned and executed by state and non-state actors puts their lives at risk.

For the first time, the specific risks they face were given recognition and visibility by the International Campaign on Women Human Rights Defenders, which brought together approximately 15 international, regional and national women’s rights and mainstream human rights organizations.  Hina Jilani and Charlotte Bunch played instrumental roles in conceptualizing, launching, and implementing the campaign.

Presented by OSI's Network Women’s Program, this panel discussed how the global political climate created by the U.S.-led “war on terror” has influenced the rise of violence, the impact of violence on women, the challenges faced by women human rights defenders, as well as the tools, instruments, and strategies available for the prevention, monitoring, and investigation of violations of their rights.

Introduced by Network Women's Program Director Anastasia Posadskaya-Vanderbeck and Director of Programs Debra Schultz, the panel included:

• Charlotte Bunch, Executive Director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership;
• Hina Jilani, UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders, and Founder, AGHS Legal Aid Cell, Pakistan.

Gara LaMarche, OSI Vice President and Director of U.S. Programs, moderated.

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