Defending Human Rights: A Resource Book for Human

as organisations advocating for women’s rights.
Perpetrators of discrimination and outright violation
of the defenders’ rights range from State 33 to non-
State actors including members of the community
and the defenders’ families. Holding violators
accountable, poses a difficult task in an environment
often generally hostile to women human rights
defenders or the rights they defend. Though most
of the governments of the sub-region subscribe
to international human rights standards, their
compliance is arbitrary and guided by political
agendas. The support of “women’s issues” by some
governments is often revealed to be superficial
and opportunistic without efficiently addressing
the root causes of persisting discrimination and
inequality. Women’s continued marginalised
position in society aggravates their ability to take
violators of their rights to justice. This is the truer
for women human rights defenders who have
transgressed allegedly common rules by speaking
out on rights and entitlements. Authorities can use
their power in various ways such as withholding
the registration of an organisation on basis of their
areas of engagement, protracted lawsuits and
outright harassment by security agents. Though the
international system is built on the accountability
and obligations of states towards their citizens, this
is often difficult to be enforced. The weakness of
the international community in exerting pressures
on state violators is often revealed in its lack of
influence in so-called issues of national concern
that are evoked by pointing to the sovereignty of
a state. Within her report, SR Margaret Sekaggya
specifically acknowledged the role of the State and
the alarming incidents communicated in which state
perpetrators appear to target women and minority
rights defenders.
In addition, defenders also experience violations
from non-state actors. This term embraces a wide
range of actors such as family and community,
private corporations, media workers, armed groups,
fundamentalist organisations and international
financial institutions. Unfortunately, the current
international legal system remains weak in its
provisions on accountability of these actors and
their actual enforcement. States’ obligation to
protect its citizens and therefore also WHRDs is and
can often not be fulfilled. Hence, the perpetrators
often act with impunity. Radical political and/or
33 Supra n.12 at paragraph 107, page 20. “The Special Rapporteur
is concerned at the large number of violations which appear
to be perpetrated by agents or representatives of the State,
including police officers, military, Government officials and the
judiciary. These violations reportedly include arrest, mistreatment,
torture, criminalization, wrongful sentencing but also stigmatization,
threats, death threas and killings.”
religious forces often infringe on civilians’ rights
and establish a rule of law that deliberately limits
basic freedoms of communities. Women are often
targeted on basis of their sex and their communal
role. Especially in situations of armed conflict and
secession, non-state actors are among the main
perpetrators of rights violations. Women are often
attacked and humiliated based once again on
their role as life-giver and symbol of communal
honour. Women human rights defenders working
in situations of armed conflicts face the increased
challenge of being a defender and a woman and
are thereby vulnerable to gender-specific attacks.
Defenders are singled out for attacks to illustrate
the risk of speaking out and thereby deter other
community members from following their footsteps.
However, if it is the immediate family or community
that violates the rights of a woman human rights
defender, accountability and redress become even
more difficult by the inclusion of emotional and
social dependencies. The negative effect of their
human rights defence work on family and children
and the negative attitude of spouses, may limit
women’s willingness to speak out. Fear of rejection
and being ostracised by the community may easily
influence a defender’s outspokenness on a sensitive
issue. Ordinarily, little alternative safe havens are
available to a defender when having come under
threat other than their own home. Acts of physical
and sexual violence from within the family caused
by a woman’s work as a defender will often be
handled as a “domestic issue” by authorities with
little or nothing done to persecute the perpetrators.
It is because of these prevailing conditions, that
improving accountability of non-state actors and the
recognition of the rights of women human rights
defenders to defend the rights of others remains a
major challenge.
Small steps towards change
How else can a better protection of women human
rights defenders be achieved There is surely no
simple answer to this. However, from the above
elaboration, it becomes clear that the approach will
have to be multi-fold, addressing the root causes of
continued discrimination which causes specific risks
to WHRDs. This will have to aim at changing the
ideology of perpetrators and create structures and
institutions in society that are able to provide equal
protection to all citizens regardless of sex. This is
not done in an instant, and this article cannot claim
to hold the solution to our society’s continuous
inequalities.
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Defending Human Rights: A Resource Book for Human Rights Defenders | 2nd Edition