Table of Contents - East and Horn of Africa Human Rights ...

Regional Workshop on Women and Minority Human Rights Defenders
SIHA on the other hand is a membership organization of indigenous women’s rights
organizations. It addresses aspects affecting women in Sudan such as the existing ‘Public Order
Code’ that oppresses women by requiring them to wear Islamic dress. The Code is enforced
through a special police force – the Public Order Force.
Through her discussion, Ms Hala illustrated some of the challenges faced by women human
rights defenders in Sudan such as the divisions amongst women rights organizations, the
compartmentalization of human rights, repressive legal regimes, direct threats and the lack of
adequate response mechanisms.
Arising from the above experiences, it is clear that women human rights defenders put
themselves on the front line in the promotion and protection of human rights. In doing so, they
face risks that are specific to their gender and additional to those faced by men. Harassment and
attacks against them may themselves take gender- specific forms ranging from verbal abuse
directed exclusively at women because of their gender. These human rights abuses can, in turn,
have repercussions that are, in and of themselves, gender-specific such as pregnancies resulting
out of rape.
From the discussion that followed, Agreed Common Grounds from this session were that:
� Women’s human rights are the easiest to violate and get away with because of the layers
created by culture and tradition that support these violations.
� Many women are ‘role filling’ - many of them are in positions of power but are not
empowered to act. Further, many women go out of their way to take up responsibilities
that are not acknowledged, recognized, or even
documented.
� Very few people understand what women human rights
defenders really are or the role that they play.
Nevertheless, these should be recognized and affirmed as
equal partners and leaders.
� Women’s human rights should not be compartmentalized
as ‘women issues only’ but should be addressed within
the mainstream human rights discourse.
� Strategies should be sought on how to protect all women
human rights defenders in new and creative ways and
using on agreed regional and international human rights
F. Minority Defenders in the East and Horn of Africa; An Overview of Work
Experiences
11 | P a g e
Ms Hala El Karib.