Kathmandu, Nepal, 24th Nov. 2009 

As the training of the 2009/10 institute entered its second week, the 35 women leaders from 14 countries attending the institute were taken through the Human Rights Mechanisms module to enable them understand the appropriate fundamental instruments to apply in the process of documenting women’s human rights issues.

The participants were also taken through the principles of International Human Rights for them to understand the appropriate mechanisms to apply in International and domestic human rights treaties while fighting for the rights of women.  

Participants also discussed issues to do with lobbying which is a major strategy necessary for influencing major treaties and ensure that they incorporate rights of women. The participants had a candid discussion about the United Nations system and actions to be taken by activists to fight for the cause which they said would include using the media, dialogue, seek legal aid in cases of violations and lobby for legislative change that also include pressurising government for specific remedies.

Participants agreed that although the world system has put in place legal mechanisms such as International Humanitarian Law to address conflicts, women leaders from national and grassroots communities debated these mechanisms and highlighted the gaps. In their sharing and group work processes, they were able to provide strategies which they felt could be used to effectively address the different conflicts in their different settings. These included mediation, dialogue, advocacy, sensitisation of communities, operationalisation of different laws, engaging available human rights institutions and inclusion of rights of women in national constitutions. 

The women leaders also reviewed the different human rights instruments like UNSCR 1325, 1888 and 1889 used in different countries by women’s human rights defenders to ensure peace in their countries. They also reviewed the challenge especially in financing of the human rights work. They also came up with impressions of mechanisms used by human rights practitioners that have made them survive and maintain the activism in adverse conditions during conflict situations and when carrying out human rights work.  

The women also got a chance to interact with renowned Nepalese women human rights defenders who shared with them experiences of their journey while organising and working as women’s human rights defenders. They in particular had a lecture from the deputy chairperson of the Nepalese constituent assembly Hon Subedi Purna, who briefed them about her journey from being a grassroots women’s human rights defender, through times of resistance to her current leadership position.

Hon Subedi informed participants that she decided to dedicate her life to fight for women’s human rights after seeing the injustices and deprivations the women faced since her student days. She said in her community, women faced cultural discrimination and domestic violence which made her decide to take on leadership to organize women.

She told participants that her strength relied on the fact that women understood each other as daughters, wives, sisters and mothers.

“When we talked about women’s equality, we did no just emphasise gender inequality and only solely gender issues. We also talked about class issues, about women as a citizenship as well as their rights that go beyond gender issues”.

Hon Subedi also told the women leaders that even in their struggle, they used a wider perspective and understood that; “…women’s liberation is for women’s rights and that women’s liberation and equality is not anti men…” she asserted.   

She said that by popularizing this approach within the women’s organization and emphasising the struggle and fight for the marginalized to get justice has today yielded as women now have 33% representation in the Nepal National Constituent Assembly.