Workshop language: English / Workshopsprache: Englisch
The climate crisis is jeopardizing our food security and our livelihoods – it is leading to insecurity and increasing conflicts. People in the Global South in particular often have to weigh up how to use limited resources to mitigate risks and still be able to secure their livelihoods. Many people, especially women and people with disabilities, who live in „fragile states“ with a conflict-ridden past and present, are affected by structural violence and militarization. These conflicts are triggered and exacerbated by, among other things, a struggle for resources such as oil and gas, mining projects, large dams or the agricultural industry – projects that are often financed by international investors, banks and governments.
They undermine feminist, ecological and other social movements that challenge the concentration of economic and political power, traditional gender norms and the prevailing economic growth model. Courageous activists in grassroots organizations, international NGOs and politics are campaigning for human and women’s rights, environmental protection and peace and the inclusion of people with disabilities, who make up 16% of the world’s population, but 27% in some humanitarian contexts. In many regions of the world, activists are increasingly exposed to gender-specific threats, sexualized violence, intimidation, smear campaigns, threats to their children and other family members, and even torture and murder.
Networks such as the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA) or WIDE are working to improve collaboration between women-led grassroots organizations and gender, environmental and climate justice movements at different levels to pursue lobbying (and advocacy) for environmental and climate justice and to strengthen the leadership, resistance and agency of women, girls, trans, non-binary and intersex people, with and without disabilities, and promote their human rights.
The WIDE member organizations Light for the World and trans:verse together with Grettel Navas (Chile) will introduce a difficult but not hopeless topic in a playful and interactive way in the forum on the women – peace – climate nexus.
Jennifer Pitter-Lopez and Sophie Vessel (Light for the World) will facilitate “the decision game” (initially developed by the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, adapted for inclusion by J. Pitter-Lòpez) which addresses the effects of the climate crisis on different population groups.
Grettel Navas (University of Chile) will report from her research on how different forms of violence, including physical, structural, cultural and environmental violence, can lead to insecurity, precarity and severe mental health consequences for climate justice activists.
Julia Scharinger (trans:verse) will present case studies from Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazil, the Philippines, Nigeria and Mozambique, which focus on the overlap between conflict, gender and climate, yet highlighting opportunities for action.
Moderation: Birgit Mayerhofer (trans:verse)
