2020 Declaration on Women’s Rights

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This post and its contents were Sent on behalf of WGSS Affiliate Zehra Arat. The downloadable documents according to each section are located at the bottom of this post.

THE 2020 DECLARATION ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS

We, the undersigned women’s groups and feminist organizations, collectively representing nearly a thousand women’s organizations, held a meeting on October 15, 2020, to discuss the attacks on the Istanbul Convention and our other common problems. We issue this joint declaration to draw attention to the ongoing discrimination and violence, as well as increasing hardship and human rights violations, faced by women worldwide, and to reaffirm that our rights are non-negotiable.

We observe with deep concern that

  • patriarchal structures, neoliberal policies, authoritarian governance, militarism, and warfare have long been violating women’s and girls’ rights and endangering their lives; 
  • the deepening of poverty, economic inequality, climate change, and the current COVID-19 pandemic have further aggravated the situation, overwhelming women of all classes, races, ethnicities, and nationalities in various ways and degrees; 
  • gender-based discrimination and violence, through word and deed, are committed by numerous governments and groups of different political orientations, religions, and cultures; 
  • despite their differences, these state and non-state actors subscribe to the same misogynist, homophobic, and transphobic patriarchal ideology.

  We demand that

  • all state agencies, private institutions and civil society organizations uphold the principle of equality in human dignity, which is the foundation of international human rights;
  • all governments seek gender equality by collaborating with women’s organizations and through adequately funded and effectively implemented policies that ensure the realization of women’s and girls’ economic, political, social, cultural, sexual, and reproductive rights; 
  • all governments pursue international cooperation and multilateral policies to address global crises, realize and protect human rights in all territories, and ensure gender equality;
  • all parliaments fulfill their legislative function and replace discriminatory laws with those based on the principle of gender equality, as well as their regulatory function and hold governments accountable;
  • all local, national and global media stop negative stereotypes, expose public and private perpetrators of gender-based violence and women’s rights violations, and hold negligent agencies accountable;
  • all international organizations and agencies help realize women’s and girls’ rights, end all sexual orientation and gender-related discrimination, and ensure gender equality without compromise, through effective steering, monitoring, and follow up mechanisms; 
  • all international human rights instruments – especially the Istanbul Convention, the Beijing Platform for Action, CEDAW, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child – be defended against misrepresentations, ratified by all states, and fully implemented by states parties.

We declare that

    • we are more determined than ever;
    • despite the shrinking democratic space, we will continue to confront patriarchal violence, misinformation, masculinist discourses, and attacks on our hard-won rights;
  • we will work toward building a world of equality, justice, and peace – together, in sisterhood and transnational solidarity!

LONG LIVE WOMEN’S SOLIDARITY!

 

Signatories to the 2020 Declaration on Women’s Rights 

Advocates for Human Rights, United States   

Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria

Great Coalition for Equality and Choice, Poland 

Hungarian Women’s Lobby, Hungary

Organization for Promotion of Women’s Rights (DOMINE), Croatia 

Ukrainian Women Lawyers Association (JURFEM), Ukraine  

Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE)  

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) 

Women’s Network Croatia, Croatia

Women’s Platform for Equality (EŞİK), Turkey  

Women’s Rights Center, Poland 

Women’s Support and Information Center (NPO), Estonia

European Women’s Lobby (Supporting organization)

Press release

December 7, 2020

An international group of twelve women’s networks and platforms, collectively representing nearly a thousand women’s organizations, has issued a declaration to draw attention to the discrimination, violence, hardship, and human rights violations faced by women worldwide. 

The 2020 Declaration on Women’s Rights was conceived at a transnational meeting hosted by the Women’s Platform for Equality, Turkey, on October 15, 2020. At that meeting, participants discussed right-wing groups’ and governments’ attacks on the Istanbul Convention (the Council of Europe convention to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence). Bringing together 170 women from 15 countries from Europe and North America, the October meeting confirmed that the arguments used against the Istanbul Convention in each country stem from similar misogynist, homophobic, and transphobic patriarchal ideologies.

The 2020 Declaration on Women’s Rights draws attention to the interrelated causes of violations of women’s human rights. It also highlights the aggravation of these violations by neoliberal policies, rising authoritarianism, climate change, militarism, and the current COVID-19 pandemic. 

In addition to demanding that national political institutions and international organizations take action to realize women’s human rights and ensure gender equality, the Declaration reaffirms women’s commitment and determination to work in transnational solidarity, despite the shrinking democratic space, to confront patriarchal violence, misinformation, masculinist discourses, and attacks on their hard-won rights, and to build a world of equality, justice, and peace. 

The text of the Declaration is available in English Turkish and Kurdish. For more information please contact info@esikplatform.net

 

Signatories to the 2020 Declaration on Women’s Rights 

Advocates for Human Rights, United States   

Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria

Great Coalition for Equality and Choice, Poland 

Hungarian Women’s Lobby, Hungary

Organization for Promotion of Women’s Rights (DOMINE), Croatia 

Ukrainian Women Lawyers Association (JURFEM), Ukraine  

Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE)  

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) 

Women’s Network Croatia, Croatia

Women’s Platform for Equality (EŞİK), Turkey  

Women’s Rights Center, Poland 

Women’s Support and Information Center (NPO), Estonia

European Women’s Lobby (Supporting organization)

 

#WomensSolidarityAcrossBorders

#2020WomensRightsDeclaration

 

2020 Womens rights Declaration Press Release

 

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