Representing
rural and indigenous women from Asia, six non-governmental
organisations called for endorsement of the following statement, to be
submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(COP 15) in Copenhagen, 7-18 December 2009. Recognising the influence
of climate change on these women, the statement calls for recognition
and protection of their economic, social
and cultural rights.
Representing
rural and indigenous women from Asia, six non-governmental
organisations called for endorsement of the following statement, to be
submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(COP 15) in Copenhagen, 7-18 December 2009. Recognising the influence
of climate change on these women, the statement calls for recognition
and protection of their economic, social
and cultural rights.
We,
rural and indigenous women from Asia, the Pacific and other parts of
the world, face enormous threats and damage to our lives and rights as
a consequence of climate change including the unbridled manner by which
measures are being proposed and undertaken to adapt to and mitigate
this phenomenon and its impacts. As women farmers, fisherfolk, herders,
farm workers, indigenous food producers and natural resource managers,
we rely heavily on primary resources, which are being negatively
affected and destroyed by climate change.
We
assert our important roles in and contributions to the effective,
appropriate, integrated and sustainable use of land, biodiversity and
natural resources that have enabled the survival of generations of
people for many millennia through our traditional knowledge.
We
are concerned that rural and indigenous women are being affected more
severely and are more at risk during all phases of natural disasters
and extreme weather events including the post-disaster reconstruction
processes mainly due to prevailing discrimination based on gender,
caste and ethnic identities.
We
believe that climate change is a result of the historical and
unsustainable exploitation and concentration of access to global
natural resources by the northern countries and transnational
corporations (TNCs) in the name of development.
We
recognise that the intense levels of production for trade and
speculation purposes, which have been sustained and amplified by the
globalisation system – free market chauvinism facilitated by the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) and international and regional financial
institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World
Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), have led to the
relentless exploitation and exhaustion of natural resources,
destruction of forest and water sources in developing countries
resulting in more carbon emissions. All these have occurred at the cost
of the already marginalised rural and indigenous communities.
We
are alarmed by the fact that the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) recognises states' "common but differentiated
responsibility" as one of its principles, yet industrialised countries
are reluctant to fulfil their obligation to cut emissions at source
while their commitments are not sufficient to curb climate change and
its impacts.
We
are wary of false solutions which have been used to address climate
change, natural resource management and other environmental issues. We
believe that the market-based mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol, such as
emission trading, clean development mechanism, and joint
implementation, are not enough to make a dent in addressing the real
cause of climate crisis while threatening to undermine rural and
indigenous women's roles and contributions to sustainable livelihoods,
ecological health and human security including food sovereignty.
We
take the position based on our experiences that biofuels, large scale
hydro-electric power and nuclear power are not clean, safe, or
sustainable alternative sources of energy. On the contrary, they
increase threats and damages to the environment and to the lives and
livelihood of rural and indigenous women. Construction of large scale
hydro-electric power dams and the establishment of monocrop plantations
for biofuels have been causing destruction of forest, biodiversity
degradation, forced evictions, displacement and landlessness of
hundreds of thousands of rural and indigenous women and their
communities. The highly toxic chemicals used in these so-called
alternative sources of energy particularly affect women's reproductive
health.
We
are concerned about the financing instruments under the WB's Climate
Investment Funds (CIF). Loans add more burden to indebted and already
fragile economies of developing countries. This contradicts the
principle of "common but differentiated responsibility". Developing
countries are instead, made to pay for the effects and impact of
climate change caused by industrialized countries. Further, the
donor-beneficiary relationship the CIF promotes erodes industrialised
countries' obligations to emissions reduction.
We
confirm that mitigation and adaptation measures detached from the
context and development aspirations of rural and indigenous women
renege on commitments to biodiversity and sustainable development,
poverty reduction and human rights. We believe that any long term
solution to the escalating climate crisis should acknowledge historical
responsibility and ecological debt, be grounded on the respect and
protection of life and diversity, and promote and fulfill justice and
social equity between and within nations, peoples and sexes.
We
call on all countries which are Parties to the UNFCCC to be guided by
and adhere to the following principles in their "long-term
comprehensive action" at all levels:
- Respect, promote and integrate into all mechanisms, policies and action
plans on climate change the specific situation, right and needs of
rural and indigenous women as well as their critical role in and
contribution to society, which is recognised in various human rights
frameworks including Article 14 of CEDAW, Beijing Platform for Action
and General Assembly Resolution 62/136. - Recognise and protect the economic, social and cultural rights of rural
and indigenous women, specially their right to land, adequate housing
and food to eradicate poverty among rural and indigenous women. - Ensure the recognition and protection of the particular rights of
indigenous women reiterated by the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples to non-discrimination, collective
ownership, traditional knowledge, free, prior and informed consent and
self-determination.
To read the complete statement, please click here (AIWN website).
