Editorial

Editorial: ISHR Newsletter March 2023

Dear friends and partners of the ISHR,

Women are often the most severely affected sufferers from wars, conflicts and global crises such as climate change – challenges well known and repeatedly emphasized on every International Women’s Day on March 8 of every year. For example, studies show that women are disproportionately affected by the negative impacts of climate change. On the one hand, this reflects the long-standing effects of sexism and institutionalized inequalities in the world. For another, it further reinforces them. Women around the globe are 14 times more likely to die in climate events and four times more likely to be displaced as a result of climate change. This is the conclusion of the April 2022 report “Accelerating the Race to Net Zero Through Gender Equity”.

Re-emphasizing the injustice and persistent inequality that women and girls face regularly and systematically around the globe is the goal and content of this year’s International Women’s Day. In 2023, the global day’s theme is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality” which aims to bring the devastating impact of the digital gender gap on widening economic and social inequalities into the focus of global discussion. The main theme of International Women’s Day thus picks up on the priority theme of the sixty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) that takes place from 6 to 17 March 2023, which is “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2023 and CSW67, we publish this issue-focused newsletter that brings together different perspectives on the persistent issue of lack of gender equity around the globe. We welcome all contributions from our global network of ISHR national sections and working groups, as well as from our secretariat staff and other authors who collaborate with us. Our ISHR secretariat staffer Martin Musiime asks after the recent presidential and parliamentary elections in Nigeria on February 25 and 26, 2023: „Where are the women in Nigerian politics?“ LINK Our guest author Jamada Kalinda Musa has put on paper his reflections on what we owe to the courageous contributions as well as the determined struggles and defiance of numerous women in our societies and concludes, “As a young man, I stand on the shoulders of great women.” LINK And exiled Belarusian human rights defender Olga Karatch informs about the ‘Runaway slave-women’ who are currently under attack of Belarusian dictator Lukashenko in Lithuania LINK.

Also looking at ISHR‘s worldwide network we can conclude: It is courageous and fearless women in numerous places who are the carriers, promoters and implementers of our human rights work – whether as section leaders or human rights defenders, from Armenia (Bella Shikaryan) to Kenya (Wanjeri Nderu) and from Pakistan (Aneeqa Anthony) to Latin America (Haydee Marin). Many of them and numerous other colleagues, partners, and companions of our work contributed to ISHR’s global social media campaign on the occasion of International Women‘s Day 2023, which, in light of the protests against the inhumane regime in Iran that has been particularly harsh on women in the country, is titled “Woman.Life.Freedom” (the well-known slogan and hashtag that gained worldwide attention in the fall of 2022 as a result of the violent death of Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody on September 16, 2022).

In addition to the focus topic “Women”, we bring you further news and insights from our work. For example, Dr. Carmen Krusch-Grün informs you about the imposition of a 10-year prison sentence on the 60-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. phil. Ales Bialiatski, in Belarus. LINK And Antonio Lopez (Board of Directors of ISHR Nicaragua) and Haydee Marin

(Vice President ISHR Latin America) provide insights into the plight of imprisoned Rolando Alvarez in Nicaragua, whom they call the “Bishop with an iron will.” LINK

Thank you for your continued support of our work. I hope you enjoy reading our latest newsletter.