According to a report by the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders, in 2023 there were 2,687 attacks against women defenders in Honduras, a increase of 125% compared to the previous year. The most affected are those that belong to indigenous, Afro-descendant, LBTIQ+ or rural communities.
76% of the aggressions are directed against women fighting for land and territory. against the plundering of national or foreign capital. The main defenders are garifuna, indigenous and peasant women, who protect rivers, forests and ancestral philosophies. These women, linked to ancestral peoples, defend not only their lives and bodies, but also the natural commons., which are the focus of the collective efforts and the fight for life in a broader sense.
Women journalists who defend human rights are also face aggressions due to their communication work and criticism of capitalist and neocolonial policies. implemented by governments. Violence against these groups affects the right to freedom of the press and the free circulation of journalistic information.
For advocates, the emotional impact of the aggressions affect their overall well-being. Therefore, we support community networks that offer spaces for protection, healing and support to women defenders at risk, making visible the aggressions they suffer because of the work they do and applying ancestral knowledge of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples on the defense of life.
They support women defending land, territories and human rights in Latin America (Abya Yala).
Shelter houses are created for women human rights defenders at risk and their families to find protection and security.
Support the recognition and impact of the work for the advancement of human rights by women human rights defenders.
Healing processes based on ancestral knowledge are being implemented. to help women defenders recover emotionally, physically and spiritually.
Making aggressions visible that women defenders suffer as a result of the work they do.
Comprehensive response to the increase in violence against women defenders in the region.
They have a decolonial outlook in all its processes.
TZK'AT - Ancestral Feminist Community Healers Network
This territorial political articulation, made up of Maya Q'eqchi’ women, midwives, leaders, students, sahumadoras, hierberas; arose from the meeting of Mayan women defenders of territory who are in a situation of forced political territorial displacement. They have arranged their ancestral healing knowledge to help other Mayan women in the Q'eqchi’ territory.’, but also in other communities both inside and outside of Iximulew (Guatemala). Since its proposal of the fterritorial community eminism and healing as a cosmic-political path, they contribute from an approach for the emotional, physical, spiritual and political recovery of criminalized and prosecuted women defenders in the region.
Association of indigenous and rural women Ixcoq Mayaj
Sof the Verapaz Union of Campesino Organizations (UVOC). on December 21, 2008, is an organization that works for the integral development of rural and indigenous women of the Q'eqchi', Poqomchi', and Achi communities in the Tezulutlán region of Guatemala. Its mission is to promoting rural development from a cosmogonic and ethnic perspective, advocating for a a fairer, more inclusive and equitable society, with real democracy, where women and indigenous peoples are the protagonists of development. The partnership also focuses on combating inequality and violence against women, offering technical, legal and administrative support to address these issues.
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