El Pacto de Cuidarnos. 2010-2021, a publication on comprehensive feminist protection for women human rights defenders at risk, was presented in Madrid.

On 27 February in Madrid, the book “El Pacto de Cuidarnos” (The Pact to Take Care of Ourselves) about IM-Defensoras, which has been defending human rights in Mesoamerica for more than a decade, was presented. The event, co-organised by IM-Defensoras and other organisations, highlighted the challenges faced by women human rights defenders in the region and the importance of Feminist Integrated Protection. The book is available in Spanish and English on the IM-Defensoras website.

This book brings together more than 10 years of experience of IM-Defensoras in the collective construction and practice of Feminist Integrated Protection.

The Pact of Caring

On Monday 27 February, the Ateneo La Maliciosa in Madrid hosted the presentation of the book “.“The Pact to Take Care of Ourselves. 2010-2021: Integral Feminist Protection in Mesoamerica from the Mesoamerican Women Human Rights Defenders Initiative.”. The publication gathers the experience of more than ten years of this network of more than two thousand activists, formed in 2010 to generate strategies for self-defence in the face of impunity and repression by states and other powers in the region.

The event, which was co-organised by IM-Defensoras, Calala Fondo de Mujeres, Peace Brigades (PBI) and Frontline Defenders (FLD), was attended by women human rights defenders from Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Mexico who spoke about the risks of defending human rights and, in particular, the situation of women defenders of territory and transgender women.

The event also included the participation of human rights defender Helena Maleno, from Caminando Fronteras, who addressed the common challenges that women human rights defenders and migrant communities also face in Europe. During the meeting, the responsibility of the Spanish state and the European Union in the upsurge of violence against WHRDs in Mesoamerica, a region that has seen 20 murders of WHRDs in 2022 alone, was addressed.

Over 10 years of Integral Feminist Protection

IM-Defensoras was born 13 years ago, when women defenders from diverse social movements in Mesoamerica and other countries came together in Oaxaca, Mexico, to share their concerns about the violence that was touching their bodies and lives. Today, the organisation brings together more than 2,000 women defenders and 300 organisations in national and territorial networks in El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua.

“The pact to take care of ourselves” explains how Integral Feminist Protection is the proposal of IM-Defensoras to make the lives and struggles of women human rights defenders sustainable in a context that has historically been marked by patriarchal violence, The IM-Defensoras is convinced that networks save and that it is necessary to put life and care at the centre of the lives and struggles of women human rights defenders.