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Rural and Indigenous Women Programme

• the increasing poverty and hunger of rural and indigenous communities;
• the heightening of militarism, particularly the “war on terror” as a response to the legitimate peoples’ struggles; and
• the continuing lack of political and economic space for rural and marginalised women, within society, community, family and organisations/movements. The objectives for the three year RIW programme (2003-2005) are
• To assist RIW Task Force members in awareness raising, organising, mobilising and strategising against globalisation and its negative impacts on rural and indigenous women;
• To involve young women lawyers to assist RIW Task Force by sharpening their feminist perspective on the impacts of globalisation on rural and indigenous women; and
• To influence the agenda of people’s and social movements on the impacts of globalisation on rural and indigenous women from a feminist perspective.

Excerpts from country reports of the RIW Task Force members, August 2004

Nepal
Due to globalisation, our water resources are being opened by government to external forces; multi national corporations (MNCs); ecotourism; people are not allowed to fish in the rivers which are preserved for hydropower plants, thus, they are losing their livelihoods. In the past, forests were used as sources of food but now the forests are converted to national parks, animal reservation areas, therefore, it affects people’s lives.

Kyrgyzstan
Although legally women have the rights to land but customary laws ensure that the land stays with the husbands. In response to that women’s groups have submitted proposals for revision of the land code to give more rights to women. Presence of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, credit agencies, foreign investments are also threatening to the lives of women due to their development projects without proper analysis of the impacts.

India
75% of India’s 190 million workers engaged in agriculture related work are Dalit women. Dalits are landless and/or marginal landowners. They work as wage earners in the fields for a feudal style landlord. They are also known as cheap labour that can work in the field longer hours than men and cattle. Yet they earn less. When mechanisation of agriculture took place, Dalit rural women were pushed out of their traditional source of living which is agriculture labour. The landlessness, unemployment and powerlessness of Dalit women place them in a situation where they are prone to exploitation and violence.

Bangladesh
There are 11 indigenous communities in Bangladesh whose livelihoods are threatened by militarisation, privatisation of forests and land rights problem. Indigenous people are forced to flee their communities. Women and young people migrate to cities to earn a living so the communities are losing their traditional practices and traditional way of life.

Indonesia
The education sector is being privatised making education unaffordable to the poorer sections of the society. The World Bank is pushing through the agenda of water privatisation in Indonesia, and legislation for water privatisation has been passed by the parliament. Laws and regulations have been adopted that have negative impact on people, especially indigenous people. A government
decree that permits the mining companies to operate in the virgin forests and protected areas is detrimental to the livelihoods of indigenous people of Indonesia.

Philippines
Rural women are losing their land to corporations due to opening up the country to foreign direct investment. Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) are being killed when the situation worsens from fighting over the resources. The murder cases of WHRDs were allegedly framed by the government in collusion with influential business circles in the Philippines. Mountains are
being flattened for mining companies. Women want the government to stop opening up the country for mining as mining brings in more problems than benefits to the economy.

Thailand
The Thai government has been signing numerous Free Trade Agreements on trade of food and agricultural products which are putting Thai farmers in very a disadvantaged position. Human rights situation has been worsening as 18 human rights defenders have been reported killed. Most of these defenders were land rights activists involved in the protection of the environment and natural resources.

Output: To influence the agenda of people's and social movements on the impact of lobalisation on rural and indigenous women from a feminist perspective. Indicator: At least five workshops, conferences, etc. attended by Task Force members, which have included women's agenda in their statements, declarations, resolutions, and to what extent. APWLD participants: World Social Forum/People's Movement Encounter / Mumbai Resistance 2004, 16-21 January 2004 / Mumbai, India Rita Baua, Bayan, Philippines Fathima Burnad, Society for Rural Development, India Titi Soentoro, Solidaritas Perempuan, Indonesia All Nepal Women's Association (ANWA) Amarsanaa Darisuren, APWLD Secretariat judy a. pasimio, APWLD Secretariat People's Caravan for Food Sovereignty, Culminating Activity (29 September - 2 October 2004 / Kathmandu, Nepal) Fathima Burnad, Society for Rural Development, India All Nepal Women's Association (ANWA) judy a. pasimio, APWLD Secretariat Partner: Pesticide Action Network (PAN-AP) Food Sovereignty Convention, (25-28 November 2004 / Dhaka, Bangladesh) judy a. pasimio, APWLD Secretariat Partner: Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) World Forum on Agrarian Reform (WFAR) (3- 8 December 2004 / Valencia, Spain) Tess Vistro , AMIHAN, Philippines judy a. pasimio, APWLD Secretariat Funders: Sida, Novib, HIVOS, Rights and Democracy Centre

It was clear and agreed on among the members of the RIW Task Force that in the rural and indigenous women’s struggle against capitalist globalisation, it is imperative that the struggle be closely linked, if not an integral part of the broader peoples’ movement. This is in recognition that the struggle against globalisation is part of the struggle against a class-based and patriarchal society. This is why one of the major objectives of the Task Force is to effectively and actively participate in the different formations and movements which will strengthen and reinforce the women’s struggle. It is also to influence the collective agenda with the rural and indigenous women’s urgent concerns and struggles for land, and control of resources, for their lives, and livelihood, and for their families and communities.

It is within this context that RIW Task Force allotted resources to be part of the Mumbai activities in January 2004. A significant part of the APWLD delegation in Mumbai was members of the RIW Task Force. While all of the delegates were actively participating in the different events happening simultaneously in Mumbai, particularly in the World Social Forum (WSF), the RIW Task Force members were active in People’s Movement Encounter (PME) and Mumbai Resistance (MR 2004). There were activities and workshops initiated by the Task Force members which were focused on their issues (i.e., Food Sovereignty) and women rallying against war. However, the other significance in the participation in Mumbai was the bringing of the Task Force’s issues in the multisectoral and mix forums and workshops. APWLD participants have joined in the strong women’s voice in articulating women-specific agenda, as well as women’s perspectives in the different issues. In fact, in the various assessments, reflections from the different groups and formations, the WSF 2004 has had the most participation from women and different sectors.

Unfortunately, the opposite can be said for the MR 2004. While women’s issues were very strongly
articulated in the agenda and political declarations, much had to be desired in the actual numbers of women participating. This has led to the determination of the Task Force members to actively support the participation of APWLD women in the meetings and activities of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) which is the main force behind MR 2004. However, this proved to be difficult for the Second International Assembly of ILPS in November 2004. All participants supported by APWLD, largely from the RIW Task Force, were not able to attend, except for one. Most were denied visa to travel to the Netherlands, or even within the Schengen states. Azra Sayeed from Women and Environment Task Force (WEN TF) was able to go. She was elected as a member of the International Coordinating Council (ICC).

There were issue-specific formations, meetings and conferences that the Task Force participated in. These were formations and events which were directly on the advocacy of the Task Force – food sovereignty and genuine agrarian reform, as alternatives to the current economic development framework which has led the rural and indigenous communities to dire poverty and hunger.

There were the Peoples’ Caravan for Food Sovereignty culminating activities (30 Sept – 2 October,
2004/Kathmandu, Nepal), with the Pesticide Action Network (PAN-AP) as the leading organiser; and the Peoples’ Network on Food Sovereignty (25-27 2004/ Dhaka, Bangladesh) organised by the Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN). The Task Force members, particularly SRED, with the support of the Programme Officer, actively participated in bringing the women’s voice in the debates and discussions within food sovereignty issues. There were workshops particularly on women and food production, the results of which were integrated in the official documents. In the draft of the Peoples Food Sovereignty Convention, the endorsement of which by different groups and formation is one of the major campaigns of the PNFS, is very strong in articulating RIW Task Force’s major points in the food sovereignty campaign. The same can be said of the conference declarations. At the national level, the activities of our national members (e.g., SRED and Solidaritas Perempuan) have contributed to providing women’s voice in the national campaign on the People’s Caravan for food sovereignty.

In the said events on food sovereignty, it is notable that while the issues of fisheries were integrated in the statements, the participation of both women and men from the fishing villages was still minimal. The framework of the discussions and the activities themselves were more land-based, and on agricultural products and resources. In the APRN’s Food Sovereignty Convention, the Task Force facilitated the participation of the Sustainable Development Foundation’s (SDF, WEN TF member) community researchers from the fishing villages to present the case study (APWLD funded) and share their issues during different workshops on the impacts of globalisation on women in fisheries in Thailand.

It is also during this activity that APWLD’s membership to the APRN was confirmed. This will further broaden APWLD’s network, enhance its research network, and influence the research agenda of the network with its own feminist issues and advocacy.

The first World Forum on Agrarian Reform (WFAR) was convened in Valencia, Spain (3-8 December 2004). The Task Force supported the participation of Tess Vistro of AMIHAN in this conference along with the Programme Officer, and also utilised and created spaces to bring in women, particularly Asian women’s voices in this global forum. This was a great challenge. Even if women’s participation was high in the agenda of the organising groups, as a result of the lobbying of a few members of the committee, this was not the case. In a global forum as this, women’s voice, let alone women’s agenda, was a difficult thing to negotiate a space for. And unfortunately, even within the women’s workshop, it was difficult to negotiate a space for the Asian women’s voice. It was predominantly Latin and Central American voice being heard. While there was a lot of intersection of issues, the contextual differences with the Asian women, including issues of caste and ethnicity, are very important, especially in developing alternatives.

This experience reaffirms the need to further influence the male-dominated discourses of agrarian reform and peasant movement in general; as well as strengthen the networking with the international women’s movement to be able to enrich the agenda with the concrete issues of Asia Pacific rural and indigenous women, particularly on land rights as well as access and control of resources.

Within all of the workshops, meetings and discussions, the Programme Officer has consistently brought the issue of the disintegrating human rights situation, and focusing on the women human rights defenders within the area of rights to land and natural resources. These interventions influenced the declarations and statements coming out of the conferences and meetings.

For this year, there were two major sectors of marginalised women’s groups which the Task Force decided to support – the Asian indigenous women and women in the fisheries.

The Asian Indigenous Women’s Conference was an important networking event for consolidating Asian indigenous women’s network. Indigenous women’s representatives have learnt about existing regional and international networks, groups, and relevant UN mechanisms which address their concerns. The conference issued a declaration which contained the common urgent issues being faced by the indigenous women within the region, their common understanding of the context of their issues, and the actions and commitments they agreed on. This declaration serves as the point of unity among the members of the now revitalised network and a political platform for advocacy at national and international levels.

An integral part of the conference was the settingup of the network’s structures which would better facilitate and coordinate communication and actions among the indigenous women’s groups. Significantly, APWLD was able to contribute towards the revival of the Asian Indigenous Women’s Network. Following the conference, the AIWN secretariat was reconstituted and its network is revitalised.

With active involvement in this conference, APWLD strengthened its links with Innabuoyg, CWERC, Tebtebba Foundation, and the other organisations/ networks present there, particularly Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA), Asian Indigenous People’s Pact (AIPP) and Pacos-Malaysia.

As part of the strengthening links between communities, the Task Force coordinated the exposure trip of indigenous women from Thailand to the Cordillera indigenous communities. While language really played a major constraint in a more meaningful and smooth exchange of ideas and experiences, the visit proved to be fruitful for the women from the hilltribes of Thailand. The dynamism of the community movement, and various forms of struggles, not excluding armed struggle, has inspired them. They have shared the similarities and differences of the political context, and peoples’ responses with the meetings of the Indigenous Women’s Network based in the north of Thailand. While these community meetings were very informative and valuable, they would have wanted, however, deeper interaction with the women in the community, as well as indigenous women’s organisations.

Nevertheless, with the commitment and enthusiasm to organise among themselves, the participants from the AIWN meeting in Baguio and the exposure trip in Cordillera, have started the process of establishing the Ethnic Women Network in Thailand. After the Baguio trip, the network has met twice and has plans to meet again in February 2005. They plan to “set common goals to work together. We need a centre of communication and resources to facilitate communication flow and dissemination and linkages locally nationally and internationally” (Suraporn, AITT/31 December 2004). The Task Force will continue to work with the network and contribute in ways that would be identified from their planning meeting.

As a follow up from the first Asian fisherfolk conference in 2002 (Asian Fisherfolk Conference: Cut Away the Net of Globalisation from 25 to 29 January 2002 at Prince of Songkhla University, Hat Yai, Thailand), this year saw the meeting of Asian women from the fishing communities. The political participation of women in addressing their particular issues has been identified as one area where a lot of work and support is needed. Thus, with the vigorous coordination among the organising committee (International Collective Support for the Fishers, Solidaritas Perempuan, and RIW TF) the first Asian Regional Consultation of Women in Fisheries was held. This provided space for women from the communities as well as women from supportive nongovernment organisations to discuss the specific impacts of globalisation in their lives as women members of the fishing communities. It was also in this meeting that the case studies on the impact of globalisation on women in fisheries were presented and discussed.

The case studies and the sharing from the conference emphasised the urgent need for a feminist organising among the fishing communities. While there were plans and recommendations for more cooperative work among the fishworkers’ organisations and women organisations on different levels, themain challenge is for the Task Force to be able to have a clear and specific programme to start a more systematic and long-term support to Asian women in fisheries.

At the national level, the Task Force supported Solidaritas Perempuan in its convening the Indonesian National consultation with the women in fisheries (8-9 August 2004/Medan, Indonesia). There were more than 20 Indonesians (fisher women, activists of fishernetworks, members of organizing committee) who gathered for the first time on issues of women in fisheries. It was an opportunity to share information and experiences by the participants from North Sulawesi, several fishing communities from East, Central, West Java and Jakarta Bay, and North Sumatra. The meeting also provided interaction between the women from the fishing communities with the women from advocacy groups working on issues of women and globalisation. They were able to identify common issues, strategies for building solidarity and cooperation. Concretely, the participants agreed to support the campaign of the fishing women of Buyat Bay affected by the dumping of tailing by the Newmont Mining Corporation. They also identified as a common activity the making of a critical review of the follow up activities of the Indonesia fisherfolk conference two years ago, with particular focus on matters related to women. This could serve as a basis for their organising work as well as policy advocacy on regulations/laws affecting fisherfolk, especially women.

The two major conferences of women from the indigenous and fishing communities provided space for them to discuss the different issues of globalisation affecting their particular sector, or groups - as indigenous women, as well as women in fisheries. With the sharing from women from advocacy
groups from different countries serving as inputs on the current discussions on globalisation, strategies to resist, and tools to develop alternatives. These events, which gave birth to national and local initiatives helped revitalized and opened channels where cooperation and collaboration can be pursued in strengthening their own communities, their own groups, as wells as the network themselves on the regional level.

The main objective of the module is to provide information as well as skills for the grassroots women from the rural and indigenous communities to facilitate discussions on the issues of globalisation, impacts on women, particularly from the marginalised sector, for the purposes of organising grassroots activists. During the early part of 2005, national testing will be conducted in at least three countries - Philippines, Indonesia, and India. The module is scheduled to be published in the third quarter of 2005.

The broad objective of the research is to gain a clearer understanding of the impact of anti-terrorism laws and national security legislation on rural and indigenous women, particularly on their access to and control over resources. The research on anti-terror laws is an integral part of a broader campaign against anti-terrorism laws in the Asia Pacific. The knowledge gained from this research will aid organisations in having a feminist critique on the laws and their specific effects on rural and indigenous women. This will, in turn, inform the actions that the organisations may undertake, may it be within a policy advocacy or campaigns work.

As part of the ongoing efforts of the RIW Task Force to strengthen links between the Task Force and young women lawyers working on the issues of rural and indigenous women, a meeting of invited young women lawyers was held in Manila (3-4 March 2004). With a session on sharing of Feminist Legal Theory and Practice (FLTP) by one of APWLD trainers,Eleanor Conda, it also meant to present an alternative perspective on law, and the use of law. On a more immediate and concrete level, the meeting was also to facilitate the formulation of a common research framework and objectives for the research on “war on terror” and the impacts on the struggles on rural and indigenous women.

The two-day meeting allowed space for the FLTP discussion as well as sharing among the law students and lawyers, some from indigenous communities themselves. The participants expressed desire to continue to explore more ways of interacting and working together in the future. The different levels of knowledge and ability to use English language were a real challenge. Thus, this is really an important thing to consider and to pay attention to in the endeavour of having stronger links between and among indigenous women, and lawyers.

The Task Force on Rural and Indigenous Women Programme has taken the task of supporting the
broadening of the organised ranks of struggling women within the rural and indigenous communities; and assisting in organising of more women. The political terrain has become less simple, while the situation is becoming more urgent. Thus, the need to be more creative yet deliberate in the advocacy work; diverse yet focused in campaign actions.

Laws and policies, which are largely used to serve the interests of the state, provide at the very least a platform for advocacy and public debate on issues affecting indigenous and marginalised rural communities; and at best, they provide, when engaged creatively, temporary shields from different onslaughts against the communities. Thus, the Task Force members plan to give more attention and be more engaged in the discussions on relevant regional and international policies. They will be involved in various lead up activities to the WTO Ministerial Meeting in 2005, and the campaigns around it.

The exchange visits among indigenous women are meant to foster solidarity as well exchange of skills in organising and campaign work. With the positive experience from the first one that the Task Force facilitated, this is one strategy for networking that the Task Force has plans of developing. On the other hand, the completion of the module on women and globalisation is one tool of organising that the Task Force members have already planned to use in their work.

However, the expansion and broadening of the network should be more deliberate. Progressive work is being done in the involvement of young women lawyers. As of now, the co-convenor of the Task Force is Fifi Rahayaan, an Indonesian lawyer from Solidaritas Perempuan, and a new Task Force member is Susmita Chakma, a indigenous woman lawyer from Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. Both of them were part of the small group of young women lawyers who were involved in the war on terror policies research. Their presence in the Task Force would be valuable as we engage more systematically in the laws and policies both on the national and international level affecting access and control of women to natural resources.

The research, which they also were part of, will be a tool for the advocacy against the intensification of militarism in the region, as well as the campaign for the repeal of the anti-terror laws and policies in the different countries (ie. Philippines, India, Thailand, Bangladesh). This research will be launched in a regional consultation in 2005 among women from indigenous and rural communities which directly experience the negative impacts of the “war on terror” policies and laws, and human rights advocates. This will provide the platform for the Task Force members and its network to systematically and objectively oppose these policies, and demonstrate the militarist ideology of the governments within the region.

While the scope of Rural and Indigenous Women Programme is broad, 2004 activities and experience of the Task Force has shown us that there is a great need to focus. With the commitment to maintain support for the broad issues of rural and indigenous women, particularly those which are being carried by the Task Force members, the RIW Task Force is moving towards giving more focus on women in fishing communities. The Asian Regional Conference on Women in Fisheries in Medan made it clear that a lot of work needs to be done to support organising women in fishing communities. This project entails, then, a further discussion and clarification among the Task Force members, and perhaps APWLD in general, the strategy of “feminist organising”.

It is therefore important that the expansion of the members of the Task Force should be consistent with the direction of the Task Force. The three seats available for membership should be filled in by women from fishery organisations, or women organisations working on fishery issues.