Direct Link to Full 32-Page 2017 JASS Publication:
Rethinking Protection, Power, and Movements is a vital contribution to the emerging conversation about the shifting dynamics of power and protection. Drawing on years of ongoing work with women human rights defenders in Mesoamerica, JASS seeks to shed light on the reality experienced by women activists and deepen our collective understanding of feminist and community-based strategies for safety. Four central propositions guide our analysis:
- Power matters: To address violence, attacks, and restrictions against activists requires a deeper understanding of inequality and power, particularly the rise of shadow power and its collusion with the state to quash opposition and dissent.
- Women & gender matter: An intersectional gender perspective—one that takes into account race, ethnicity, sexuality, class and other factors that multiply the vulnerability of women and LGBTI people—is essential for understanding risk, and how misogyny and stigma are used to undermine activists, organizations, and communities.
- Narratives matter: Governments and non-state actors manipulate public opinion to discredit and destabilize activism and movements. They tap into and reinforce prejudice to generate fear, legitimize repression, dehumanize their opposition, and derail conversations.
- Local organizing & movements matter: The safety of individual activists is tied to strong community organizing and movement-building. The things that make women, organizations, and communities stronger—trust, solidarity, leadership, strategy —also make them safer.
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