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Joint Statement on International Day of Rural Women

Joint Statement on International Day of Rural Women

Unpublished

Joint Statement on International Day of Rural Women

 

In an unprecedented development, the United Nations Working Group on Discrimination Against Women in Law and Practice recently adopted a position paper on women’s land rights,  available on the Working Group’s website. This joint statement from Landesa and our partner organizations from around the globe is issued in support of this position paper in honor of International Day of Rural Women this Sunday, October 15th. Together, we urge that this position paper be widely disseminated and implemented, including compliance by governments.

This is the first position paper on women’s land rights released by a United Nations human rights expert body. It serves to complement and deepen the growing international recognition of the centrality of women’s land rights to human rights and sustainable development. This recognition is most notably articulated by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women’s 2016 General Recommendation No. 34 on Rural Women, and United Nations Women and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ 2013 publication, “Realizing Women’s Rights to Land and Other Productive Resources.”

Joint Statement International Day of Rural Women 15 October 2017

The International Day of Rural Women recognizes that women bear a disproportionate burden of multi-dimensional poverty, but also elevates the critical role and contribution of rural women – including indigenous women – in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security for their families and communities, and eradicating rural poverty. Women’s rights to land and productive resources are essential to their ability to realize a range of human rights and sustainable development goals. Research demonstrates the empowerment effect of women’s land rights: these rights are often a prerequisite to improving food security, sustainable development, gender equality, and good health. Furthermore, access to secure access to land tenure and rights help to mitigate a woman’s vulnerability to poverty, exploitation, HIV, and gender-based violence.

Earlier this year, the United Nations Working Group on Discrimination against Women in Law and Practice recognized the critical importance of women’s land rights, adopting an unprecedented position paper, stressing that “driven by the urgency of a global rush for land and extracted resources and unprecedented urbanization, hastened by the growing impact of climate change and frequency of natural disasters, women have been at the center of human rights violations worldwide regarding their rights and access to land.”

The Working Group urges States to comply with their obligations to “account for the quality, legality and effective implementation, participation and enforceability of land rights for women,” including through the adoption of measures to prevent discrimination against women “in their rights to access, use, inherit, control, and own land.” This discrimination is perpetrated by a variety of actors, including “private corporations and investors, powerful local elites, multilateral organizations, regional trade initiatives and family members.”

Our organizations welcome the adoption of this position paper by the Working Group and urge its widespread dissemination and implementation by States and UN agencies, as well as States’ compliance with their obligation to respect, protect and fulfill women’s human rights. Stronger land rights for women are also critical to making real the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and its goals to end poverty, ensure food security, promote environmental conservation, and achieve gender equality. Gender-responsive land-specific Sustainable Development Goals indicators 1.4.2, 5.a.1, and 5.a.2 provide global guidance to governments on tallying data on women’s land rights in law and in practice, both documented and as perceived by the women and men affected.

While land continues to be central to the lives of poor and marginalized communities worldwide, pressures on land are rapidly increasing. Land markets have often proven to be exclusionary and land concentration is on the rise. This pressure has a strong impact on women’s lives and their enjoyment of equal rights. Now more than ever, we must act together to secure and enhance women’s land rights. Join us by learning more and taking action.

We, the undersigned organizations, strongly support the position paper on the centrality of women’s land rights to human rights and sustainable development, recently released by the United Nations Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination Against Women in Law and Practice.

In honor of International Day of Rural Women on October 15th, we urge that this position paper be widely disseminated and implemented, including States Parties compliance.

Signed,

  • Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC)

  • Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN)

  • Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights

  • International Land Coalition

  • Womankind Worldwide, UK

  • Kenana Association for Sustainable Development

  • Support for Women in Agriculture and Environment (SWAGEN)

  • Feminist League, Kazakhstan

  • Reacción Climática – Bolivia

  • Child and Green Foundation (Nigeria)

  • Kenana Association for Sustainable Development, Egypt

  • Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer – FEIM – Argentina

  • Earth Forever Foundation, Bulgaria.

  • Widows for Peace through Democracy (WPD)

  • ECASARD (Ecumenical Association For Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development), Ghana

  • Center for Human Resource Development and Sustainable Agriculture, Ghana

  • Farmers Organizational Network Ghana (FONG)

  • Women in Agricultural Network Ghana (WIANG)

  • Espaço Feminista (Brazil)

  • Fundación Mexicana para la Planificación Familiar AC – Mexico

  • Women Thrive Alliance

  • NETWORK OF RURAL WOMEN PRODUCERS TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (nrwptt)

  • NERDS RULE INC.

  • WiLDAF-AO, Togo

  • RISD, Rwanda

  • Project on Organization, Development, Education and Research (PODER)

  • MenEngage Alliance

  • Gender and Water Alliance

  • Soroptimist International

  • LAMMP (Latin American Mining Monitoring Programme)

  • Human Rights Watch

  • Associació Planificació Familiar de Catalunya i Balears.

  • International Women’s Health Coalition

  • Women Deliver

  • Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights

  • The Millennia2025 Women and Innovation Foundation,Belgium

  • Women and Youth’s Environmental Safety and empowerment Organisation ( EWAY for Development,)

  • International Federation of Business and Professional Women

  • AFEM (Association Femmes Europe Méridionale)

  • AIDE (Associazione Indipendente Donne Europee)-Italia

  • Associazione DREAM TEAM- Donne per la rivitilazione degli spazi urbani-Italia

  • Coordinadora de la Mujer, Bolivia

  • PSI (Population Services International)

  • Society for Feminist Analyses AnA, Romania

  • OXFAM

  • Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

  • Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd

  • Ngā Kaiawhina o Wai 262, Aotearoa/ New Zealand

  • Red Educacion Popular entre Mujeres A Latina y el Caribe REPEM LAC

  • International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)

  • Afrihealth Optonet Association [CSOs Network]

  • Dr. Uzo Adirieje Foundation (DUZAFOUND), Nigeria

  • Equality Bahamas

  • Women for Peace and Gender Equality Initiative Nigeria

  • Julie Marie George, international development expert, Bangalore, india

  • ENLACES POR LA SUSTENTABILIDAD – EL SALVADOR

  • AGRICULTURAL MISSIONS – USA

  • SERR – USA

  • CONAMEPT

  • Huguette RAKOTOARIVONY

  • Shirkat Gah – Women’s Resource Centre – Pakistan

  • International Federation on Ageing

  • Reacción Climática – Bolivia

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Climate and Environmental Justice

We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.