In collaboration with the members of the Observatory on the Universality of Rights, we are proud to launch the new 2021 Rights at Risk: Time for Action report!
Each day anti-rights actors have more money and more power, but feminists are fighting back.Get the latest information on the people & organizations attacking our human rights, where they’re getting their money, and their latest strategies.
Discover tools to debunk their arguments and take inspiration from feminist wins and resistance stories, all in the latest report.
Many of our human rights spaces and processes have already been undermined, but we still have a chance to stop this. Join us in calling for UN officials to take urgent action to counter ultraconservative mobilisation against human rights. We can no longer afford to wait! Sign and share the Call to Action
Cover Image of “The Signs in Ourselves: Exploring Queer Muslim Courage”, written and compiled by Liy Yusof, with art and design by Dhiyanah Hassan. Cover image shows a rainbow with clouds on either end, with two palms facing upwards towards the rainbow. Below them, three butterflies hover around plants with leaves in greens, blues and purlples.
In February 2019, 22 queer (LGBTIQ+) Muslim activists from across Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Timor Leste gathered together in Kathmandu, for the very first cross-regional convening that would explore lived experiences, organizing strategies, needs across contexts, and networking support for queer Muslim communities across Asia.
Through rich discussions and sharing, one of the key learnings over the five days was that in order to support the growth of a new generation of queer Muslim leaders that could advance holistic and affirming approaches to faith and sexuality, activists needed to start documenting queer Muslim stories that were grounded and rooted in local contexts.
Illustration by Dhiyanah Hassan for “The Signs in Ourselves: Exploring Queer Muslim Courage”, of two people embracing each other through a hug, hand in hand.
Such stories would provide a much needed community resource, to allow queer Muslims to see themselves reflected, visible and vocal in public life and discourse–despite conservative and fundamentalist forces’ attempts at erasure. Such stories would reflect as well, the many ways queer Muslims have navigated and reconciled seeming contradictions in sacred texts, and in deeply-held belief systems amongst families, communities of all kinds, and national ideologies. Perhaps most striking, such stories would also serve as a living testimony and reference to the power, beauty and wisdom of LGBTIQ+ Muslims defining their own lived realities, and claiming themselves as the authority of their personal and public lives. In many ways, queer Muslim’s lived realities offer us a simple reminder that there is no need to go to the “experts”, the “religious leaders”, and “the authorities”, in order to ensure that queer Muslims are accepted, included, supported and that their universal human rights respected. Another starting point for strengthening queer Muslim courage, then, lies in creating resources and spaces for self-acceptance and affirmation, building and reclaiming access to spiritual knowledge as a community, and honouring the truth that all queers of faith are themselves, like everyone else, a reflection of Divine Love.
To that end, since the gathering in Nepal, CSBR has supported a plethora of knowledge building and storytelling projects by and for queer Muslim activists across Asia, while also strengthening and building a community of allies to amplify the calls for solidarity and support.
On the occasion of international human rights day 2020, we are proud to launch our newest publication, “The Signs in Ourselves: Exploring Queer Muslim Courage“, which documents in depth lived experiences of 12 queer Muslims from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, while also sharing snapshots of experiences from queer Muslims across the world.
Illustration by Dhiyanah Hassan, for “The Signs in Ourselves: Exploring Queer Muslim Courage”, showing three faces surrounded by flowers and geometric shapes showing the moon and its phases.
Intended as a well-being resource and accessible workbook, the publication also includes questions for personal reflection and exercises for collective discussions, inviting readers use this publication to explore their own stories with community, in workshops, and other spaces of organizing and activism. Additionally, the publication shares references to scholarly frameworks that articulate the expansiveness and inclusivity of sacred texts and Islamic values, that require respect for all human beings, however diverse in their sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics.
In the words of the author, Liy Yusof, The Signs in Ourselves is “a love letter to God, to all the queer Muslims who changed my life in years of navigating human rights spaces, and to the ones I haven’t met but know are out there”. While created as a resource primarily for queers of faith, this is also a text that will benefit allies and those seeking to expand their knowledge and awareness of queer Muslims’ struggles and experiences.
We encourage you to share the text through the link above, to use it in workshops, and to let it inform your ideas and practices around community-building, allyship and solidarity. We hope you ask critical questions, and let yourself be challenged by what you read. We also encourage you to share your questions and ideas with us.
Email: coordinator@csbronline.org with any feedback you may have.
“At Inclusive Bangladesh, we envision to create an inclusive Bangladeshi society where every citizen will be a resource for safe-guarding each-other’s human rights and peaceful living. Our work and effort circulate in promoting gender equality, religious literacy, global citizenship, diversity and equality.”
Inclusive Bangladesh joined CSBR in October 2020. Inclusive Bangladesh is a non-registered, local non-profit and volunteer-based community youth organization from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Established in 2013, Inclusive Bangladesh is now working with diverse local and international organizations, multilateral and multi-layered development partners and active youth change makers. Its mission is to construct an inclusive culture through ensuring quality education, addressing hate speech and violent extremism, promoting interfaith dialogue and gender diversity with the active participation of youths across Bangladesh.
As part of CSBR’s One Day One Struggle campaign in 2020, Inclusive Bangladesh organized a month-long campaign to raise awareness on the rights of intersex people in Bangladesh. Check out their zine, which captures experiences and struggles through visual arts and literary pieces: https://bit.ly/IntersexZineBangla
In 2019, Meem Muslim Initiative and Bedaaya collaborated on a project on Islam and queer identities. We share some of the fact sheets and resources they produced below in Arabic and English, which explore the common Hadith and Islamic textual references used against LGBTIQ people.
HADITH and QUEER IDENTITIES
Arabic:
English:
Trans Identity
Arabic:
English:
Click on the images above to access the full briefs as PDFs. For more information and resources, get in touch with Bedaaya or Meem Muslim.
What are those pivotal moments that we experience along our personal journeys of becoming, and taking action? Those moments of knowing–becoming aware; and those moments of consciousness–when awareness transforms into embodied values, ethics and actions, springing from within.
This publication by Yulia Dwi Andriyanti documents conversations with 5 Indonesian women leaders–writers, strategists, religious leaders, facilitators and trainers across diverse social movements–recollecting their own journeys of becoming allies to lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LBT) peoples as part of the feminist struggle.
Situated within a wider program by CSBR on self & collective care, holistic well-being and integrated security–this qualitative research was originally carried out between May – August 2018. As Yulia shares, the process of having these conversations at that pivotal moment–after the expanding deluge and state-sponsored moral panic against LGBTIQ peoples in Indonesia from 2016 onwards, attempts to criminalize same-sex relations in 2017, and the resulting burnout and fragmentation experienced by under-resourced queer movements–was in and of itself part of a healing journey, of recovering and rediscovering resources, support and community when it was most needed.
The research also formed the basis of the Tutur Feminis Coloring Book, launched by Qbukatabu in March 2019–which was an accessible medium through which to tranlsate key concepts and learnings from the research, while also creating a fun and practical self-care resource for activists. The Tutur Feminis coloring book, originally in Bahasa Indonesia, has since been translated into English, and been made accessible at various national events and international forums, including the Global Feminist LBQ Women*’s Conference (Cape Town, July 2019), the Edinburgh International Book Festival (August 2019), and the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (October 2019).
From there, the narrative report of the original research was revised, refined, translated into English and illustrated as another archival documentation of feminist organizing histories.
These conversations are sources of knowledge that people can always learn from, discuss, celebrate and reflect with–as we continue to advance rights and justice for all. We hope you enjoy it!
We’re very excited to show you what we’ve been up to!
Earlier this year, Qorras and CSBR – Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies collaborated on organizing a 5-day cross-regional strategic convening, Tajassodat: Conversations to advance Trans Rights and Justice Across Muslim Societies.Tajassodatbrought together 23 activists from 13 countries across South Asia, South East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, to discuss various topics, from personal experiences, to collective support, and activism history in these regions.
As a result of this convening, we’ve put together a Zine, compiling the illustrations that resulted from the conversations on bodily autonomy, self-determination and community organizing of collaborators. Its contents were collected, produced and edited by the organizers and contributors of Tajassodat, with the aim of documenting the 5 days of exchanges, discussions, and personal reflections. The Zine also consists of a visual and written timeline of the convening, as well as other documents that were used. As such, it is an archival document that situates Tajassodat within a year long trajectory of work, exchanges, and solidarity.
We hope that the Zine translates our experiences within the convening to our trans & non-binary peers and allies, as well as the different conversations that we had together about trans and non-binary activism in our regions.
This work would not have been possible without Tajassodat’s Steering Committee, collaborators, and the support from Hivos and Astraea Foundation.
Tutur Feminis: Meluruhkan yang Biner
(Indonesian Feminist Voices, Shedding the Binary)
Tutur Feminis is a coloring book created by Yulia Dwi Andriyanti and the Qbukatabu Collective in Indonesia as one of the activities under CSBR’s collaborative program CARE: Continuous and Responsive Empowerment through well-being initiatives for LGBTIQ human rights defenders in South & Southeast Asia.
Tutur Feminis: Meluruhkan yang Biner (Indonesian Feminist Voices, Shedding the Binary)
This coloring book documents a series of conversations with five women leaders who are allies in realizing Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender female to male (LBT) rights and justice. Each of the women interviewed have long been committed to social transformation, and hold feminist values as their basis and strategy. In a context where politics of hate towards LBT groups is becoming a major challenge, including to consistently living in feminist consciousness, these women leaders share about their efforts to keep up the struggle to shed the binary.
Why a coloring book?
We chose this format of a coloring book as an interactive way to pass the messages through text and visual representation, and to relate them with the readers’ feelings and emotions. We can experience the conversations not only through reading the messages from those allies, and also expressing feelings by coloring the illustrations. It is also a way to support a self-healing process.
When you Buy the Book, you Donate to the Collective
You can buy a copy of the Tutur Feminis coloring book with a minimum donation of IDR 35,000 (USD 2), excluding the post & packaging fee. We want to make our publications available to all supported friends, and we welcome donations of any amount above this as well. When you buy a copy, you are also donating to support Qbukatabu works and the collective works of women (including lesbian, bisexual and queer women), trans, and other non-binary identities to strive for the enjoyment of their rights as Indonesian citizens.
For the first printed edition in Indonesian language, the donation per book will be distributed towards the printing cost of the 2nd edition, the collective works
across in Indonesia (75%) and Qbukatabu’s work (25%).
How to get the book?
Please note for the moment, we are only able to ship within Indonesia.
Request your order by providing your name, mobile number, amount of order, donation amount, and address to (choose any that fits you):IG: Qbukatabu
Twitter: Qbukatabu
Facebook: Qbukatabu
Number (whatsapp only): 0813 2219 7685 or 0878 8190 7310
Qbukatabu will respond your order request via WhatsApp, including the information of the bank account number where you can send the donation and the post & packaging fee.
Qbukatabu will mail you the book after you send the transfer receipt.
Four activists from Asia Pacific share their analysis of the advances of fundamentalist and fascist forces across the region. Listen to the audio below:
This discussion addresses the following questions:
How are anti-rights forces operating in Asia-Pacific? How are they gaining support?
What are the impacts on gender justice and human rights in the region?
What does collective resistance look like and how can we strengthen it?
The conversation was led by :
Rima Athar (Chair): Coordinator of the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR)
With presentations from:
Cristina “Tinay” Palabay: Secretary General of human rights group Karapatan in the Philippines
Rozana Isa: Executive Director of Sisters In Islam, Malaysia
Chayanika Shah: a queer feminist researcher, teacher, and activist based in Mumbai, India.
In February 2018, CSBR launched Project CARE: Continuous and Responsive Empowerment through well-being initiatives for LGBTI human rights defenders in SSEA–a regional program in partnership with Asia Pacific Trans Network (APTN), ASEAN SOGI Caucus (ASC), APCOM, and ILGA Asia–which seeks to address the sustainability of LGBTIQ organizing through a keen attention to the holistic well-being of LGBTIQ activists, organizers and human rights defenders.
In Phase I of the program, our activities included the following:
February 2018: CSBR & ILGA Asia collaborating to integrate a focus on well-being into the Asia Intersex Forum, which brought together 15 intersex advocates from across India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Caption: Asia Intersex Forum, Bangkok, February 2018 (Credit: ILGA Asia)
Supported by Astrea and ILGA Asia, the forum resulted in the launch of Intersex Asia–the first network led by & for intersex activists in the region. To find out more about Intersex Asia, see their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/IntersexAsia/.
March 2018: CSBR published a contextual summary on Project CARE, which includes a look at evolving international & regional mechanisms to protect human rights defenders, as well as links to pertinent resources on well-being for LGBTIQ communities and WHRDs on digital security, physical security, emergency response grants, toolkits on well-being for feminist activists, and other websites and manuals. Download it here: CSBR-Resource_Building a contextual approach to Holistic Well-Being for LGBTIQ HRDs in SSEA
April 2018: ASEAN SOGI Caucus held a regional well-being & wellness workshop for 14 LGBT human rights defenders from Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Throughout 5 days, activists learned varied approaches to well-being, including from the perspective of psychology as well as body & energy practices from CAPACITAR. Since the workshop, participants have been able to cascade their knowledge and introduce conversations & work on well-being in their home contexts
May 2018: CSBR & ILGA Asia collaborating to integrate a focus on well-being into a training on human rights mechanisms for East Asian HRDs, bringing together 21 activists from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia. For many activists this was the first introduction to the topic as it applies to activism. Together we were able to map common emotional, mental and physical impacts of our work on HRDs, and created space to take small steps as individuals to shift our habits to prevent or mitigate these impacts.
Caption: Participants engaged in mapping out personal well-being for activists (Credit: CSBR)
June 2018: CSBR & Qbukatabu collaborating on research to support LBTQ movement building in Indonesia. This intervention focused primarily on in-depth interviews and research with key allies from across the women’s movement & faith-based movements in Indonesia on how to strengthen allyship and build support to address the stressors, challenges and need of LBTQ activists in Indonesia.
June 2018: APCOM released an online survey about LGBTIQ HRDs’ experiences around mental health and well-being in the context of their activism, collecting inputs from activists across the region. One of the primary findings was a consensus that there are not enough spaces or opportunities for activists to discuss and unpack mental health issues, nor is there much awareness or knowledge on friendly and accessible mental health resources for LGBTIQ communities in the region
July 2018: CSBR collaborating with APTN & PLUHO (People Like Us Hang Out) Malaysia on a two-day workshop on holistic well-being for LBQ women, trans and intersex activists & community members in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Caption: Participants engaged in a visioning exercise on the state of well-being for our communities (Credit: CSBR)
Over the two days, we brought together 18 people with the aims of creating a reflexive space to:
Share and explore personal lived experiences & sources of support as LBQTI organizers and community members.
Identify contextual stressors & challenges that affect our well-being, particularly as LBTQI organizers and community members.
Unpack and explore theory and practice around well-being, self-care & integrated security for activists, as a means of sustaining activism and organizing.
Map out existing tools and resources, as well as gaps in what’s available for LBQTI communities.
Learn a mix of techniques from psychology, energy healing, and somatic practices to support & strengthen self-reflexivity and resilience.
CSBR’s methodology has drawn primarily from the work of:
Interdisciplinary approaches to psychotherapy, including exercises that engage participants in understanding different frameworks & approaches to mental-health, self-reflexivity, resilience and holistic well-being drawing from cognitive behavioral therapy, narrative therapy, arts-based therapy and more.
Responses to the program so far have affirmed that Project CARE is providing support to strengthen activists’ resilience, by focusing on elements of our personal lived experiences, our activism, and the links to our professional and community organizing that are often overlooked.
Stay tuned for updates from Project CARE in the near future!
CSBR hosted the first national digital storytelling workshop in Indonesia, on the theme of “Faith & Sexuality”, in partnership with the Youth Interfaith Forum on Sexuality (YIFoS), Kampung Halaman, and GAYa NUSANTARA.
The workshop brought together 15 participants representing grassroots organizations and collectives working on issues ranging from women’s rights, political participation, and religious pluralism, to digital rights, sex worker rights, sexual and gender diversity, and youth empowerment. Over the five days we explored themes of faith & sexuality, to create narratives that explore lived realities and perspectives on questions of faith, gender, sexuality, diversity, pluralism, secularism and human rights.
Method
Through the workshop, each participant learned the art of story-telling through training delivered by Kampung Halaman, as well as the technical skills of open-source video, audio & photo editing software. The workshop was conducted in Bahasa Indonesia to ensure the most accessible, supportive space for learning and self expression amongst participants. At the beginning of the workshop, some participants were completely unfamiliar with computers before the workshop, others had mid-range skills–yet in the course of 5 days everyone produced a short film about a personal struggle and screened it to the group.
It was healing, empowering, and cathartic process for all. The discussions and stories translated into tangible shifts in people’s perpectives, including greater attention to ending violence against women, support for LGBT communities, inter-faith solidarity around people’s struggles for acceptance.
Follow Up
Together we had wanted to create stories to amplify narratives & perspectives in support of freedom of expression, freedom of religion, diversity, pluralism and human rights. We reached out six months after the workshop to find out how participants had been able to use their videos as tools for community engagement. Within one month, some participants had shown the videos to their families to open up conversations on their identities. Others had shown it to community members to encourage dialogue on sensitive topics. One participant was even able to raise funds to hold a new digital storytelling workshop for women survivors of violence in rural areas. Seven participants also agreed to share their stories with us as a public resource, which you can watch below!
The pilot project of Stories of Faith & Sexuality was made possible through a grant from the Love Fund.
“Why have Muslim majority states become increasingly conservative over time, acting to reverse many hard won advances on women’s rights and those concerning gender diverse populations? How has this happened despite vigorous efforts by activists, civil society organizations and social movements in general? What are the factors that have contributed to state-sanctioned surveillance and policing of sexual morality? Is this rightward shift the result of a backlash to the success of gender and sexual rights activism? In what ways have these moves been resisted or accommodated?”
CSBR is pleased to announce the publication of Sexual Politics in Muslim Societies (2017), an updated edited volume of original research carried out by CSBR members in Palestine, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia. From diverse vantage points, this volume explores complex questions on the factors that have contributed to increasing conservatism and fundamentalism against women’s rights and LGBT rights–including state-sanctioned surveillance and the policing of sexual morality–across diverse Muslim societies during the early 2000s.
In the first study on Palestine, Femicide and Racism, Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian and Suhad Daher-Nashif situate their fine-grained analysis of the “local” firmly within the broader context of Israeli settler colonialism, and the effects of the “War on Terror” and “Islamophobia”. The authors seek to analyze the intersection of formal and informal legal systems in the understanding of femicide or the murder of Palestinian women by family members. Conventionally such murders are framed as a purely “cultural” issue, the outcome of local patriarchal attitudes toward women and morality. The authors eschew this narrow framing, arguing instead that localized manifestations of patriarchal and masculine logics are empowered by processes of exclusion at both local and global levels.
In AnAnalysis of the ‘Conservative Democracy’ of the Justice and Development Party (JDP)–Pinar Ilkkaracan skillfully unpacks the rhetorical strategies used by the incumbent JDP to strategically deploy a secular discourse to restrict and police political and social/sexual dissent in Turkey. The chapter highlights the rise of crackdowns on women’s rights and LGBT organizations, and the strength and power of feminist and queer organizing.
In Moral Policing in Malaysia, Julian C.H. Lee and tan beng hui present a sophisticated historical and sociological account of the rise of state sanctioned moral policing, situated within multiple and intersecting histories. Their analysis sheds light the state’s determination to create an “ideal” Muslim citizen, and the impacts of Islamization on the political system, the courts, and civil society organizing in Malaysia.
In the final study, Women’s Sexuality and the debates on the Anti-Pornography Bill, Andy Yentriyani & Neng Dara Affiah present a compelling analysis of the rhetorical stakes in debates around a controversial Anti-Pornography bill that, in a modified form, was passed into Indonesian law in 2008. The authors contextualizes these debates in relation to Indonesia’s history of militarised authoritarianism, shifting state representations of the ideal Indonesian woman and popular resistance to the perceived imposition of a monolithic Indonesian Muslim identity—smuggled in through a law purportedly for the protection of morality.
As a collective research program amongst CSBR members, the methodology was designed to take into account the specific historical, political and sociological complexities of each national context. The comparative aspect of the project was critical in this respect. Together, with the introduction Sexuality as Difference? by Dina M. Siddiqi, this volume illuminates the unstable terrain and shifting constraints that sexual and bodily rights activists in Muslim societies navigate everyday.
The analysis “refuses easy oppositions and fixed definitions of Islam, culture or rights. It calls for us to be open to improbable alliances and strategies. These researchers are critically aware that there are no ‘pure’ spaces of indigeneity or of rights, that meaning is derived from the political and discursive framing of problems. Traversing as they do geographically diverse and historically distinct contexts, they remind us of the necessity to be vigilant of the analytical and conceptual lens we bring to bear on our scholarship and activism.”
CSBR would like to thank everyone who contributed to this collective project over the years. Especially Pinar Ilkkaracan, who initiated, coordinated and led the four-year research program on which this volume is based, providing core support and guidance to the research teams. This volume would not have been possible without the energy, commitment and dedication of each of the country partners and their vantage points embedded within national women’s rights, human rights and sexual rights movements. Credit is due to l’Association Tunisienne des Femmes Démocrates (ATFD), Helem, KOMNAS Perempuan, Mada Al-Carmel, Sisters in Islam (SIS), and Women for Women’s Human Rights—New Ways (WWHR). While logistical reasons prevented us from including the Tunisia and Lebanon studies in this volume, the work by those teams was integral to informing the analysis and synthesis of the overall project.
This volume is dedicated to Zaitun ‘Toni’ Kasim, whose political vision and unwavering commitment to human rights has guided so many in our network. Toni was an integral part of this project from its inception, and she continues to inspire us in our movements for rights and justice.
Want to understand more about the intersections between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and gender equality? Then take a look at Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR)–New Ways’ new video series on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnsmoVllXaROEw1KJWSr7Ow!
WWHR launched the fourth video as part of this years’ #OneDayOneStruggle campaign (ODOS), interviewing with Sedef Cakmak from Lambdaistanbul on current challenges and opportunities for organizing for LGBTI+ rights in Turkey and how we can link with the SDG framework.
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Lambdaistanbul is a volunteer run organization that was formed in Istanbul in 1993, right after the city governor banned the Christopher Street Parade that was supposed to be held in July 1993. Learn more about Lambdaistanbul here: http://www.lambdaistanbul.org/s/
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Since its establishment in Turkey in 1993, WWHR-New Ways has worked to support the active and broad participation of women in the establishment and maintenance of a democratic, egalitarian and peaceful social order as free individuals and equal citizens at national, regional and international levels. Learn more about WWHR here: http://www.wwhr.org/
During this year’s 9th Sexuality Institute in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, we held a 3-hour workshop on the use of Participatory Visual Methods for sexual & bodily rights research.
The workshop focused on “cellphilms”—i.e. the use of cell phones to make short 1 minute films–as a relatively accessible and dynamic tool that can be used by communities to document and advocate for change, particularly on sensitive & often taboo topics such as gender-based violence and trauma.
Exploring Participatory Visual Methods
Prior to the workshop, participants were provided background reading materials and case studies that would ground our opening conversations on some of the theoretical and ethical considerations around using visual methods for qualitative research, especially on gender-based violence.
Together we considered the advantages or limitations–in terms of accessibility, ease of use, sustainability, autonomy and community ownership–of various forms of information communication technologies (ICTs) that can be used to make films; the benefits of participatory methods in supporting & strengthening communities-led change; and strategic ways to use the outputs/visual products to advocate for social change and policy change.
From there participants dove straight in to a hands-on approach, exploring and practicing the method by creating films during the workshop.
With a dynamic group of over 20 participants from across 16 countries, there were quite a few topics people wanted to work on, including looking at restrictions on women’s sexual autonomy, narratives and conceptions around sexual pleasure, finding a common language on sexual & bodily rights issues.
Opening a Conversation on Rape
For one group, the key question was how can we open conversations about accountability, redress and support for survivors of rape?
The workshop proved to be a powerful forum for experience sharing on social responses to rape survivors across country and social contexts, from the level of individual experiences, to community organizing, to policy and law focused advocacy for change.
Synthesizing the key commonalities and considerations of the small group discussions, participants then collaboratively developed the prompts, storyboard, scripts and narratives of the cellphilms. The films were created using only a cellphone, the space of the workshop, and on the basis of a “no-editing required” / “one shot” take.
The first film, “Keep It Silent???”, documents all too common responses victims & survivors of rape experience when trying to reach out for help, which increase isolation, anxiety, shame, fear and stigma. The second film, “Break the Silence!”, moves the conversation towards proactive steps and possibilities for support.
A Resource for Awareness & Advocacy
After the workshop, we screened the films together–creating a forum for feedback and continued discussion about the process, content and opportunities for advocacy.
The two cellphilms that explored social responses to rape generated a lot of discussion amongst the audience.
Many participants affirmed they faced similar challenges to those highlighted in the films: from victim blaming, to the lack of accountability of first responders to treat rape survivors with dignity & respect, to a lack of trust between communities and law enforcement.
The films also introduced the importance of thinking of forms of social support and redress mechanisms beyond criminal law enforcement. Emotional support, psychological support, affirmation of the person’s experience, active listening, and accompaniment on the journey of recovery were all highlighted as perhaps often overlooked part of the conversations around how to respond to sexual assault and rape.
For those in the producing group, members also shared it was the first time they had been able to have a proactive discussion and actually create a narrative about support for survivors–a process that was affirming and cathartic.
The creators share the films here in the hopes they may be a resource for those seeking to have conversations about accountability, redress, and support for survivors of sexual assault and rape.
In international human rights spaces, religious fundamentalists are now operating with increased impact, frequency, coordination, resources, and support.
Anti-rights actors are chipping away at the very content and structure of our human rights concepts, institutions, and protections, with disastrous consequences for human rights and gender justice. Their aim is to erode the very basis on which we can claim our rights.
This report is the first of a series on human rights trends produced by the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) initiative, a collaborative and multi-organizational project that aims to monitor, analyze, and share information on anti-rights initiatives.
The report analyzes key trends and developments mapped over 2015 to late 2016 in order to inform and support our collective advocacy.
A sneak peek in the report
Introduction
Anti-rights mobilization at the international level constitutes a response to the significant feminist and progressive organizing and impact therein over the past three decades. It also represents ultra-conservative actors’ new commitment to multilateral processes as a space of influence. Today we are witnessing a set of interlocking factors that paint an unsettling picture of our human rights system under attack: increased coordination of religious fundamentalists across regional, institutional, and religious lines in human rights spaces, and the strategic and proactive undermining and co-optation of our human rights framework.
Key opposition actors
Imperatives for the future include…[t]o take energetic action within the NGO process to blunt or prevent new assaults on family integrity; to identify, protect, and help advance existing “friends of the family” within the U.N. Secretariat; to “place” such friends in positions of current or potential influence within the U.N. Secretariat; and to build an international movement of “religiously grounded family morality systems” that can influence and eventually shape social policy at the United Nations.
– Allan Carlson, founder of the World Congress of Families
Actors using arguments based on anti-rights interpretations of religion, culture, tradition, and rhetoric linked to State sovereignty have made significant strides in implementing and institutionalizing their regressive agenda at the UN in recent years. As any participant or witness of policy negotiations will note, the ‘battle for rights’ is fought in large part on the level of language and rhetoric. Many conservative actors have creatively and effectively regrouped in this area, with increased success towards achieving their goal of undermining rights related to gender and sexuality.
Influence and impact are not won by rhetoric alone. Anti-rights actors are making inroads into our human rights standards not only because of their increased numbers and networks, or their imaginative and sustained re-conceptions of what human rights norms should and do mean. The success of any movement is also integrally driven by its organizing tactics.
Like their shifts and feints in discursive strategy, the religious right active in international human rights policy spaces has not remained static in their organizing. This landscape reflects several overarching trends: learning from their opposition, namely feminists and other progressives and their strategies at United Nations conferences in the 1990s; mirroring successful tactics developed in partnership with powerful elites from the domestic level to the international; and moving from a paradigm of symbolic protest to ‘insiders’, with the attendant changes in opportunity mapping and approach.
Key impacts on the international human rights system
Anti-rights actors’ discourses and strategies have had a substantive impact on our human rights framework and the progressive interpretation of human rights standards, and especially rights related to gender and sexuality.
Over 2015 and 2016, we have witnessed the watering down of existing agreements and commitments; deadlock and conservatism in negotiations; sustained undermining of UN agencies, treaty monitoring bodies, and special procedures; and success in pushing through regressive language in international human rights documents.
Forum for Dignity Initiatives-FDI is a research and advocacy forum working for the human rights of most marginalized groups both gender and sexual minorities in Pakistan. FDI is closely working at policy level evidence based advocacy to improve the human rights situation for identified groups in Pakistan.
A bill on the protection of transgender persons was presented to Senate of Pakistan on January 9, 2017 as a private member bill by Senator Babar Awan.
FDI organized a multi-stakeholders consultation to review this recently presented bill on the protection of transgender persons in Pakistan. Consultation provided an opportunity to key stakeholders including; parliamentarians, representatives from ministry of human rights, civil society representatives, legal experts, academia, religious scholars, media and transgender community representatives to sit together, carefully review this bill and share their reservations followed by a set of recommendations to improve the gaps in current status of this bill before it becomes a law.
CSBR joined co-working group members of the Observatory on the Universality of Rights for a CSW61 event on “Reclaiming the Universality of Rights: Gender, Economic Justice and Anti-Rights Threats”.
About: Rising (mis)use of religion, culture, tradition, and nationalism to justify discrimination in many areas around the world is having disastrous consequences for gender justice and women’s economic rights and empowerment.
Anti-human rights actors employing these arguments increasingly undermine women’s rights, including their rights to work and rights related to gender and sexuality. Through their attempts to control women’s bodies and autonomy, they propagate gendered restrictions on employment, restrict pathways to employment, and fuel gender stereotypes that undermine women’s access to work and justify violence in the workplace.
This event will highlight the findings of the first trends report from the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) initiative regarding regressive trends and actors on our human rights norms and systems and open up a critical reflection on the tactics, discourses, strategies and increasing impact of ultra-conservative actors to undermine the universality and indivisibility of our human rights standards. This event will then examine and discuss the strategic opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for gender justice movements.
Panelists: The panel featured interventions from Naureen Shameem (AWID), Susan Tahmasebi (ICAN), Azra Abdul Cader (ARROW), Gillian Kane (IPAS) and Cynthia Rothschild, and was moderated by CSBR coordinator Rima Athar.
“Creeping Criminalisation” is a timely new resource from OutRight International, co-written by CSBR Member Nursyahbani Katjasungkana. The report maps national laws & regional regulations that violate the human rights of women and LGBTIQ people across Indonesia. Available in English and Bahasa.
This report maps the legal framework in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights and women’s rights in Indonesia are curtailed. It is part of a project on Increasing Access to Justice for LGBTI Communities in Indonesia that OutRight Action International and its Indonesian partners, Arus Pelangi, Kemitraan and LGBTI activists in 8 Indonesian provinces have been working on since 2015.
The purpose of this report is to be an advocacy tool for Indonesian activists and allies for human rights, women’s rights and LGBTIQ rights. It is laid out to give specific legal information and analysis regarding national laws and regional level legal regulations passed by provincial legislatures and governments. The report provides general historic background of Indonesia’s legal processes as context for understanding the proliferation of regional regulations.
Two important annexes in the Legal Mapping Report trace the use of media to spread hate and intolerance in the 2016 campaign of homophobia in Indonesia and the views of Indonesian politicians, other public figures and religious leaders who have taken strong positions on LGBTI groups.
Musawah has released two Knowledge Building Briefs that provide advocates with an accessible understanding of key concepts and ideas related to the Muslim legal tradition and family laws.
Issue One clears up confusion between Shari’ah, Fiqh and State Laws, and is available in English, Arabic, and French.
Issue Two sheds light on what makes the reform from within the tradition possible, and is available in English, Arabic, and French.
About Musawah
Musawah provides advocates and academics access to existing knowledge and creates new knowledge about women’s rights in Islam. Musawah seek to apply feminist and rights-based lenses in understanding and searching for equality and justice within Muslim legal traditions. Such lenses help reveal the tension between the egalitarian and hierarchical voices in the tradition, and uncover women’s voices that were for so long silenced in the production of religious knowledge, so that their concerns and interests can be reflected.
Musawah believes that the production and sharing of knowledge should be participatory, should recognise non-traditional forms of expertise, and should begin from contexts rather than texts. In this way, the knowledge produced will be grounded in the lived realities of women and men. These realities then inform the approach to the issues and the questions being asked.
