(Harare, November 19, 2019):

From 25 to 30 November 2019, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, La Via Campesina is calling upon its members and allies to carry out mobilisations and actions to strengthen our collective struggle for a conscious and free society, which does not exploit humans and nature. The global peasant movement denounces the capitalist, patriarchal, racist and colonising system that exploits, oppresses and attacks the lives of women and humanity in general. 

We, as La Via Campesina, unite with all those women and people of diverse identities who resist, organise and struggle to achieve a fair and egalitarian society that works in solidarity, by keeping love and respect at its core.

In an environment of structural violence, we see that fascism is gaining strength and is particularly leading to the erosion of the rights of working-class women. The current capitalist patriarchal system harasses and kills poor people, women and those who fight to create a better society.

It’s alarming to see the growing statistics on a global scale of physical and sexual violence against women, young girls and people of diverse identities. These instances of violence occur against a backdrop of impunity and injustice perpetrated by a sexist, misogynist and patriarchal system. At the same time, it is disturbing to observe the increase in the erosions of workers’ rights and social rights, as well as the growing numbers of women in temporary, precarious and demoralising employment.

Today, migrant and displaced women and people of diverse identities, including those living in conflict zones, are vulnerable and exposed to all kinds of violence and violations of their rights. Many are used as objects in wars and are tortured and forced to perform sexual services in order to survive. This year we also denounce the disappearance of community leaders who are persecuted, imprisoned and murdered for struggling in defense of their territories and rights in countries such as Brazil, Honduras and the Philippines, amongst others.

That is why La Via Campesina is using this International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women to ratify its slogan, which transmits the political message: “No More Violence Against Women!” It is a rallying call to strengthen the commitment to carry out actions, to struggle on a permanent and daily basis against all forms and expressions of violence against women, in support of the International Campaign “No More Violence Against Women”, that has been a movement since 2008.  

To this end, as La Via Campesina, we call on our member organisations, our friends and allies to unite on these Days of Struggle from 25 to 30 November 2019 by organising and carrying out, with our allied organisations, marches and actions that fight and denounce violence, to demand that our States grant us public policies that favour our rights. We need to build mechanisms that punish our aggressors and protect victims so we can finally break the cycle of violence against the lives of women.

As a sign of unity, we are sharing our campaign’s official poster (download posters here), translate it into your local language, print it for your activities and share it with your friends and allies. We share also other materials for social media: (click here to download).

LVC has developed a series of 6 postcards on several articles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas related all peasant women rights – download the postcards in ES, EN, FR and share.

We also want to give visibility to all the actions carried out in our different territories, we ask you to send your posters, photos, videos and statements to lvcweb@viacampesina.org.

#PopularPeasantFeminism #NoMoreViolenceAgainstWomen #25Nov

Globalise the Struggle! Globalise Hope!

Related posts:

Publication | “Women Peasant are Women: Understanding violence against rural women in Eastern and Southern Africa” Mozambique: Study on violence against women farmers in Africa to be launched at the UEM International Day for Elimination of Violence against women: Implement Policies that Protect Women and Girls against GBV