{"id":8804,"date":"2017-12-01T17:57:12","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T15:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=8804"},"modified":"2017-12-01T17:57:12","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T15:57:12","slug":"remembering-women-killed-fighting-for-human-rights-in-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2017\/12\/remembering-women-killed-fighting-for-human-rights-in-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering women killed fighting for human rights in 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/a>\u00a0– M<\/span><\/span>ore than half of the women cited in\u00a0AWID<\/a>\u2019s 2017 tribute to female activists were murdered for defending their rights. Among the women killed are those who fought to protect their land from the state and multinational companies, or called out injustices or corruption, or stood up for the rights of lesbian, gay and transexual people.<\/p>\n

While thousands of men defend human rights, women face particular challenges for their activism. They are targeted for who they are, as women, not just because they are protesting. In countries that view a woman\u2019s role as being in the home, female human rights defenders are more prone to attack than men because they are seen as breaking social norms.<\/p>\n

To mark international Women Human Rights Defenders\u2019 Day on Wednesday, we honour some of the women who have been killed this year.<\/p>\n

Emilsen Manyoma, Colombia<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Emilsen<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Emilsen Manyoma was the leader of the Comunidades Construyendo Paz en los Territorios (Conpaz), based in Buenaventura. The organisation worked with communities displaced by companies wanting their land for mining and agricultural projects. The region is marked by the presence of paramilitaries and drug traffickers.\u00a0Manyoma<\/a>\u00a0had documented killings and forced disappearances, and was an outspoken critic of the companies forcing people off their land. She was killed with her husband, Joe Javier Rodallega. Their bodies were found on 17 January.<\/p>\n

Shifa Gardi, Iraq<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Shifa<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Shifa Gardi was a reporter for the Kurdish channel Rudaw. She had been credited for breaking the\u00a0\u201cstereotypes of male-dominated journalism\u201d<\/a>. She was killed by a roadside bomb while covering the battle for Mosul on 25 February.<\/p>\n

Ruth Alicia L\u00f3pez Guisao, Colombia<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Ruth<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Ruth Alicia L\u00f3pez Guisao was a community leader who worked with the indigenous people of Medio San Juan on food security, health and education projects. She was a member of Asociaci\u00f3n Agroecol\u00f3gica Inter\u00e9tnica e Intercultural (Intercultural and Interethnic Agroecological Association), and worked in areas overrun by paramilitary groups. On 2 March, she was shot and killed by two unidentified gunmen while visiting her family in Medell\u00edn. Since her death, her family have received threats of violence.<\/p>\n

Sherly Montoya, Honduras<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Sherly<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Sherly Montoya was a member of Grupo de Mujeres Transexuales \u2013 Mu\u00f1ecas de Arco\u00edris, which advocates on issues affecting transgender women. The group is a member of Asociaci\u00f3n LGTB Arco\u00edris, an organisation working on equality and justice for the LGBTI community in Honduras. Her body was discovered in the capital, Tegucigalpa, on 4 April.<\/p>\n

Miroslava Breach Velducea, Mexico<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Miroslava<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Miroslava Breach Velducea was a reporter for the national newspaper La Jornada, among other publications, before starting her own news agency, MIR, this year. Her main beat was organised crime, politics and corruption. She was shot eight times when she left her home in Chihuahua on 23 March.\u00a0According to the BBC<\/a>, a note left at the scene read: \u201cFor being a loudmouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miriam Rodr\u00edguez Mart\u00ednez, Mexico<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Miriam<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Miriam Rodr\u00edguez Mart\u00ednez became an activist and leader of the Collective of Missing Persons in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, following the disappearance of her daughter in 2012. She started\u00a0her own investigation<\/a>\u00a0into the disappearance and unearthed her daughter\u2019s remains and information that implicated the Los Zetas drug cartel. On 10 May, Mother\u2019s Day in Mexico, she was shot 12 times at her home by a group of armed men.<\/p>\n

Yoryanis Isabel Bernal Varela, Colombia<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Yoryanis<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Yoryanis Isabel Bernal Varela fought for the rights of indigenous women. She led the Wiwa tribe in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta. She was killed by armed assailants on a motorbike in January.<\/p>\n

Patricia Villamil Perdomo, Honduras<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Patricia<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Patricia Villamil Perdomo defended the rights of migrants. She was the Honduran consul in Tapachula, Mexico, where she became vocal about a human trafficking network, allegedly operating under the nose of state authorities. She also spoke out against human trafficking groups operating along the southern Mexican border. She is understood to have received written threats signed with \u201cZ\u201d \u2013 for the Los Zetas drug cartel. She was found dead at her home on 20 March. She is understood to have been suffocated.<\/p>\n

Micaela Garc\u00eda, Argentina<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Micaela<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Micaela Garc\u00eda was a women\u2019s rights activist and member of the leftwing organisation JP Evita. She was involved in the protest movement\u00a0Ni una menos<\/a>(Not one less), which campaigns against gender-based violence. She was studying to become a teacher. Her body was found in Gualeguay, north of Buenos Aires, a week after she disappeared in April 2017.<\/p>\n

Meztli Omixochitl Sarabia Reyna, Mexico<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Meztli<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Meztli Omixochitl Sarabia Reyna was a member of the Uni\u00f3n Popular de Vendedores Ambulantes 28 de Octubre (Upva), which defended the rights of street vendors. Many members of Upva, based in Pueblo, have been subject to death threats and attacks. She was shot twice during an attack on the group\u2019s offices on 29 June.<\/p>\n

Idaly Castillo Narv\u00e1ez, Colombia<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Idaly<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Community leader Idaly Castillo Narv\u00e1ez was a member of the victims\u2019 group Mesa de Participaci\u00f3n de V\u00edctimas del Municipio in the Colombian state of Cauca. She was killed in August. Her body was found with signs of torture and rape.<\/p>\n

Leonela Tapdasan Pesadilla, Philippines<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Leonela<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Leonela Tapdasan Pesadilla was a member of the Compostela Farmers\u2019 Association (CFA), which opposes large-scale mining projects in the area. Members of the association have been targeted by state security forces. She and her husband had donated some land to be used as a school for indigenous children in Mindanao. They were shot at their home on 2 March.<\/p>\n

Mia Manuelita Mascari\u00f1as-Green, Philippines<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Mia<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Mia Manuelita Mascari\u00f1as-Green was a lawyer at the Environmental Legal Assistance Center, a network of volunteer lawyers. She had been working on cases involving land rights. She was ambushed and killed in her car by four gunmen near her home in Bohol on 15 February. Her three children and nanny were in the car.<\/p>\n

Laura Leonor V\u00e1squez Pineda, Guatemala<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Laura<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Laura Leonor V\u00e1squez Pineda, was one of the leaders of the Committee for the Defence of Life and Peace in San Rafael Las Flores, which was active in opposing the El Escobal mine owned by the Canadian company Tahoe Resources. She was arrested and imprisoned for seven months as a result of her activism, before charges were dropped. She was shot dead by a group of men who broke into her house on 16 January.<\/p>\n

Gauri Lankesh, India<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Gauri<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Gauri Lankesh<\/a>\u00a0was a prominent human rights journalist, critically outspoken on the country\u2019s caste system, and on rightwing Hindu nationalists. Lankesh worked for the Times of India, and was an editor of a Kannada-language paper. Last year she was found guilty of defamation over a story accusing members of India\u2019s ruling Bharatiya Janata party of theft. She was shot outside her home in Bangalore on 5 September.<\/p>\n

Orouba Barakat, Syria<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Orouba<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Orouba Barakat was a prominent human rights activist and member of the Syrian National Coalition. Since the 1980s, she had opposed the regimes of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad. Barakat was understood to be investigating torture in prisons by government forces. In September, Barakat and her daughter, Halla, a journalist, were\u00a0stabbed in their home<\/a>\u00a0in Istanbul. \u201cThe hand of tyranny and injustice assassinated my sister Dr Orouba and her daughter Halla,\u201d wrote Orouba\u2019s sister Shaza on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Efigenia V\u00e1squez Astudillo, Colombia<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Efigenia<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Efigenia V\u00e1squez Astudillo<\/a>\u00a0was a journalist for Renacer Kokonuko, a community radio station operated by the Kokonuko indigenous group. On 8 October she was shot while covering clashes between the police and local community members, who were occupying land in Purac\u00e9, in the south-western department of Cauca. She died of her injuries in hospital.<\/p>\n

Jennifer L\u00f3pez, Mexico<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Jennifer<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Jennifer L\u00f3pez was a trans activist and campaigned for the rights of the LGBTQI community in Ometepec in Guerrero state. The well-known activist was murdered in May.<\/p>\n

Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Daphne<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Daphne Caruana Galizia was an\u00a0prominent investigative journalist and anti-corruption activist<\/a>. She reported regularly for The Sunday Times of Malta and The Malta Independent and wrote a blog. She had led the\u00a0Panama Papers<\/a>\u00a0investigation into corruption in Malta. She had received numerous threats on her life. On 16 October, she was killed in a car bomb attack near her home.<\/p>\n

Aysin B\u00fcy\u00fcknohut\u00e7u, Turkey<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Aysin<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Aysin B\u00fcy\u00fcknohut\u00e7u, an environmental defender and farmer, was actively involved in local politics and the legal and civil fight against stone quarries in the Finike district and throughout the rest of Antalya. B\u00fcy\u00fcknohut\u00e7u, along with her husband \u2013 also a well-known environmental activist \u2013\u00a0led a campaign and lawsuit<\/a>against a marble quarry, managing to get its operations shut down. She and her husband were murdered in May at their home.<\/p>\n

Jane Julia de Oliveira, Brazil<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Jane<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Jane Julia de Oliveira was an environmental defender in Par\u00e1 state. She was president of the Associa\u00e7\u00e3o dos Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras Rurais (Association of Rural Workers). On 24 May, she, along with nine other activists, was shot and killed at the farm they were occupying. The killings occurred when police went to the farm to arrest the group.<\/p>\n

Rosalyn Albaniel Evara, Papua New Guinea<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Rosalyn<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Rosalyn Albaniel Evara was a well-known journalist and business editor at the Post-Courier, Papua New Guinea\u2019s largest newspaper. On 15 October, she collapsed suddenly at home and died soon after arrival at the hospital in Port Moresby.\u00a0At the funeral<\/a>, her aunt, a human rights activist\u00a0<\/strong>and campaigner against violence against women, revealed Evara had been subject to ongoing physical abuse. The funeral was stopped, and an autopsy and investigation ordered.<\/p>\n

Luz Yeni Monta\u00f1o, Colombia<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Luz<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Luz Yeni Monta\u00f1o was part of the Community Action Board in Tumaco, in the department of Nari\u00f1o, and had advocated on behalf of people displaced in the region. She spoke up against the systematic assassinations of community leaders in Colombia. On 12 November, she was murdered by gunmen on motorcycles.<\/p>\n

K\u00e1tia Martins, Brazil<\/h2>\n
\n
\"K\u00e1tia<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

K\u00e1tia Martins was a land rights leader and environmental defender in the state of Par\u00e1. She was president of the Family Farmers Association and had spent her life fighting for a better quality of life for farmers. She had been threatened by groups who wanted to occupy the land she was living on. In May, she was shot five times and killed in front of her house by unknown assailants on motorcycles.<\/p>\n

Maria da Lurdes Fernandes Silva, Brazil<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Maria<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Maria da Lurdes Fernandes Silva was a community land rights leader and environmental defender in Par\u00e1. She denounced illegal acquisition of land in the region. She and her husband had received death threats. On 26 July, she was shot inside her house by unknown assailants. Her husband was also killed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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