The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)[1] contributed to the Special Rapporteur’s thematic report on Violence Against Women and Girls in the context of the Climate Crisis, including Environmental Degradation and Related Disaster Risk Mitigation and Response to be presented to the UN General Assembly in September 2022.

This submission is a result of a collaborative analysis of feminists and grassroots women’s organisations participated in the Climate Justice Feminist Participatory Action Research (CJ FPAR) for the last 7 years (2014 – 2021)[2]. CJ FPAR supports grassroots women to build their own evidence to ensure that women in communities most affected by climate crises are able to influence policies at the local, national and international levels and achieve structural and system change to advance women’s human rights amid the reality of climate catastrophe.[3] This submission particularly highlights the stories and ground realities of women in Bangladesh, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan and Philippines.

Climate crisis is not gender neutral[4]. It has been globally recognised that rural, indigenous, urban poor women and girls, especially from the Global South are disproportionately affected by climate crises as they are highly dependent on natural resources especially in their role to secure water and food for their families.[5] Many countries in Asia and the Pacific are in the state of extreme vulnerability to climate catastrophe where rural, indigenous, urban poor women and girls are greatly affected and suffer the most from climate related disasters. They suffer the increasing sexual and gender-based violence, highest mortality and carry the burden of the long-term impacts of loss of land, livelihoods and security.[6]

Please click here to download a copy of the complete submission and to read our collective demands

[1] APWLD is a feminist, membership-driven network representing 265 diverse women’s rights organisations and advocates from 30 countries in Asia and the Pacific. For more information about APWLD, please visit: www.apwld.org

[2] Since 2014, APWLD has been working together with 24 grassroots feminist and women’s organisations across 13 countries in Asia and the Pacific through FPAR to women’s reality, experiences and analysis on the impact of climate crises.

[3] United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Feminist Participatory Action Research: https://unfccc.int/climate-action/momentum-for-change/activity-database/feminist-participatory-action-research

[4] Climate Change is not Gender Neutral. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 2021: https://www.iucn.org/news/gender/202106/climate-change-not-gender-neutral

[5] Enabling Just and Equitable Transitions through Rural Women’s Power. Asia Pacific on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) for the 62nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. 2017: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/CSW/62/EGM/EP8%20%20Kate%20Lappin.pdf

[6] Ibid.