Women, Cultural Rights and Climate Change
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660 13th Street, Suite 200, Oakland, CA 94612 WOMEN, CULTURAL RIGHTS, AND CLIMATE CHANGE Challenges and Opportunities in Response to the Global Crisis Johanna Kanes, Bridge Fellow Rebecca Hooley, Project Supervisor Andrea Carlise, Executive Director www.iangel.org; [email protected] © 2020 IANGEL, all rights reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 II. Women and Climate Change ................................................................................................... 2 A. Economic Stability ...................................................................................................... 3 B. Caretaking Responsibilities ......................................................................................... 4 C. Water and Resource Scarcity ...................................................................................... 5 D. Health and Climate ...................................................................................................... 6 E. Safety and Security ...................................................................................................... 7 F. Climate Policy, Gender Legislation and International Agreements ............................ 9 1. International Climate Agreements and Gender ................................................ 9 2. National Action Plans and Tribal Legal Instruments ..................................... 10 3. Women Climate Refugees ............................................................................. 11 4. Ecofeminism .................................................................................................. 12 III. Women's Cultural Rights in an Era of Climate Change ...................................................... 13 A. Indigenous Women ................................................................................................... 14 B. Climate Change and Poverty ..................................................................................... 16 C. Women with Disabilities ........................................................................................... 16 D. Agricultural and Fishing Women .............................................................................. 17 E. Women in Low-lying Island Nations ........................................................................ 18 F. Young Women and Girls ........................................................................................... 19 IV. Climate Challenges for Women's Cultural Rights ............................................................... 20 A. Loss of Place ............................................................................................................. 21 B. Loss of Cultural Heritage Sites ................................................................................. 22 C. Disruptions to Ways of Life ...................................................................................... 23 V. Advancing Women's and Cultural Rights in Response to Climate Crisis ............................ 24 A. Women’s Political Participation ............................................................................... 24 B. Women as Stakeholders in a Green Future ............................................................... 25 C. Women, Art, and Activism ....................................................................................... 26 VI. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 28 I. Introduction The United Nations calls climate change the “defining issue of our time.”1 Climate change is not just an environmental issue, but also a security, economic development, and human rights issue.2 Across the globe, climate change is causing losses of cultural assets, destruction of places where people live and practice their culture, and losses of sites of significance.3 Because culture informs how societies view the natural environment, culture influences how societies respond to climate change.4 While cultural practices such as means of production, consumption, and lifestyle, can exacerbate climate change, culture can also be a driving force for adapting and responding to the global crisis.5 Cultural rights can be “understood as [human] rights in the field of culture.”6 These include rights of expression and creation, art, information and communication, language, identity, place, shared values, education, cultural heritage and institutions and ways of life.7 The impact of climate change on cultural heritage is a recognized human rights issue. But cultural rights are meaningless without an environment in which to enjoy them. Thus, continued access and enjoyment of cultural rights requires an informed and effective response to climate change. For women, the issue is all the more critical. Cultural norms already limit women’s access to and enjoyment of their cultural rights, and climate change can worsen these inequities. While women are thus among the most vulnerable to climate change, they are often also the first responders in their communities, working to protect their communities, traditions and ways of life from the negative effects of climate change. For this reason, women can be catalysts for climate change activism and response in their communities. This paper explores the intersection of women, cultural rights, and climate change. In particular, this paper discusses how climate change impacts women, and provides examples of that impact on cultural rights. This paper also addresses both the negative and positive aspects of climate change on culture, as culture is both a contributing factor to, and a positive force for adaptation in response to climate change. Notably, because women play a key role in preserving cultural rights, they can also create culture anew, driving new ways of life to adapt and respond to the global climate crisis. 1 United Nations, Climate Change (last visited April 14, 2020) https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/climate-change/. 2 MAYESHA ALAM, RUKMANI BHATIA, BRIANA MAWBY, WOMEN AND CLIMATE CHANGE, IMPACT AND AGENCY IN HUMAN RIGHTS, SECURITY, AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security 2015) p. 11. 3 W. Neil Adger et. al., Cultural Dimensions of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation, NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE, Vol. 3, February 2013, at 112-117, 113. 4 Id. 5 Id. at 112. 6 United Nations General Assembly, Report of the independent expert in the field of cultural rights, Ms. Farida Shaheed, submitted pursuant to resolution 10/23 of the Human Rights Council, p. 4 (March 22, 2010). 7 United Nations OHCHR, International Standards (last visited April 14, 2020) https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/CulturalRights/Pages/InternationalStandards.aspx. 1 II. Women and Climate Change While climate change affects all people, it does not affect men and women equally. This is due to a variety of factors including biological and physical determinants such as age, genetics, ability, and place of living, as well as cultural and societal norms or customs, such as discrepancies in education levels, socio-economic status and gendered roles in society. Gender equality usually refers to rights, opportunities, values, outcomes and agency.8 Gender inequalities are reflected in the limited control that women and girls have over their lives, especially when it comes to personal autonomy, or control over access to resources such as food, water, land, energy, technology, education, health, housing and employment—all of which are impacted by climate change.9 Climate change includes both rapid-onset events and slow-onset processes that affect survival over time. These processes are interrelated and together create cycles of special vulnerability for women.10 Gender is a primary indicator of vulnerability during and after climate crises and events.11 In regard to climate variability and climate catastrophes, evidence shows that disaster experiences are gendered, and women are more vulnerable than men during and after climate events.12 Vulnerability to biodiversity loss, desertification and climate change is closely linked to gender, and thus any effective response to climate change must consider gender issues. Yet women are not just a vulnerable population; they are also change agents for combating the crisis. Even taking into account economic status, women have smaller carbon footprints than men due to consumption patterns and lifestyle choices.13 Women “hold critical local knowledge that can enhance climate adaptations and assist the development of new technologies to address climate variability in areas related to energy, water, food security, agriculture and fisheries, biodiversity services, health, and disaster risk management.”14 However, the ability of women to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation is too often hindered by gender inequality and gendered power dynamics. Climate change impacts women in several key ways. These include economic instability, caretaking responsibilities, water and resource scarcity, and health and safety. Addressing these 8 United Nations Development Programme, Gender, Climate Change and Community-Based Adaptation, A Guidebook for Designing and Implementing Gender-Sensitive Community-based Adaptation Programmes and Projects (July 2010). 9 United Nations, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (March