Source: Kvinna till Kvinna
The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation monitors the situation for women’s and queer rights activists. We have kept an eye on the shrinking space for civil society, especially for women’s rights and LGBTQI+ organizations, for decades. Every other year, we publish a report on these developments, to present a global overview of the hatred and threats that activists face and the space they operate in.
This year’s report is based on the survey responses of 458 women’s and queer rights activists, and 25 interviews with activists. We reached activists from 67 countries affected by violence, conflict or fragility.
Comparing this year’s results to the results of previous studies, we note that matters are deteriorating for women’s rights activists and democracy in general. The University of Gothenburg’s V-Dem Institute estimates that global democracy has slid back to the level it was at in 1986.
Three in four survey respondents say that they and/or their organization have been threatened or harassed these past years as a result of their activism. That is a 15 percentage-point increase from our survey two years ago. We also note a substantial increase in the number of women’s and queer rights activists whose family members have been attacked for being the sibling, parent, or child of an activist. In addition, almost 25 percent of activists have received death threats.
In spite of these developments, few activists appear to have quit their work. They do, of course, have to take measures to monitor threats and secure their offices and homes, which takes time and resources. But women’s rights activists have become used to working under threat: hatred has become increasingly normalized and almost invisible to activists. This comes at a high price: burnout is common among activists. Still, the survey responses and interviews reveal that there has been a slight positive shift: a greater awareness of the importance self-care, not just ‘hard security’. Many say that they try to take time off when things become too much. This is only possible, however, when activists have the means and opportunity to do so.
Read the Full Survey: Hope and Resistance Go Together: The State of Women Human Rights Defenders 2023