We are facing a “fierce new world”, with massive political and economic instability, say feminist activists and scholars of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN). This instability, and the connections between militarization, economic crisis, food insecurity, violence, climate change and a rollback on sexual rights, hits women the hardest.

“We are at a time of massive economic and political instability, all occasioned by the fact that we are actually in the moment of shifting from one hegemonic power to another in the global economy. These are moments of greatest danger, when instabilities are greatest. And we don’t have a history of human rights alone being able to tame the world in that kind of situation,”

said Dr Gita Sen, speaking at the DAWN panel on Development Debates in a Fierce New World in New York on Friday.

“We have to do something to bring together in a more fruitful way the language and discourse of social justice and the language and discourse of human rights. Our big challenge is, I feel, if we’re not able to bring those two together in much more intrinsic ways – to see how they are interlinked, and the complexities of that – we’re not in a shape to move forward.”

While it’s understandable that activists specialize in their areas of interest, it is important to build broad coalitions across movements to make change happen, says DAWN. Instead, at big international fora like the Commission on the Status of Women, you often see one group focusing on macroeconomic rights, while a separate group listens to panels on sexual rights, and a third group focuses on militarisation – without examining how they are interlinked.

“This is a problem because we don’t get to see how social justice and human rights are different sides of the same coin,” Sen said.
The DAWN panel examined the links between food security, the global financial crisis, multilateral governance, sexuality and human rights.

–Tara Chetty (DTI alumna)

Source: Pacific Gender Action Portal http://www.pacificgap.info/2010/03/sen-challenge-is-to-bring-together.html

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