CEDAW & Indigenous Women's Organizing in Action!

CEDAW & Indigenous Women's Organizing in Action!

Congratulations to our partners from Colectiva Ixpop and members of the former Indigenous Women’s Alliance for CEDAW in Guatemala: thanks to the seeds you planted for a General Recommendation on Indigenous Women, today we are one step closer!

Since at least 2013, our allies in Guatemala have been organizing: first to lobby the CEDAW Committee to take on the drafting of a General Recommendation on the rights of Indigenous Women, and then to build a movement to share knowledge and build capacity amongst Indigenous women to contribute to this process. Colectiva Ixpop, along with other Indigenous women in Guatemala, recognized CEDAW's importance for Indigenous Women's rights; their energy and activism to put the GenRec firmly on CEDAW's agenda has been instrumental in bringing it one big step closer to reality.  

Having adopted GR38 at the last session (Nov 2020), the CEDAW Committee will now turn itself to the process of developing a General Recommendation on the rights of Indigenous Women. 

At this juncture, we wish in particular to congratulate our partners at Colectiva Ixpop, who had this vision, nurtured it, shared it with so many, and who travelled to Geneva to raise their voices and those of their communities directly to CEDAW.  Now, the process itself represents an opportunity for Indigenous Women around the world to make their voices heard and to articulate clearly how the individual and collective rights of Indigenous Women are at the heart of CEDAW. 

Find out more about this initiative, and keep an eye as we add updates as the process unfolds: http://learnwhr.org/cedawgrindigena/