Saturday, March 07, 2020

Dismantle Patriarchy, Not the Planet!



























March 8, 2020, Colombo, Sri Lanka

March 8 mark the International Day of women! Women around the world continue to face many difficulties despite more attention on women’s rights at both national and international level. Sri Lanka has alarming rate of the increase of rape, sexual harassment in the public places and domestic violence. The young girls become common victim of these incidents. It’s sad to note that the law enforcement is very weak on these matters. 

Women in the frontline communities face patriarchy and continue to suffer from violence, rape and the difficulties during the struggles related to destruction of nature, climate change and resource grabbing. Women face more difficulties during the disasters. Lack of adequate sanitation, access to clean water and fire wood makes women life more difficult. Their safety is not guaranteed during the increasing disasters due to the destruction of nature by this patriarchal system. Women affected by Uma Oya destruction, Norochcholai Coal power plant and those fighting against land grabbing for a sugarcane plantation in Rideemaliyadda continue to struggle for life, clean water, clean air and good health and right to nature. 

Women in the work place also face severe constraints due to patriarchy. The recent incidents related to the mangrove island in Negombo and grabbing lands in Beraliya Mukalana in Galle shows that most top women government servants also face difficulties due to patriarchy of the political leadership.

Sri Lanka presented the first female prime minister to the world. In Sri Lanka, women has the Constitutional freedom and right to vote and participating political activities.  Despite the statutory freedom, women participation in Sri Lankan politics has been one of the lowest in South Asia.

However the local government marked the inaugural implementation of the statutes of 25% out of the elected candidates had to be women. Ironically,  after the election the Election Commission stated that there were no legal means to appoint female members to these councils as the political parties had either not won more than 20% of votes each and were not obligated to appoint female members or had no more female members to appoint. Therefore, women representation in decisions making and governance is also a great challenge in this system.

This world is facing serious crisis due to this patriarchy. The climate crisis is one of the latest resulted from this system.

In this women’s day we join the women around the world who are struggling against patriarchy, destroying the planet, resource grabbing and violence against women to demand dismantle patriarchy and make sure that women has equal rights and representation. We demand that women specific issues should be addressed immediately and give gender justice. 

WE DEMAND DISMANTLE PATRIARCHY AND NOT THE PLANT! 

Centre for Environmental Justice / Friends of the Earth Sri Lanka

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