#16Days: How the climate crisis fuels gender-based violence
Continuing to consider the impacts of the climate crisis on women and girls the UN Spotlight initiative (a high-impact initiative to end violence against women and girls www.spotlightinitiative.org) explore the expected outcomes in the context of violence against women and girls of global temperature increase.
The initiative describes themselves as “a disruptive and innovative model for implementing programmes that change the world for the better, committed to ending violence against women and girls by coordinating a wide array of global resources and partners and delivering impact at the grassroots level through civil society and other stakeholders.”
They warn us:
- By 2090, an additional 40 million women and girls will likely experience IPV each year in a 2°C warming scenario. This number will more than double in a much worse 3.5°C warming scenario. An additional 10 million women and girls will likely experience non-partner sexual violence in the same timespan. These figures translate into approximately one in ten women who would experience intimate partner violence (IPV) that could otherwise be avoided if further climate change is prevented – or billions of cases of violence against women and girls that could be avoided between now and 2090.
- every 1°C rise in temperature is associated with a 4.7 per cent rise in IPV. Both rising temperatures and climate shocks trigger displacement, insecurity, poverty and broader institutional breakdown that can reinforce and incentivize norms and behaviours that increase violence.
- Women environmental human rights defenders (WEHRDs). These individuals – a significant number of whom belong to Indigenous communities – are at particular risk of targeted violence as they speak up to address the climate crisis. Advocacy for land rights, natural resource protection and gender responsive climate transition put WEHRDs in danger of harassment (online and offline), doxing (when private information is publicized without consent), defamation, sexual violence, physical attack and femicide.
A Prayer for Justice and Healing Amidst the Climate Crisis
Let us pray
Compassionate Creator,
We lift up our voices for women and girls around the world who face the compounded burdens of climate change and gender-based violence.
As rising temperatures and climate shocks bring displacement, insecurity, and hardship, we ask for your protection over those most vulnerable. Grant strength and courage to women environmental human rights defenders, especially those advocating for land rights and climate justice, who risk harassment and violence for their advocacy.
We pray for communities where disasters have destroyed homes and livelihoods, where water and sanitation are compromised, and where women and girls shoulder increased responsibilities even as resources dwindle. May your justice roll down like waters, bringing safety, dignity, and hope to all who suffer.
Inspire us to act with compassion and determination, working together to prevent further harm and to build a world where every woman and girl can live free from violence and fear.Compassionate Creator, May it be so AMEN
