A case study of three communities – Indigenous Women, jurisprudence and Climate Justice

abstract

The women of the Ogoni Tribe in Nigeria, those of the Dongria Kondh tribe in India, and the Ogiek women from Kenya could perhaps not be more distant geographically. However, the underlying threads of courage, the determination to fight for social justice and the resistance to depredation and attacks on their ways of life weave them together.

These economically vulnerable communities have been systematically discriminated against by the state and neglected by the larger society. Furthermore, their lands and livelihoods have been increasingly subject to unrelenting attacks from the ever pervasive “development”. Their resilience in the face of systematic oppression may hold relevance and important lessons for us too, as the world around becomes more complex and vulnerable, due largely to economic greed and social inequality; the effects of which are seen in and in turn hastened by climate change and environmental degradation.

This article attempts to identify the common threads in the struggles of these communities and the lessons that their experiences of social and political mobilisation offer to us. Specifically, the article will focus on the role women have played and will also look to underpin these struggles and responses theoretically so their exemplary successes may be replicated to inspire similar movements across the world. In essence, the authors study commonalities intertwined between climate and social justice movements spearheaded by vulnerable women in the global South to understand and highlight their contribution to the jurisprudence of evolving movements across the world.

keywords:

• indigenous women
• climate justice
• social justice
• jurisprudence
• empowerment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf (accessed 27 July 2023).

2 https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C169 (accessed 27 July 2023).

3 https://www.cbd.int/convention/ (accessed 27 July 2023).

4 https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng.pdf (accessed 27 July 2023); https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-kyoto-protocol/history-of-the-kyoto-protocol/text-of-the-kyoto-protocol (accessed 27 July 2023).

5 https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/parisagreement_publication.pdf (accessed 27 July 2023).

6 https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N96/273/01/PDF/N9627301.pdf? (accessed 27 July).

7 https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm (accessed 27 July 2023).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kavuri Sudha

KAVURI SUDHA is an Assistant Professor at the Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University, Visakhapatnam, India. She has also authored a book titled Prostitution Laws: An Enigma and Some Dilemmas published by Promilla & Bibliophile South Asia, a New-Delhi (India) based publishing house. She is a human rights activist and has vast experience at grass-roots level. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

Anjana Ramanathan

ANJANA RAMANATHAN is an Assistant Professor and teaches at the Jindal Global Law School, O. P. Jindal Global University, Haryana, India. Anjana graduated from Leiden University with an LL.M. in European and International Human Rights Law in August 2019. Her research interests are Adivasi rights, climate change, violence against Dalits and human rights violations of women, children and marginalised communities. Email: [email protected]