Allianoe for olistio and 3ustainable

Uevelopment of Communities' (A3UC), lndia

Bangladesh Lnvironmental Lawyers Assooiation
(BLLA), Bangladesh
Centre lor Lnvironment & 3ooial Conoerns,
lndia
C0RL, lndia
Uevelopment Co-operation, lndia
lorum for uman Rights and Publio ealth,
Nepal
0lobal Rights, Afghanistan
0ujarat 3tate AlU3 Control 3ooiety (03AC3),
lndia
l0333, lndia
M0NLAR, 3ri Lanka
M1uC, Malaysia,
Narishakti, lndonesia
N0CLR, lNUlA
0xfam Australia
Promoting uman Rights and Lduoation in
Bangladesh (PRLB), Bangladesh
Roots for Lquity, Pakistan
Rural outh Uevelopment & Cultural 3ooiety,
lndia
3AlUAR, lndia
3anio Ka 3anghatan, lndia
uBlNl0/ Narigrantha Prabartana, Bangladesh
uNUP Regional Centre in Colombo, 3ri Lanka
vikalp, lndia
women's Rehabilitation Centre (w0RLC), Nepal
women 3olidarity 0rganization, lndia women
3upport Center, Kyrgyzstan
Asa Afrca

Bul0w0UL, Kenya
Centre for uman Rights, Uemooraoy and
Uevelopment, Kenya
Lastern Afrioa Collaboration for Loonomio,
3ooial and Cultural Rights, Kenya
Lbony outh and 0rphans 3upport lnitiative,
Kenya
Labour, ealth and uman Rights
Uevelopment Centre,lhahrdev, Nigeria
Land Center for uman Rights, Lgypt
3wedish Co-operative Centre, Limbabwe
oung women's Leadership lnstitute, Kenya

lnstitute for women's 3tudies in the Arab

world, u3A
lnternational Resoue Committee, u3A
13Cl, u3A
wuNRN, u3A
lnternational lndigenous women's lorum,
Nioaragua

ALl1N (Afrioa Lurope laith & 1ustioe

Network), Belgium
Assooiation for the Loonomio Lmpowerment
of women ''lLMlNA CRLA1lvA'', 3erbia
ww3l, 3witzerland
Lurope
North Amerca
Amerca Latn
Partnerng 0rganzatons
PwL3CR, UU-29, 3eoond lloor, Nehru Lnolave, Kalkaji,
New Uelhi-110019, lndia 1el.: 91-11-40536091 lax: 91-11-40536095
livelihoodpwesor.org www.pwesor.org

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womea's l|re||hoods for a 0|ga|f|ed l|fe
Ad.ance women's uman k|ght to L|.e||hoods: Io|n a 0|oha| Network
ln today's sooial, eoonomio, and politioal
environment, people's livelihoods are
threatened in various ways. 3everal
development projeots, suoh as those
involving dams and extraotive aotivities,
have resulted in mass displaoements,
environmental degradation, and the
destruotion of natural resouroes. ln
addition, sustainable forms of agrioulture
are disappearing, and so are traditional
forms of sustenanoe. Uisasters, both
manmade and natural, have ooupled with
olimate ohange has worsen the situation.
Loss of livelihood options and the break-
up of the sooio-oultural fabrio of sooiety
have brought about new forms of
vi ol enoe and expl oi tati on. women
perennially suffer the most from these
ohanges. 1hese events have also lead to
massi ve mi grati on, traf fi oki ng and
exploitation, and extreme hardship.
Nevertheless, the global phenomena of
using women's labour as a oheap option
to substitute development investment and
of targeting women through promotion of
mioro-finanoe as a means to aooess
women's resouroes for development and
profit, is rapidly inoreasing. As a result,
people, espeoially women inoluding
women from marginalised oommunities
suoh as Ualits, indigenous and other
exoluded groups, are daily pushed away
from self-reliant souroes of livelihood to
welfare dependenoy leading to sexual
exploitation, traffioking and extreme
poverty.
5end an ema| to |ve|hoodpwescr.org. You can [on ndvdua||y or as an organzaton.
Your Name 0rganzaton name Uountry
Uontact 0eta|s (Address, ema| and phone number) Your work on |ve|hood:


PwL3CR, i n par t ner shi p wi t h sever al
organisations worldwide, initiated a 0lobal
Network on women's Right to Livelihoods.
Conversations with women throughout the
world have made us understand that this is a
key issue for women. Livelihoods for people
are a means to live a life with dignity. 1he
Network seeks to expand the oonoept of
women's eoonomio, sooial and oultural rights
so that the right to livelihoods is reoognised as
a basio human right. lnternational human
rights law ourrently looks only at the right to
work," however, the Network has expanded its
analysis to inolude the right to livelihoods. 1his
is fundamental to redress the above oritioal
issues that affeot women globally foousing
more holistioally on the oonditions that are
neoessary to support, sustain, and advanoe
the lives of women and their families with
dignity.
1here is a need to dialogue with various
groups and sooial movements inoluding
indigenous, Ualits, minority groups, land rights,
environment, anti poverty, trade, housing,
agrioulture, lood, worker's rights eto. on
women's livelihoods.
Uespite the magnitude and urgenoy of this
situation, the right to livelihoods is not
reoognised as a human right. 1here is a
oritioal need for a oolleotive voioe to emerge to
artioulate the severity of the situation faoed by
women. we must work together to develop a
oommon understanding of the right to
livelihoods and a oolleotive strategy for its
reoognition as a first step and then towards its
realisation.
Why a
U|oba|
Network?
ln order to develop an inolusive oonoept of the right
to livelihoods from a gender perspeotive, the
Network is oompiling a database on woman's
stories from around the world on livelihoods. 1his
oompilation will help in oolleotively developing
a oommon analysis and providing oonoeptual
olarity. lt will then provide the basis for the
Network to develop an aotion plan for a oolleotive
advooaoy oampaign. we invite you to join the
Network and to partioipate now by sharing your
thoughts on issues of livelihoods. ln partioular,
we request your speoifio input in this first stage
on the following:
Please send us your
stories, or stories of oommunities you work with or
are assooiated with. our submissions oan oome in
any form as testimonies, photographs, videos,
press olippings, artioles, poems, legal oases, eto.
1. what does the right to livelihood mean to you
and to women you work with? ow would you
define it? what are its various oomponents? (e.g. in
3outh Asia food seourity, aooess to produotive
resouroes, natural resouroes land, water, forests
eto. are important for women's right to livelihoods)
2. ow do issues of livelihoods affeot women? why
is the right to livelihoods important to women? 0r
why should it be important to them?
3. what are the ohallenges women in your oountry
and oommunities faoe regarding livelihoods?
4. what are some of the strategies being used by
women to address these ohallenges? what are the
suooess stories?
5. Uoes the Constitution of your oountry guarantee
livelihood proteotion? Are there any polioies or laws
to proteot livelihoods? ow effeotive are they for
women?
6. where are the gaps? what do you think needs to
happen to fill these gaps at the international level,
regional level, and/or national level?
No marer|a| subm|rreo w||| be reproouoeo w|rhour
oonsenr ano aoknow|eogemenr of rhe oonrr|buror.
Cemllatlen ef a batabase -
5end yeur vlews:
Uo||ectve
5harng
and Learnng
e part of the Network
1he U|oba| Network w|| be |aunched at the Wor|d 5oca| Iorum n e|m, raz|, on January 31, 2009.