CEDAW Indígena

CEDAW Indígena

The CEDAW Indígena, also known as the CEDAW Week for Indigenous Women, is a training program that looks at CEDAW through the lens of Indigenous women’s experiences and activism, and in conjunction with other important UN documents, such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, among others.  This training first developed in collaboration with WHRI alumna, Wayunkerra (Karmen Ramirez Boscan), and is executed as a collaboration between the WHRI and partner organizations.

The first CEDAW Week for Indigenous Women was held September 23-30, 2012 in Colombia in collaboration with the Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu, in the ancestral lands of the Wayuu, in La Guajira, Colombia. The Fuerza went on, in collaboration with other regional and national women’s organizations in Colombia, to coordinate the crafting of a Shadow Report to CEDAW which was submitted at the Oct 2013 CEDAW session, and continues to build movement and offer training on CEDAW and Indigenous Women’s Human Rights.

The next CEDAW Week for Indigenous Women, the spark of which ignited during the 2012 training in Wayuu Territory, was organized collaboratively in Guatemala in 2013. Some of the ongoing outcomes of this training are discussed further on the Advocacy section of this website, under the movement for a General Recommendation on Indigenous Women. WHRI facilitators have gone on to offer this specialized training in conjunction with other partners, including JASS Mesoamerica, elsewhere in Central America.

Please contact us if you are interested in collaborating on offering a training focused on Indigenous women’s rights and organizing, or are seeking Indigenous women’s human rights defenders for consulting or training initiatives.