By the Brazilian Women’s Alliance (AMB) and the Global Forest Coalition (GFC)
Photos by Pilar Anco of CMP Flora Tristán and Fran Ribeiro/SOS Corpo
On Friday, November 14, the Global Forest Coalition (GFC), the Brazilian Women’s Alliance (AMB), the International Women, Bodies, and Territories Initiative, and CP Peru organized the Ethical Tribunal in Defense of the Bodies and Territories of Women and Gender-Diverse People at the People’s Summit, an autonomous process that brought together thousands of people and representatives of social movements in Belém, Brazil. The event gathered hundreds of defenders from feminist, rural, Indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant movements, and was a political space to expose abuses and raise awareness about the multiple forms of violence, realities, and resistance of women and sexual and gender-diverse people.
Cases from Brazil, Chile, Haiti, Palestine, Peru, Western Sahara, and Venezuela were formally presented, in addition to other realities from Sudan and Rio de Janeiro, which exposed a global pattern of genocide, ecocide, environmental racism, militarization, mining and oil exploitation, deliberate use of agrochemicals, sexual violence, and criminalization of women environmental defenders, trans, gender-diverse people, and LGBTQ+ communities.
The Palestine Case: Assalah Abu Khdeir, World March of Women
The Haiti Case: Juslene Tyresias, Vía Campesina
The judges in this tribunal were women leaders from Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia – including from two GFC member groups in Armenia and Indonesia, Armenian Forests and WALHI – who listened carefully to each case. At the end, Brazilian federal deputy Celia Xakriabá read a historic verdict that included the following points:
- There is no climate justice without gender justice;
- There will be no planet without women and gender-diverse people;
- States, corporations, and colonial structures must be held accountable.
Download the full verdict here in: English, Spanish, and Portuguese
The Tribunal demands:
- Gender justice;
- Recognition of ecocide as an international crime;
- Comprehensive reparations for communities;
- Protection for environmental and human rights defenders;
- Full implementation of the Escazú Agreement;
- An end to false climate solutions;
- The centrality of women in decision-making at COP30 and future COPs.
Tribunal Judges:
- Africa — Sophie Dowllar, World March of Women, Kenya;
- Latin America — Célia Xacriabá, Federal Deputy of the Brazilian Congress;
- Latin America — Marisol García, Quichua Indigenous leader, FEPIKECHA, Peru;
- Central Asia/Eastern Europe — Nazely Vardanyan, lawyer, activist, and executive director of the NGO Armenian Forests
- Southeast Asia — Uli Arta Siagian, campaign manager against large plantations at WALHI and activist for climate justice and community rights, Indonesia.
Tribunal Judges
The Brasil Case: Bekuoi Xikrin, Xikrin Indigenous People
María José Lubertino, from the Latin American and Caribbean Ecofeminist Network, presenting the case of Mapuche defender Julia Chuñil.
The Brasil Case: Melissandra, Rede Casa Cura.
The Western Sahara Case: Chaba Siny, World March of Women
The Peru Case: Olivia Bisa Tirko, Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation – GTANCH
The Venezuelan Case: Alejandra Laprea, Araña Feminista
Photo Credits: Pilar Anco of CMP Flora Tristán and Fran Ribeiro/SOS Corpo
