Protection & Access to Justice
The legal protection of women’s land and resource rights and physical protection from gender-based violence in natural resource use contexts are key to ensuring equitable recovery, economic growth, and human rights in conflict-affected settings. Women’s ability to secure and contest their land rights are particularly critical to protecting their productive assets.
However, women often do not have access or the capacity to protect their rights in court, facing complex and gender-biased legal landscapes. Furthermore, as conflict can increase resource scarcity and constrain access to resources, women often face an increased threat of sexual violence as they leave settlements to collect and use natural resources, such as water and firewood. This is often the case in camps for refugees and internally displaced people, where concentrated populations place great pressure on already limited resources. Due to gendered roles in resource use, women can also experience greater exposure to environmental contamination and pollution.
There is great need to better understand the risks women face when carrying out gendered natural resource management roles, to improve sensitivity to these risks in peacebuilding interventions, and to support women’s economic and social development in conflict-affected settings. To strengthen the legal protection of women’s rights and access to resources, programs must ensure that both men and women are aware of the legal structures to protect their rights, including law enforcement, courts, and other dispute resolution mechanisms. Legal aid programs and other measures to support the exercise of these rights are particularly important.
Measures to protect women from physical violence in natural resource contexts include: (1) ensuring that women have safe access or transportation to key resources, (2) ensuring equal representation and promote awareness of women’s rights among actors in security and conflict resolution processes, and (3) promoting simple technologies that reduce risks associated with resource use, such as fuel-efficient stoves that significantly reduce need for firewood. Ensuring the physical and legal security of women in these settings is crucial for their personal safety and health, as well as their ability to maintain sustainable livelihoods that depend on natural resources.
Resources
From Presence to Power: Women Environmental Peacebuilders Connect
Event
Join us for an intimate gathering that brings together women at the forefront of environmental peacebuilding—from community mediators to policy advisors, Indigenous leaders to researchers.…
Timor-Leste: Consultant, Gender, Disability, and Social Inclusion Public Administration
Job
Program Background
PROSIVU is an Australian Government-funded program that focuses on strengthening governance in Timor-Leste. This eight-year program (2022 – 2030) works in partnership with the…
Global: UNDRR Expands Sendai Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism to LGBTIQ+ Persons Constituency
International
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) has formally added an LGBTIQ+ Persons constituency to the Sendai Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism (SEM), marking an…
Jordan: Head, Gender Section
Job
The Organization
UNRWA, the largest United Nations operation in the Middle East with over 30,000 staff working across five areas of operation, is looking for highly…
From Sovereignty to Solidarity: First Nations Women Shaping Global Futures - First Nations, Indigenous Women’s Statement
Library
We, First Nations and Indigenous Women and Girls, gender diverse and intersex people from across the lands, waters, oceans, and skies of the world, affirm…
UNFCCC Gender Action Plan & CBD Gender Plan of Action
Report
The Rio Conventions - the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the United Nations Convention to…
Lebanon: Conflict Drives Mental Health Crisis for Displaced Women: “We Hear, See and Feel Pain Constantly”
International
The escalation in Lebanon, now in its sixth week, has stoked fear across the country and led to a mass displacement crisis, with women and…
Niger: How Community Shelters Protect Children and Help Women Restore Degraded Lands in Niger
International
Washington, USA, 03 April 2026 -/African Media Agency (AMA)/- Community-built shelters in Niger are enabling mothers to participate in land restoration work by providing shaded…
Canada: PBI-Canada Notes Concerns about Risk of Violence to Indigenous Land Defenders, Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA People near Major Projects
International
Peace Brigades International-Canada expresses concern that proposed major extractive projects brings an increased risk of violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people in communities…
Los cuidadores de pacientes con leishmaniasis visceral (kala-azar), en Kenia, resisten la lucha contra una enfermedad mortal que no distingue entre tribus ni niños
Spotlight
Marzo de 2026, Pokot Occidental: Durante tres días, la lluvia ha caído sin cesar. El camino que lleva al Hospital del Subcondado de Sigor, normalmente…
Uganda: Alupo Launches African Pastoralist Women Network to Boost Land Rights
International
Vice President Jessica Alupo has officially launched the African Pastoralist Women Network (ARPWN) and a Learning Centre aimed at advancing gender justice, climate resilience, and…
Women-led Peacebuilding
Blog
When President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stood before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City last March 10, he carried with him a clear…
Brazil: Landless Women Mobilize for Agrarian Reform and Against Violence by Brazil
International
This year’s National Day of Landless Women’s Struggles began on March 8 and runs until next Thursday, the 12th, with mobilizations in all regions of…
Iran: Aliabouzar - Iranian Women Show What It Means to Be a Freedom Fighter
International
Iranian women are among the most courageous freedom fighters of our time. No group has challenged the Islamic Republic more consistently and more systematically than…
Afghanistan: 8 March: UN Says Gender Inequality Has Worsened in Informal Settlements
International
According to UN-Habitat, rapid urban growth, displacement, and the return of migrants from neighboring countries have worsened gender inequality in informal settlements.
UN-Habitat program reported on…
Liberia: Women’s Land Rights Are Not Favors, They Are Rights as NAWoLaR Officially Launched in Monrovia
International
MONROVIA –The National Alliance for Women’s Land Rights (NAWoLaR) has been officially launched, signaling a unified national front to dismantle discriminatory practices that have long…
Central African Republic: How Land Empowers Refugee Women and Builds Resilient Livelihoods in the Central African Republic
International
At dawn, the communal field slowly comes to life in the Korsi neighbourhood of Birao in Vakaga, Central African Republic. Women arrive in small groups,…
Environmental Justice through Gender-Sensitive Debt-for-Nature Swaps in the Caribbean: An SDG Policy Perspective
Library
In an era of climate crises and debt burdens, debt-for-nature swaps offer debt relief in exchange for environmental conservation, holding promise for Caribbean small island…
Free Bodies, Free Territories: Reflections on the Right to Land, Water and Territories for Gender and Sexually Diverse People in Rural Contexts
Blog
How can land and agrarian reform create safe spaces for the LGBTQIA+ community? What does it mean to struggle for recognition and rights to land,…
Women From Rural, Forest, and Waterside Communities Fighting for Comprehensive and Popular Agrarian Reform
International
Grassroots feminist women know that there can be no food sovereignty without women’s autonomy, just as there can be no social justice without land redistribution…
Pakistan: International Consultant, Technical Advisor, Trafficking in Persons Research and Capacity-Strengthening
Job
Project Context and Scope:
IOM Pakistan is expanding its counter-trafficking (CT) and migrant smuggling prevention portfolio by generating new evidence and building local capacity. Recent initiatives,…
Venezuela’s Democratic Transition Needs Women, Including Machado
Blog
Women have been on the frontlines fighting Maduro’s dictatorship, and other countries’ transitions show that women’s participation is vital for democracy to succeed.
Conflicts and Trends to Watch in 2026
Report
Entering 2026, the global security landscape is defined by record-high levels of armed conflict, democratic backsliding, geopolitical fragmentation, and an accelerating climate crisis—dynamics unfolding alongside…
Ecuador: Yachay Wasi Teaches Climate Lessons Through Indigenous Language and a Garden
International
In Ecuador, a small intercultural bilingual school called Yachay Wasi treats environmental education as a political project rooted in Indigenous languages, farming, and justice. In…
Gendered Dimensions of Climate-Related Security Risks in the OSCE Area
Report
This report examines how climate change is exacerbating security risks across the OSCE region through gendered and intersectional pathways. Drawing on policy mapping and stakeholder…
Indonesia: The Long Struggle of Women Farmers to Halt a Zinc Mine in North Sumatra
International
SILIMA PUNGGA-PUNGGA DISTRICT, Indonesia — Rainim Purba first heard the rumor in 1996. Back then, in her mid-30s, villagers were saying a zinc mining company…
The Duty to Cooperate in Addressing the Adverse Impact of Environmental Chronic Emergencies: Ensuring Gender-Sensitive Responses (chapter in "Gendering International Legal Responses to Environmental Chronic Emergencies")
Library
This chapter examines the content and scope of States’ duty to cooperate in responding to the gendered effects of ECEs by exploring various forms of…
How Authoritarians Exploit Gender
Library
Authoritarian leaders increasingly engage with gender in different ways. While some subscribe to the "anti-gender" agenda and roll back gender equality achievements, others compete over…
Pacific Islands: Climate Security in the Pacific: Emerging Trends, Priorities, and Solutions
International
Pacific Island countries are among those most affected by climate change. Rising sea levels, shifting rainfall patterns and increasing extreme weather events threaten land, livelihoods…
When the Smoke Clears: How Hybrid Warfare Exploits Gender Vulnerabilities in Climate Disasters
Spotlight
The hurricane passes. The wildfire is contained. The flood waters recede. Then the real fight begins.
We are beginning to understand how the vulnerabilities exposed in…