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
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…
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,…
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…
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…
Haiti, The Impacts of Cash for Work on Food Security and Gender Equality: Impact Evaluation
Report
Haiti faces severe food insecurity and gender inequality, with nearly half the population lacking adequate food and women especially vulnerable. WFP’s Food Assistance for Assets…
Liberia: From Law to Reality: AWLN Champions Women’s Right to Own Land
International
CAREYSBURG — The African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) Liberia Chapter convened a landmark dialogue on Wednesday at Arjay Farms in Number 7, Kingsville, bringing together…
How Climate and Gender Shape Peace and Security: From Mandates to Meaningful Change
Blog
October 2025 marked twenty-five years since the landmark Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Amid rising polarization, escalating conflicts, and the intensifying…
Gender is the Key to a Healthy Planet and People: Reflections from the Biodiversity-Health Press Conference at SBSTTA-27
Blog
Traditional health systems, rooted in centuries of empirical knowledge, reveal the interdependence between ecosystems and human health. However, women’s ecological and health-related knowledge has often…
Gender, Development, and Recognition of Anthropogenic Climate Change
Library
Climate change affects everyone – but not everyone understands it in the same way. Using survey data from a study of 103 countries and territories (n = 92,691)…
Afghanistan: UN Trust Fund Supports Women Livestock Farmers in Afghanistan’s Ghazni Province
International
The UN Afghanistan Trust Fund is helping women-headed households in Ghazni raise livestock, offering training and tools to support their livelihoods.
The UN Afghanistan Trust Fund…
The Philippines: DENR Exec Highlights Link Between Women Leaders and Environmental Protection
International
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary for Strategic Communications Marilou Erni emphasized that environmental protection and peacebuilding are deeply interconnected with women as…
UK: UK Announces Commitment to Advance Gender Equality in SA at G20
International
The UK pledges ZAR 18 million (£800,000) to South Africa’s Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Fund. This will help more than 33,000 people through school-based…
Somalia: Land Grabbing Crisis Deepens in Mogadishu as Women and Children Bear the Brunt
International
A new wave of forced evictions and illegal land grabbing is devastating communities across Mogadishu, displacing thousands of residents — many of them women and…
Global: Indigenous Women and the Path to a Just Energy Transition: Voices from the Land
International
Key Ideas:
The implementation of the energy transition is unfolding at the expense of biodiversity and communities — particularly Indigenous women, says Galina Angarova and Daniela…
Afghanistan: Afghan Women Die Needlessly After Natural Disasters
International
KABUL, September 24 (IPS) - In normal times, women in Afghanistan face dire living conditions relative to their counterparts in other parts of the world,…
Gender and Food Security: How Displacement Can Disrupt Traditional Roles in Agriculture-Dependent Communities
Library
When people are displaced, the structures of everyday life are disrupted. Existing gender roles and responsibilities often both become more intense and shape how individuals…
Gender and Food Security: How Displacement Can Disrupt Traditional Roles in Agriculture-Dependent Communities
Library
When people are displaced, the structures of everyday life are disrupted. Existing gender roles and responsibilities often both become more intense and shape how individuals…
2025 Women are Sacred Conference
Event
About the Women Are Sacred Conference
Every two years, The National Indigenous Women's Resource Center proudly hosts the Women Are Sacred (WAS) Conference, one of the…