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
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…
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…
Integrating Gender Perspectives into Environmental Sustainability: Ecological Security and Post-Conflict Impacts in the Middle East
Library
Understanding the pressing need to incorporate gender views into environmental sustainability initiatives in Middle Eastern conflict-affected areas with a special focus on Iraq, Syria, and…
Energy Justice and Gender: Bridging Equity, Access, and Policy for Sustainable Development
Library
Clean energy transitions are not just about technology. They are also about people, equity, and justice. Women play a pivotal role in advancing sustainable energy…
Tejiendo Autogobierno y Armonía con la Madre Tierra: Propuesta de las mujeres indígenas Iku de Colombia para la Construcción de la Paz Ambiental
Spotlight
Voces de las mujeres indígenas Iku de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.
Las mujeres indígenas colombianas pueden ser parte del progreso global que promueve…
Weaving Self-Governance and Harmony with Mother Earth: Proposal of Iku Indigenous Women of Colombia for Building Environmental Peace
Spotlight
Voices from the Iku Indigenous women of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia.
Colombian Indigenous women can be part of the global progress advancing…
Securing Women’s Land Rights: A Pathway to Food Security
Blog
Despite playing a central role in food systems, women lack secure land rights in more than half of all countries, posing serious implications for food…
Canada: Assembly of First Nations Releases 2025 Progress Report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Calls for Justice, Highlighting Human Trafficking Crisis
International
(June 3, 2025 – Unceded Algonquin Territory, Ottawa) – On the sixth anniversary of the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered…
Global Survey of Women Building Peace and Security
Announcement
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security is working to build a data set of information about the work of women peacebuilders around the world…
Nigeria: NGO Launches Project to Empower Women in Peacebuilding, Environmental Protection
International
A non-profit organization in Abuja, the Ark and Rainbow Development Foundation (ARDF), has introduced the SHAPPE Project, an initiative aimed at empowering women and youth…
Gender-Based Violence as a Barrier to Women Rights towards Socio-environmental Sustainability
Library
This study provides an exhaustive analysis of the intersection between gender-based violence and environmental sustainability, focusing on the Colombian experience, particularly within the context of…
Women Building Peace
Library
This volume looks back at a wealth of women’s peacebuilding practice documented by Accord since 1998. Case studies from Cambodia, Sierra Leone, northern Uganda, Papua…
Ensuring African Women’s Access to Justice: Engendering Rights for Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa
Library
About half of the people of Sub-Saharan Africa live below the poverty line, and 80 per cent of them are women. Their access to justice…
Honduras: Violence, Land Conflicts, Corruption and Impunity Defy Human Rights
International
Persistent violence, including gender-based violence, land conflicts and impunity are among the most serious human rights challenges in Honduras, the UN High Commissioner for Human…
Israel/Palestine: How Israel’s Flooding of Gaza’s Tunnels Will Impact Freshwater Supply
International
Israel confirmed this week that its troops are pumping seawater into a network of tunnels in Gaza, a method environmentalists say could violate international law…
When It Comes to Women, COP28 ‘Fell Short’
International
Historically underrepresented in policymaking positions and discussions, women were vocal at COP28, which concluded on Tuesday, if only because the conference in Dubai scheduled events like a…
International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict 2023
International
The International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict, observed on November 6th each year, is a significant global…
International Women’s Day: Our Planet Needs Gender Justice
International
Although women bear the brunt of environmental injustice, they’re also leading the way to save our planet. Find out why we celebrate International Women’s Day…
“Environment, Conflict, Media” Conference Held in Sarajevo
International
The conference entitled “Environment, Conflict, Media”, dedicated to issues of environmental protection and reporting on climate change, was organized yesterday in Sarajevo. It is the…
UN Will Vote to Strengthen Protection of the Environment during War
International
The United Nations General Assembly is expected to adopt new principles to protect the environment from foreseeable damage before, during and after armed conflict. Experts…
Thailand: Minister- Women’s Economic Empowerment Boosts Sustainability
International
Belgium: Women in Conflicts - Brussels Declaration on Actions Towards Empowering Women
International
Women continue to be particularly affected by conflict situations: whether as civilians in directly affected areas, as refugees, or as persons directly targeted. At the same time, women contribute…
Colombia: Colombia's Extractive Industries Watching Election Warily
International
Colombia's leftist firebrand presidential candidate Gustavo Petro is too close in recent polls for the comfort of oil companies and miners who worry that his…
Indigenous and Rural Women's Voices: Recommendations to Address Climate Security Risks in Colombia
Briefs & Development
From an ecofeminist and human security perspective, this study aims to contribute to filling this existing gap by developing actionable recommendations that can be replicated…
Malala: I Survived the Taliban. I Fear for My Afghan Sisters.
Blog
In the last two decades, millions of Afghan women and girls received an education. Now the future they were promised is dangerously close to slipping…
At the Nexus of Participation and Protection: Risks and Barriers to Women’s Participation in Northern Ireland
Blog
Of its four pillars, participation and protection arguably predominate the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Growing gaps in women’s leadership across all spheres, exacerbated by…