Women trade unionists are under threat around the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe ... but there is something you can do
Struggling against the odds
It is not easy being a woman trade unionist and a human rights defender in many parts of the world.
Ask Leonora Castaño, president of a group promoting women's land and human rights in Colombia, or Dita Indah Sari, an Indonesian workers' rights activist. Their experiences are rarely reported in depth, but violence and human right abuse has a disproportionate impact on women and girls - in places like Colombia, Sudan, Congo, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe.
In Zimbabwe, for example, activists like Thabita Khumalo constantly face the threat of violence when carrying out their union activities.
Khumalo, the secretary of the women's advisory council of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, has been assaulted at all four ZCTU general council meetings this year.
On 9 July this year, a group of 25 men and women stormed a meeting of ZCTU women officials, ordered the meeting closed, and started beating the 35 women present.
When Khumalo refused to leave her seat, one of the assailants shouted: "Let's kill this one, once and for all." A man grabbed her by the belt and tied her hands behind her back before the "free-for-all" assault on her began. She regained consciousness later in hospital.
When she went to report the attack to the police, she was told that the meeting had not been authorised in accordance with the Public Order and Security Act, which requires the government to sanction all meetings of more than five people.
"That is where it ended," says Khumalo.
In Colombia, a country with decades of fighting between armed groups and paramilitaries, women speak out for their rights regardless of the intimidation, violence and even death they face from armed groups on both sides.
Leonora Castaño, president of the National Association of Peasant Farmer, Black and Indigenous Women of Colombia, a group promoting women's, land and human rights issues, has been the target of numerous death threats. Still, she continues to campaign for social, economic and political rights, even though abuse of women and girls have been used to threaten human rights campaigners like her.
That Castaño is still alive makes her one of the lucky ones in one of the most dangerous places in the world for trade unionists: nearly 200 are murdered every year.
Elsewhere in the developing world, there is a day in, day out struggle by women activists and human right defenders in Thailand, and imprisonment in China, Haiti, Brazil and Zimbabwe.
Also in Zimbabwe, police broke up a peaceful post-election prayer gathering and arrested more than 250 women. The prayer gathering had been organised by a grassroots group, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), on 31 March in Harare's Africa Unity Square.
According to reports received by Amnesty International, police beat several of the women during and after arrest and a number of the women were reportedly badly injured.
Over the past two years, WOZA activists have been repeatedly arrested for engaging in peaceful demonstrations against the worsening economic, social and human rights situation in Zimbabwe.
UNISON is a part of Amnesty International UK's trade union network, which offers solidarity and takes action on individual cases of workers and activists.
UNISON has also established an International Trade Union Development Fund to promote the union's international objectives. This includes support for unions in countries where trade unionism or trade unionists are under severe threat.
The fund was established in early 2005 and is managed by members appointed by UNISON's national executive.
More on UNISON's International Trade Union Development Fund.
Story by Duska Bosnjak
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