[STATEMENT] IWD2021: APNED STANDS TO CHALLENGE AND FIGHT POVERTY, PATRIARCHY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLUNDER

The Asia Pacific Network of Environment Defenders (APNED) joins women’s movements and women environment defenders to #ChooseToChallenge poverty, patriarchy, and environment plunder on the occasion of 110th International Working Women’s Day today.

Women are at the receiving end of the current world order wherein social injustice prevail, and the global health crisis has multiplied this burden ten-folds. In contrast, regimes and corporations have turned it into a weapon to solidify their profit-oriented agenda at the expense of the people and the planet; women environment defenders are one of the affected sectors at the receiving end of this crisis.

We forge solidarity with the brave women across the working class and the women in the frontline – from rural communities and indigenous territories, in urban centers, in the academe, and especially now in the COVID-19 era, the healthcare sector.

Amid pandemic and fascism, there is no way but to continue the revolutionary tradition of women to challenge and fight the structures that perpetuate the systemic theft of the environment.