Huairou Celebrates 30 Years of Activism

On March 12, the Huairou Commission (Huairou) and National Congress of Neighborhood Women (Neighborhood Women) celebrated 30 years of grassroots organizing by women with a homecoming at Neighborhood Women (249 Manhattan Avenue) of activists together once more, along with a virtual audience tuning in from across Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

In 1995, the United Nations (UN) fourth world conference on women in Beijing brought women’s rights activists from across the world together to develop an analysis of women’s conditions globally and strategies in service of women’s advancement. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), a treatise on the international community’s commitment to achieve gender equality and to provide better opportunities for women and girls, was adopted at this conference.

Grassroots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood and Neighborhood Women created the grassroots tent that connected grassroots activists worldwide during the conference and formed Huairou, a coalition of global women-led community based organizations.             

“We fought to have our own tent,” said Jan Peterson (Neighborhood Women founder and Huairou co-founder). “[This was the] first time in any UN meeting that grassroots women, neighborhood women, had their own space, autonomous space.” Peterson credits peer-learning over hierarchical teaching and leadership for the later success of Huairou. “When you’re at a community level, people forget that everyone needs to learn.”

One of this international organization’s recent achievements was celebrated. “[Huairou] was able to support ten grassroots women leaders to attend meetings at the United Nations to highlight how they have been socially and politically empowered in the 30 years since the Beijing Platform for Action and SDG 5 [Sustainable Development Goal 5 from the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all member states in 2015] were launched.  Grassroots women leaders from Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Kenya, Nigeria Czech Republic, Germany, Holland and New York spoke on UN panels to explain how they have been at the forefront of transformative change, playing critical yet often unrecognized roles in managing food systems, anchoring community care work, sustaining livelihoods and organizing essential community services and social protection. They outlined how their contributions have been vital in ensuring food security, sustaining local economies, and building resilient communities,” conveyed Sandy Schilen, executive director of Huairou, in a statement.  She added, “Yet they continue to face systemic challenges that span economic and political marginalization, entrenched gender inequality, and exploitation. Addressing these disparities requires investments in policies that recognize, value, and support grassroots women’s contributions to food systems, upgrading informal settlements, leading care economies, and community resilience.”

Pre-recorded tributes from around the world included those from partnering community-based organizations in the Global South. Violet Shivutse, global chair for the Huairou and feminist activist Srilatha Batliwata were among those who offered their acknowledgements in this manner.

Baliwalta embedded inspiration in her words, “The voices of grassroots women, their strength, is more important today than ever before. As we watch a growing tide of authoritarianism and the backlash against women’s rights, you have the power, you are everywhere, and you cannot be defeated. The world would collapse without you. It would come to a stop. You are the hope and the hidden power of the women’s movement.”

Shivutse encouraged celebrating partners to look to the future in her tribute sent from Kenya by asking, “[W]hat are we going to do beyond the thirty years that is to continue transforming the life of women and position grassroots women and their local groups at the center of development?”

When speeches finished, the evening continued on with conversation, refreshments, while an eclectic mix of global and American popular music contributed to the vibe.