Women’s Tribunal on Climate Change – Brazil

Via Flickr:

The Brazilian Women’s Tribunal (Tribunal de Mulheres e Justiça Climática) was held in the city where global development and the world’s environment were given the biggest stage and most hopeful platform for turning around what was twenty years ago one of many environmental concerns. Climate change within the context of the UN Conference on the Environment and Development got a boost through the initiation of the Kyoto Protocol. Twenty years later, the call for climate justice grows greater with the passing of every year. On December 3, 2011 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, grassroots and working class women from the State of Rio and nearby State of Sao Paolo gathered to add their voices calling for climate justice.

The event was the coordinated by Elza Santiago, a favela organizer from the group

Bordadeiras da Coroa/ Articulacao de Mulheres Brasileiras. Many others joined including Vera Neri, Instituto Baobab in collaboration with SINTRASEF, Instituto Equit – Gênero, Economia e Cidadania Global, Rio Ambiental, and GT Rio da Sociedade Civil rumo a Rio+20, with support from Cidadao Global.

The focus was women and climate justice, and grassroot women participated in a day of workshops and dialogue. However, looming over this gathering was the larger context of the upcoming Rio+20 review conference in June of 2012. The larger significance was not lost on these women, and many gathered from diverse sectors, including NGO’s, neighborhood associations, and women’s groups participated and contributed to the Tribunal. All of the women in attendance agreed that there is a need for continued follow up in order to fully participate in the Rio+20 process and to help coordinate an alternative forum to the official conference process.

For more information on the Women’s tribunal in Brazil, see our Climate Justice blog:

climatejusticetribunals.blogspot.com/2011/10/brazil.html