G20 Women’s Forum Accused of Excluding Indigenous Indonesians
Indigenous and women’s rights groups in Indonesia are protesting against the G20’s headline event for gender equality over the alleged exclusion of local voices and failure to address key women’s issues in North Sumatra.
Activists gathered at the site of the W20 Summit in Lake Toba, North Sumatra on Wednesday to call attention to deforestation and other issues they say have been neglected by the event taking place from 19-21 July.
“I think the W20 narrative is ironic when their theme is ‘recover together’ equally, but they didn’t even include any agenda related to the challenges of the women of Lake Toba, especially regarding land grabbing and customary forests,” Sekar Banjaran Aji, a campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia, told Al Jazeera.
“Toba women are not involved in the talks in an inclusive manner, so how can they recover together equally? The forum focused on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), while women are dying trying to defend their customary land, something which is apparently not considered a problem for the W20.”
Photo courtesy of Tim Cronin/CIFOR.
Source: Al Jazeera (link opens in a new window)
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