Charter of Principles for Gender Equality

Terra de Direitos recognizes that part of human rights defence involves fighting all kinds of violence and discrimination and thus affirms the need to break away from the patriarchal system that structures our social relations in an unequal manner in order to build a truly free and equalitarian society.

Machismo pervades everyday practices and behaviours that accentuate power disparities, discriminatory cultural norms and various other forms of inequality that deny the fundamental rights of women.

In face of the urgent need to promote responsible reflection on this issue with all people committed to building a society free from oppression, Terra de Direitos affirms its commitment to gender equality, considering it to be essential to exercising truly transforming public interest legal aid.

Terra de Direitos therefore affirms that it:

• does not condone any form of disrespect or violence against women, whether it be physical or symbolical, at any level of our operations, including in the private sphere of relationships;
• fosters the building of debates about gender, internally, in partner organizations and in all other spaces in society;
• will prioritize capacity-building processes for/with women in the spaces we build, encouraging the use of methods that are adequate for the diverse social and cultural realities that enable women’s inclusion in processes of political construction and claiming of rights;
• reaffirms the importance of women’s participation in the political construction of events and activities, making evident the contradiction found in some spaces, when necessary, including inviting women to take part just to fulfil “quotas”;
• is committed to combating all forms of everyday oppression experienced by women, including the diverse types of harassment and violence suffered by women, whether or not they are members of the organization’s team;
• is committed to instituting a security protocol to ensure the participation of women team members and partners in diverse situations, where they may be in situations of vulnerability just because they are women.
• is committed to deepening the debate about sexual diversity and gender identity, consolidating the organization’s positions and advancing in the fight against discriminatory aspects deriving from these issues inside and outside of the organization.

Through these principles, Terra de Direitos recognizes and reaffirms the importance of combating machismo in order to build far-reaching and emancipatory social transformation free from all forms of oppression.