Dear Community,

Please join WECAN in celebrating International Women's Day and Women's History Month — connect with us this month, and every month, as we uplift and honor women in all their diversity and feminists around the world! Today, we are celebrating and amplifying the many ways women are leading our communities to a healthy and equitable future.

We are also honoring the vital work of women land defenders who are often facing immense risk, criminalization, and persecution as they speak out against environmental destruction and extraction. We also do not turn away from the horrific violence and injustices of women and communities in Gaza and Israel, Ukraine, Sudan, DR Congo, and other regions—our struggles for justice, equity, well-being for people and planet are interlocking. We join global calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a return of all hostages.

This is a critical time to stand with courageous women leaders who are fighting everyday. There is no climate justice without human rights. 

On this International Women’s Day, we find hope in the collective organizing, solidarity, and solutions and campaigns of women, gender-diverse leaders, and feminists rising and organizing for a thriving and just planet for all communities and generations. 

Please join us today as we premiere a new video and bring together global leaders for the virtual WECAN International Women's Day Convergence! More details below. 

International Women’s Day 2024 Convergence:

"Calls for Action to End the Era of Fossil Fuels and Accelerate a Just Transition"

JOIN US TODAY!

Friday March 8, 2024

10:00am PT // 1:00pm ET // 6:00pm GMT

Speakers include:

• Puyr Tembé, Secretary of Indigenous Peoples in Para State, Brazil 

• President Whitney Gravelle (Bay Mills Indian Community), President and Executive Council Bay Mills Indian Community, Chair of the Department of Interior’s Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee and Commissioner on the Michigan Advisory Council on Environmental Justice, Turtle Island/USA

• Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Convenor and International Spokesperson for Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP), Philippines

• Neema Namadamu, Founder and Executive Director of Hero Women Rising, and WECAN Coordinator in the DR Congo

• Tzeporah Berman, Chair, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, Canada

• Ruth Nyambura, African Ecofeminist Collective, Kenya

• Dr. Crystal A Cavalier, Ed.D, MPA (Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation), Co-Founder, 7 Directions of Service, Turtle Island, USA

• Dipti Bhatnagar, World Commission on Fossil Fuel Phase Out, Mozambique

• Dr. Tammy Greer (Houma Nation), Associate Professor and Director, Center for American Indian Research and Studies (CAIRS) at Southern Mississippi, and WECAN OHIH Program Leader, Mississippi, Turtle Island/USA

• Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), USA

Despite commitments stated at COP28 to “transition away from fossil fuels,” governments continue forward with plans to expand fossil fuels globally. With the escalating climate crisis, we are calling on governments, financial institutions, and corporations to immediately phase out fossil fuels. For the first time ever recorded, global temperatures between February 2023 to January 2024 have exceeded temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius over a 12-month period—this is truly alarming, but it can be decreased, yet we must act more boldly than ever now!

As part of an equitable fossil fuel phaseout and Just Transition, there must be significant and transformative policies and investments grounded in a climate justice framework that uplift care economies, community-led solutions, Indigenous rights, human rights, biodiversity protection, and a different vision than business as usual. We are advocating for a vision that ensures climate justice, and compliments thriving and healthy democracies that prioritize the well-being of people and planet above profit.

During this Convergence on International Women's Day, we are bringing together global women leaders in all their diversity to share the many ways they are working and strategizing to build the solutions needed for an equitable and Just Transition— including food sovereignty, gender responsive climate policies, regenerative economics, forest protection, Indigenous rights, rights of nature, demilitarism, phasing out fossil fuels, and much more. The temperature is rising, and so are we!

On International Women's Day we are releasing a new WECAN video that highlights the advocacy of global women leaders fighting to end the era of fossil fuels while advancing a Just Transition and advocating for climate solutions, Indigenous and human rights, rights of nature, and thriving communities and planet. 

Please watch and share below!

Please join Mujeres Amazónicas Defensoras de la Selva to celebrate International Women’s Day!

Today, the Collective of Amazonian Women Defenders of the Jungle (Mujeres Amazónicas Defensoras de la Selva) held a press conference to share their calls to action and how ancestral knowledge provides strategies of resistance against extractivism and hear from the resilient Indigenous women who are leading the charge for environmental and climate justice.

You can watch a recording of the press conference here.

Following the press conference will be a forum to uplift the role of women's active participation in advocacy efforts. The forum and press conference are part of a 10-day event dedicated to raising awareness about the rights and struggles of Indigenous women in Ecuador. 

WECAN is honored to partner with Mujeres Amazónicas for this vital gathering. Please follow along on social media @MujeresAmazonicas or at WECAN to stay updated and for coverage of the various events and activities.

Please consider supporting WECAN as we continue to uplift the leadership and solutions of women worldwide fighting for climate justice and the defense of the planet for current and future generations.