By Keesa Ocampo
A global movement to protect the rights of women and girls is impacting the way the world thinks about, creates, and interprets human rights laws because of the work of Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights. Photo courtesy of SAHR/Sara Bergamaschi; graphic design by Lavinia Liclican, SAHR communication volunteer.
A frontline team of human rights defenders around the world is led by women and they’re shifting the existing legal narrative on sexual violence by changing the way laws are made, interpreted, and used. Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights (SAHR) founder Natasha Latiff first visited Afghanistan at 17, returning annually for the next decade as she worked with Afghan activists, providing legal training and counsel, defending the rights of women who were beaten, tortured, and raped. In 2008, she founded the organization at the age of 21 with a goal to promote gender-equal legal arguments for women’s rights issues and cases in Afghanistan within the country’s Islamic legal framework. At a young age, her life seemed to be the plot of blockbuster films as she would travel covertly and take cases undercover. She’s taken on powerful warlords, business magnates and politicians and has taken battered women under her wings.
In 2011, Natasha met Italian-born human rights advocate Sara Bergamaschi in Egypt and amidst a three-month lockdown from a coup d’etat, they decided to work together to take SAHR to the next level. Through that partnership, SAHR has grown to have team members, volunteers, partners and advisors throughout the world. Natasha remains as SAHR's driving force, mentoring Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) intervening in cases of sexual violence in under-served and under-represented communities globally. From San Francisco to Belgium, Sara co-leads the scaling up of the organization as it embraces principles of good governance combining sound financial stewardship, ethical partnerships and sustainable growth.
Sexual violence was once viewed as a natural occurrence and in some cultures, a ‘normal’ part of interaction. But over the years, humanity stepped into an era where the understanding and appreciation of women’s role in society and their sexuality has been redefined. “New language was created to redefine sexual violence as an outcome of unequal power dynamics, coercion and control, influencing the language of laws, policies, practices for years to come,” shares Natasha Latiff, Founder and Legal Director of SAHR. The age of digital activism further strengthened the movement as the exchange of information happened quickly, beyond borders.
SAHR brought a method to the developing transformation of ideas around sexual violence. Through the creation of specialized “Working Groups,” over 100 student activists and young professionals from 12 countries helped create a methodology to extract knowledge and create new knowledge rooted in a variety of disciplines such as law, psychology, anthropology, religion and activism, to shift the socio-legal and political narrative around women’s rights and sexual violence.
SAHR’s vision is to the way the laws are made and interpreted, building more protection for women’s rights around the world. Photo courtesy of Sara Bergamaschi.
“SAHR’s analysis of women’s rights in Muslim family and criminal law for example, uncovered intellectual treasures that were buried in case law archives and the words of classical scholars long dead,” shared Latiff. “By uncovering these treasures, activists could access classical and contemporary interpretations of Islamic law for their work. We made complex legal concepts accessible to the everyday activist and easily replicable.”
Natasha then went on to apply the same methodology to support a small group of influencing Women Human Rights Defenders in Afghanistan to repeal discriminatory laws and enact gender-competent legislation. They went on to debunk the belief that Islamic law required rape victims to prove their rape with 4 witnesses; repeal the “defense of honour” which excused men from murder, strengthen witness protection as a means to gender justice and prohibit virginity testing. Variations of those ideas were eventually adopted into Afghan law over the last decade.
These brave new lenses have reshaped the way laws have been made and interpreted in countries where women have often had no recourse, where their rights were mostly theoretical and negotiable. "Lawyers and provincial judges have engaged with me positively in spite of differing and sometimes irreconcilable views,” said Latiff. “Some have even conceded to our views on human rights, expressing much to our delight that we had altered theirs. We know that it is through collaborative lawyering and measured confrontation that half the battle is won.”
The impact from this has been felt greatly, becoming even more clear that the methodology worked. In 2012, when news broke of a growing number of women who ran away from home including victims of rape were being prosecuted and imprisoned for “moral crimes” in Afghanistan, Natasha supported the draft of model defense statements for Afghan lawyers to use in court in 2012 and 2014, presenting them in a way that was compatible with Islamic law. They were instantly usable, adaptable and replicable, meeting the sensibility of a Shariah Court judge. Within 6 months, 19 women including rape victims who charged with “moral crimes” were released or had their sentence reduced.
SAHR began to raise funds in 2019 to move itself from being volunteer-driven to a sustainable US 501(c)3 nonprofit. That year, they launched a flagship workshop on tactical approaches to combatting sexual violence, giving WHRDs a glimpse of how the best lawyers have argued cases of sexual violence, debunking rape stereotypes and applying a gender lens to the concept of reparations.
Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights (SAHR) launched at least three key pillar programs since 2019, creating pathways for tactical ways to address sexual violence against women, funded through their 501(c)3 nonprofit. Photo courtesy of Sara Bergamaschi.
In the same year, they also launched their first fellowship program and supported Yasmine Bjornum, a young human rights defender from Vanuatu, fighting for justice for survivors of rape and sexual assault by a serial sex offender. Stuck “under investigation” for four years, the case was revived through their collective efforts within one year.
SAHR also set up a communications team to pilot the use of new media and social media platforms to disseminate new ideas. Their simulation of a rape trial cross-examination for a TEDx event in Italy received a standing ovation by 1,500 attendees. They also piloted a multilingual #BecomingSAHR Instagram Live Series on feminism, gender justice and human rights, viewed by 2,011 people and shared 102 times within 6 months, indicating the value of content creation on social media and the absolute need for SAHR to reach more WHRDs at multiple online and offline touchpoints.
One of their highest performing posts added value to the conversation by connecting rape and capitalism. “All too often in rape trials concerning powerful individuals, judges and defense lawyers isolate the rape or crime of sexual assault from the offender’s character, as though the rape was them acting out of character,” states Latiff. “They point to the offender’s profession, wealth or philanthropic past. This demonstrates how capitalism determines how we view an offender, suggesting that a crime committed by someone in a position of power is not as condemnable as the same crime committed by, say, a homeless drug addict. In no circumstance is rape acceptable or justifiable.”
Violence against women and girls affects 1 in 3 women and people from the LGBTQIA+ communities globally, and it continues to be one of the most pressing human rights issue of our time, deemed “devastatingly pervasive” by the World Health Organization.
Unfortunately, many victims and survivors have no recourse in their countries, and the international community lacks the guidance and comprehensive tools necessary to hold perpetrators accountable, while discriminatory laws, policies, practice and social norms continue to excuse the crimes and violations.
"We believe in building a resourceful movement for human rights defenders working on cases of sexual violence so that they can thrive doing the work that so really matters,” says Latiff.
Despite the life-changing and course-correcting work that many nonprofit organizations like SAHR are impacting globally, contributions to women’s issues and causes still receive a very low percentage of overall charitable giving. In fact, women’s organizations received $7.1B in charitable giving in 2017, accounting for a mere 1.6% of overall giving, according to The NonProfit Times. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and the tremendous decline in jobs and resources for women, several organizations have taken matters into their own hands, committing to provide more support and “build back better.” One such organization is U.N. Women and their feminist plan - a visionary but practical roadmap for putting gender equality, social justice, and sustainability at the center of the recovery and transformation from the pandemic.
The fight for women’s rights globally sees young women at its frontline. Natasha Latiff (right), dubbed the “Amal Clooney of Singapore,” founded Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights in 2008 at the age of 21. In this photo, she works with SAHR’s first fellow Yasmine Bjornum (left) -- Rabat, Morocco, October 2019. Photo courtesy of Sara Bergamaschi.
For the team at SAHR, the vision is simple: a life free of sexual violence that will ultimately lead to the right to safe and secure education, dignified employment, access to recreational and extra-curricular development, freedom of movement, freedom to participate meaningfully in civil and political activities.
They continue to welcome WHRDs through an annual fellowship. Through this program and its mission to create intervention paths to end sexual violence, they’re able to take on cases involving survivors from under-served communities who are rendered vulnerable by intersecting inequalities - including survivors living with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ persons, Afro-descendants, Indigenous persons, ethnic, religious and caste minorities, migrants, and those living in urban slum areas, rural areas, refugee camps, occupied territories and in conflict-affected settings. 2021 Fellows are five brave WHRDs from Argentina, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan.
“SAHR’s clients actually have two fights: one is their personal fight for justice and the other is against indifference,” states Latiff. “And, with unlikely wins for every case that gets turned around, SAHR offers specialist knowledge on strategies and tools that can lead to winning solutions. On a macro level, the lessons from each case are also translated into advocacy and awareness-raising interventions designed to challenge and change policies and practices.”
Natasha’s human rights work has been recognized by former United States President Clinton and United Kingdom Attorney General Dominic Grieve. Natasha was also recognised as a Human Rights Defender in 2016 by the Geneva-based organisation International Service for Human Rights, and named a change-maker in Thomson Reuters Foundation’s Trust Conference in the same year. To learn more about SAHR and how to participate in the fight to end sexual violence against women and girls, visit www.sa-hr.org.
Keesa Ocampo is an Emmy-award winning television writer, producer and director. CEO and founder of her brand and creative agency, WeSparq, she serves as chief creative consultant to Seismic Sisters.