The goal of the meeting, which started on Tuesday and will come to an end on Thursday, is to provide a conceptual framework and plan future work in line with the commitments around gender justice and the dismantling of patriarchy taken on FoEI´s Biennial General Meeting held late 2016 in Indonesia.

Activist Silvia Quiroa, member of the Executive Committee of Friends of the Earth International, a body in charge of politically guiding the federation, among other things, and environmentalist Patrícia Gonçalves, of Friends of the Earth Brazil, both present in Accra, were interviewed by Real World Radio through Celia Alldridge, of the Membership Development Team of FoEI´s International Secretariat, who is also in Accra.

The aim of the interview was to know why the environmental federation, present in nearly 80 countries, created the International Working Group on Gender Justice and Dismantling Patriarchy and the goals of the Accra meeting.

Silvia explained the goals of the Working Group and how it works with reference to the numerous global crises –social, environmental, food, energy, among others-, the unsustainable extractivist model and the oppression against women in the current patriarchal system. The activist, also member of CESTA-Friends of the Earth El Salvador, explained the serious conflicts and contradictions inherent to this system and how FoEI is fostering conditions to dismantle patriarchy based on the realities and initiatives of the different regions as part of their struggle for a system change.

Meanwhile, Patricia explained how the capitalist system and patriarchal oppression are seen in Latin America, where different ways to exploit and expropriate women co-exist, which transform their bodies into objects and destroy their relationship with their territories. She told us about the strong violence against women and the struggle of the feminist movement against patriarchal power, aiming to combat “common sense” that understands that women can be humiliated, attacked and murdered.

Also, Celia Alldridge told us how on Tuesday, on the first day of work in Accra, the participants of the meeting advanced in the building of the conceptual framework of the struggle against patriarchal oppression and built links between the patriarchal system, the economic system, racism and neocolonialism, that are mutually strengthened.

*Interview by Celia Alldridge for Real World Radio