Email
PrintGender and basic rights
Sitabai, a ragpicker in Nashik, India, is part of a team which now officially collects waste from people's homes. Along with our partner LVSS, we have organised the ragpickers and provided support such as identity cards, access to health care, ration cards and training. Photo: Martin Wurt/OxfamAUS
The right to identity
Oxfam Australia is committed to working for the rights of women, Indigenous peoples and cultural minorities. The issue of identity is a crucial one, particularly for Indigenous peoples, for whom denial of their culture, lands, language and world view has been an integral part of the violence of colonisation. Many of our programs with Indigenous peoples and other marginalised groups focus on cultural reclamation and self-determination – people's right to determine their own development - as well as the right to equal rights and status.
The right to identity also covers the issue of gender. Women in many societies are oppressed and marginalised in specific ways because of their gender. We work to balance gender and cultural sensitivities, and to support people's fundamental rights in both areas. However, we believe that culture cannot be used as a reason to deny women their basic rights. We believe the best way to tackle this often thorny issue is by empowering women in communities to make and articulate their own needs and goals.