Overview

As large-scale development, infrastructure projects, and extractive industries rapidly expand across Southeast Asia, Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) find themselves on the frontlines of critical human rights struggles. In safeguarding land, natural resources, and community autonomy, these women face escalating, gendered risks—ranging from forced land displacement and physical threats to modern digital surveillance, online harassment, and targeted tech intimidation.

Despite their pivotal role in community resilience, WHRDs often operate with limited protection, navigating systemic gaps between high-level international policies and their daily realities on the ground. This session explores the lived experiences of WHRDs confronting these multi-layered threats across Southeast Asia, explicitly centering frontline insights from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

By bringing together grassroots activists, national human rights institutions, and regional advocates, the session bridges local resistance with broader regional protection strategies. It examines how corporate-driven development risks manifest in specific national contexts, while evaluating how on-the-ground protection tactics can be translated into practical, community-centered tools.

Ultimately, this session addresses a vital core question: How can localized, community-led protection strategies be scaled into regional frameworks that effectively hold both state and business actors accountable? Through dynamic case reflections, conversational dialogue, and multistakeholder interaction, participants will identify implementation gaps in current Business and Human Rights (BHR) policies and chart actionable pathways to ensure WHRDs are protected in both physical and digital spaces.

Why it matters

Women Human Rights Defenders carry a double burden: confronting corporate land grabs and environmental destruction while navigating gender-based violence, online harassment, and digital surveillance. Standard human rights frameworks frequently overlook these distinct intersectional threats. Protecting WHRDs isn't just about individual safety - it is essential for safeguarding democracy, indigenous lands, and human rights implementation across Southeast Asia.

Key questions

1. Across Southeast Asia, how are large-scale development projects and digital intimidation tactics specifically threatening WHRDs and Indigenous communities?

2. What concrete, gender-responsive protection strategies are communities currently using to keep WHRDs safe, and how can national and regional frameworks better support these grassroots tools rather than relying on top-down policies?

3. Looking at the roles of governments, businesses, NHRIs, and civil society, what is one immediate, actionable step each actor must take to strengthen regional solidarity and bridge the gap between human rights policies and frontline reality?

Who should attend?

NGOs, WHRDs, Companies

What participants will gain

1. Enhanced understanding and actionable strategies among stakeholders regarding the risks faced by WHRDs, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities from large-scale investment projects, paired with strengthened avenues for WHRD public participation and CSO engagement in decision-making processes across Southeast Asia.

2. The production of concrete examples and practical models of gender-responsive and community-centered approaches

3. Strengthening of regional solidarity and networks among WHRDs in Southeast Asia, along with the delivery of actionable recommendations for governments, businesses, NHRIs, and civil society