Pacific Feminist Strategies for Liberation: An Urgent Call to Action

Introduction from the Pacific Feminist Forum:

The 3rd Pacific Feminist Forum took place from 8-10 May 2023 in Pacific Harbour, Fiji. The Forum brought together over 150 feminists in all our diversity from 17 Pacific countries that are part of the Global Majority, and including Australia, New Zealand and other observers. The forum took place against a backdrop of closing civil and organising space for women and girls in all their diversities. There is global and local backlash against human rights and dignity, gender justice and women’s human rights. There are attempts by right-wing and fundamentalist movements working for increased patriarchal control and denial of bodily autonomy. There is a profound shift in the current social, economic, ecological and climate landscape. The situation is dire as economic and non-economic loss and damage rises in the Pacific region and globally, but the political will is not yet enough to make the change we need to protect ourselves, other species and the living Planet. We will work to change this for ourselves and all the generations coming after us.

We are resolute. We, as Pacific feminists, reject coloniality, patriarchy, misogyny, ableism, heteronormativity, fossil-fuel based capitalism and extractive development. We continue to work for liberation, balance and justice on all territories, for all.

We include and are in solidarity with Indigenous peoples of the Oceanic Pacific whose bodies, communities and territories remain sovereign. We call for decoloniality and liberation for all people. We recognise ongoing resistance struggles of Indigenous, Girmitya, Blackbirded, colonised and other people living on occupied land and call for balance, nonviolence and justice, including on our bodies, land, ocean, waterways, global Commons and the Living planet. We stand with all women with disabilities, vulnerable and marginalised groups recognising the significant discrimination and environmental barriers hindering their socio-economic participation.

There is a creative strong feminist movement ever-rising in the Pacific and globally, so our convening could not be more timely. We are together, strong and strategic in our proposals. This document prioritises strategies, as we have already raised core Pacific feminist concerns in 2016 and 2019.

The third Pacific Feminist Forum builds upon the first and second Pacific Feminist Forum Outcomes and ongoing movement building across diverse feminist spaces since 2016. The inaugural Pacific Feminist Forum convened over 100 Pacific Feminists where we created the Charter of Pacific Feminist Principles for Pacific Feminists as an endorsed, common set of collective principles to guide feminist organising and movement building. The Charter is a living document intended to guide our analysis and practice and to be clear on our non-negotiables as a feminist movement.