Confronting injustices together

As featured in our 2019 Annual Report Mobilizing for Change

By Sari Tudiver, Chairperson, Inter Pares Board of Directors (2014-2020)

In 2019 Inter Pares continued to work in deeply unsettling local, regional and global contexts. As the world continued to burn, melt and flood, as locusts devoured crops and millions fled violence and poverty, emboldened political leaders further consolidated wealth and power, undermined democratic principles, practices and human rights and tunneled a deep trough of populism. Their strategies included disparaging scientific inquiry and promoting misogynist and other hate-fueled false forms of public discourse, with dire consequences.

But 2019 was also a year of hope in which people created spaces to mobilize, often at great personal risk, to secure democratic and human rights. For example, people took to the streets worldwide in anti-government protests. In April, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan was ousted and civil society organizations, including Inter Pares counterparts, are now working to re-envision and democratize their society. Women’s voices gained further momentum through the #MeToo movement. And many of us marched behind young environmental activists calling for urgent political action to heal our planet.

Our annual report documents measurable achievements and sustainable approaches forged by our counterparts and allies, in Canada and other parts of the world, accompanied by Inter Pares and our supporters. You’ll read about Indigenous women seeking justice for forced sterilizations; women farmers working to mitigate climate change; Bangladeshi girls and boys addressing child marriage and harassment; celebrating activism in Canada to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights, and more.

As a Board member and Chairperson, I am privileged to meet many Inter Pares long-term counterparts and gain insights into complex struggles to confront injustices. I have learned such struggles do not follow a linear trajectory towards greater equality and democratization, but rather gains are fragile and must be renewed to address the present historical moment. As I reflect on how communities mobilized for change in 2019, I am hugely confident Inter Pares and our counterparts have the strength and tenacity to continue to globalize equality.