ONLINE WEBINARS, TRAININGS &
NETWORK-WIDE ORGANIZING CALLS
To build a foundation for deep systemic change, which is necessary at this moment to care for our communities and the Earth, it is vital to uplift and amplify women's unique leadership, Indigenous cultural and ecological knowledge, as well as the deep political analysis of all historically marginalized frontline communities and justice movements, while we continue to challenge corporate power.
To live in a healthy and just world, we must fundamentally change how we respect and interact with the Earth and each other. Through WECAN Webinars and Trainings we are lifting up the leadership, solutions, struggles, and analysis of women in all of their diversity to shape a new world, and dismantle and transform the detrimental, institutionalized systems of patriarchy, colonization, racism, and capitalism that lie at the root of our perilous predicament.
We offer opportunities to participate in immediate solutions and actions, deepen political analysis, learn from and uplift frontline women's leadership, gain understanding of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, exchange movement information, and address the climate crisis through a feminist lens. We cover a variety of topics, campaigns, and advocacy issues including forest and biodiversity protection, Indigenous rights, fossil fuel resistance, divestment and a just transition, feminist economics, protection of women land defenders, rights of nature, stopping false solutions, water and ocean protection, and much more.
In addition to hosting individual webinars, network calls, and trainings throughout the year, WECAN also coordinates and hosts virtual assemblies and forums that bring together grassroots, Indigenous, Black, Brown, and frontline women and gender diverse leaders, global advocates, and policy-makers. We join together in solidarity to speak out against environmental and social injustice, draw attention to root causes of multiple interlocking crises, and present the diverse array of visions, projects, policy frameworks and strategies with which they are working to shape a healthy and equitable world.
As part of our ongoing webinars and online trainings, WECAN hosts multi-day forums and assemblies on a diversity of topics.
In 2023, WECAN hosted the WECAN Climate Justice Forum, during Climate week, which included virtual and in-person events highlighting advocacy, analysis and solutions to end the era of fossil fuels, and build a healthy and just future.
In 2022, we hosted a three-day climate justice forum, “Facing the Climate Emergency on the Road to COP27: Solutions and Perspectives from Global Women and Gender Diverse Leaders“ with virtual and in-person events held in parallel to the UN General Assembly. Links and further information about these forums and more can be found below.
In 2021, we hosted the “Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Solutions from the Frontlines and the Protection and Defense of Human Rights and Nature,” a six day virtual event that brought together over 100+ speakers from over 40 countries across 20 unique panels.
We are at a turning point, and it is now more than ever that we must strengthen our commitment to the vision and world we seek — together. All are welcome, please join us! In case you miss live webinars, all are recorded and links to view are below.
Please direct any and all questions to: katherine@wecaninternational.org
Check back for more online events, coming soon!
Please find past recordings, descriptions, and speaker details for
WECAN's recent online events and webinars down below!
Indigenous Youth Leading Solutions for Climate Justice,
Indigenous Youth Leading Solutions for Climate Justice, 2024
During this virtual event at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), Indigenous youth leaders from around the world gathered to share their strategies and solutions for addressing fossil fuel extraction, deforestation and the climate crisis. Drawing upon Indigenous knowledge, panelists discussed efforts to defend Indigenous rights, champion self-determination, and promote climate justice to forge a path toward a healthy and just climate future.
International Women's Day: Calls for Action to End the
Era of Fossil Fuels and Accelerate a Just Transition
Calls for Action to End the Era of Fossil Fuels and Accelerate a Just Transition, 2024
During the convergence on International Women's Day, we brought together global women leaders in all their diversity to share the many ways they are working and strategizing to build the solutions needed for an equitable and Just Transition— including food sovereignty, gender responsive climate policies, regenerative economics, forest protection, Indigenous rights, rights of nature, demilitarism, phasing out fossil fuels, and much more.
Global Voices and Women-Led Calls to Action
in Response to COP28
Global Voices and Women-Led Calls to Action in Response to COP28, 2023
Throughout this wide ranging conversation, we heard from women on the ground at COP28 reporting out on negotiations, sharing highlights, report releases, calls to action, and demands from women globally.
A recording of this webinar is
available via the buttons below.
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Transforming Global Economies for People,
Planet, and a Just Transition
Transforming Global Economies for People, Planet, and a Just Transition, 2023
During this event, global women leaders spotlighted alternative economic models, solutions, and frameworks that are predicated on community-led solutions, feminist economics, Indigenous knowledge, and ancient concepts of reciprocity with the Earth and all living beings. Topics include land rematriation and Land Back, care economy, post-growth, Buen Vivir, and much more.
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Indigenous Women Upholding Indigenous Rights
and Knowledge, and Leading Climate Solutions
Indigenous Women Upholding Indigenous Rights and Knowledge, and Leading Climate Solutions, 2023
During this UNPFII side event we hear from global Indigenous women leaders on the impacts of fossil fuels, deforestation, and the climate crisis in their communities and how they are implementing solutions, practicing traditional knowledge systems, upholding Indigenous rights, and advancing policies and practices of care and climate justice.
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Indigenous Women from North America Defending Biodiversity, Human Rights, and our Global Climate
Indigenous Women from North America Defending Biodiversity, Human Rights, and our Global Climate, 2023
During this virtual event held in parallel to the UNPFII, Indigenous women leaders addressed a variety of topics, highlighting how Indigenous women are leading efforts to uphold Indigenous rights and sovereignty, including the right of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) with the aim of advocating to global governments and financial institutions that respecting Indigenous knowledge, ways of life, and FPIC, and the right to say “no” to continued extraction, is paramount to addressing the global climate and environmental crises. Speakers also presented solutions grounded in Indigenous knowledge and expertise for protecting and defending communities and Mother Earth.
Uplifting Women Human Rights Defenders
and Advancing the Escazu Agreement
Uplifting Women Human Rights Defenders and Advancing the Escazu Agreement, 2023
During this virtual event, women environmental and human rights defenders, policy makers, and feminist advocates highlighted the challenges women in all of their diversity face in securing human and Indigenous rights, gaining access to information, public participation, access to justice and protecting land, territories and communities in the context of implications and opportunities women have as part of the Escazú Agreement. This was a formal side event of the Escazu COP2 in 2023.
Women for Climate Justice Leading Protection of Water
Women for Climate Justice Leading Protection of Water, 2023
During this event we heard from grassroots women leaders, water protectors, and international policy experts, who addressed the impacts of climate change and destructive projects on global water, and shared ongoing solutions and strategies for the protection of oceans, freshwater, rivers, and aquatic ecosystems based in a climate justice framework.
This is a formal side event of the UN Water Conference happening right now in New York City. In addition to the event, WECAN is submitting a commitment and releasing a Call to Action urging governments to increase and improve their ambition to protect global water sources by enacting a rights-based approach and ensuring women’s leadership in decision- making spaces. Read and share the call to action here.
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A recording of this webinar is available via the buttons below.
Speakers included: Great-Grandmother Mary Lyons | Band of Ojibwe, Ojibwe Elder, Women of Wellbriety, International, United Nations Observer on Women/Indigenous Issues, Turtle Island/USA; Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner | Poet, Director for Marshallese youth nonprofit Jo-Jikum, and Climate Envoy, Marshall Islands; Alexandra Narvaez (Cofán) | Indigenous rights & Land Defender, Goldman Prize Winner, Ecuador; Maude Barlow | Founding Member of the Council of Canadians, Co-Founder, the Blue Planet Project, Canada; Aurora Conley | Bad River Ojibwe, Anishinaabe Environmental Protection Alliance, Turtle Island/USA; Vasser Seydel | President at The Oxygen Project, USA; Moderation and Comments by Osprey Orielle Lake | Executive Director, Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN).
WECAN Climate Justice Forum
Facing the Climate Emergency on the Road to COP27: Solutions and Perspectives from Global Women and Gender Diverse Leaders
From September 19 - 24, 2022, the WECAN team was on the ground in New York City for Climate Week and the UN General Assembly to host "Facing the Climate Emergency on the Road to COP27: Solutions and Perspectives from Global Women and Gender Diverse Leaders," a three-day Climate Justice Forum, bringing together women and gender-diverse leaders in solidarity to speak out against environmental and social injustice, draw attention to root causes of multiple interlocking crises, and present the diverse array of visions, projects, policy frameworks and strategies with which they are working to shape a healthy and just world.
See below for recordings and resources from the Forum. Find recordings and information for all forum events below.
September 20: African Feminist Perspectives on COP27 and Beyond
During this event we heard from women leaders from Africa sharing struggles, analysis, solutions and successful on the ground projects for climate justice. Recording available below:
September 21: Women for Climate Justice: Solutions and Calls to Action on the Road to COP27
During this in-person event at Climate Week, grassroots, Indigenous, Black, Brown, and frontline women and gender diverse leaders, global advocates, and policy-makers shared perspectives and analysis on the climate crisis and COP27 and how we can confront deepening interlocking crises and accelerate a path forward, advancing just and resilient community-led solutions.
To open the event, Thilmeeza Hussain, Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Ambassador to the United States from the Maldives and WECAN Executive Director Osprey Orielle Lake, had an intimate conversation discussing climate policy and the climate impacts on Island Nations. Watch the conversation between Thilmeeza Hussain and Osprey Orielle Lake here.
Recordings of the event available below:
September 21: Women Land Defenders on the Frontlines of Biodiversity Protection and Climate Action
During this event held in-person at Climate Week, Indigenous and frontline leaders, and global advocates highlighted the challenges women face as land defenders. They also addressed securing human and Indigenous rights and how women are working to protect the global climate and diverse ecosystems in challenging political and economic contexts. Recordings of the event are available below:
September 22: Women Leading Fossil Fuel Divestment and Resistance
During this virtual event at Climate Week, frontline women and global leaders shared critical strategies for national and international divestment from harmful extractive industries, while calling for justice and accountability from financial institutions. Recordings available below:
Women Leading Efforts to Uphold Indigenous Rights, Sovereignty, and Due Diligence with Financial Institutions and Corporations
Women Leading Efforts to Uphold Indigenous Rights, Sovereignty, and Due Diligence with Financial Institutions and Corporations, April 27, 2022
During the event, Indigenous women leaders and global advocates discussed how financial institutions and corporations perpetuate human and Indigenous rights violations in relation to extractive and other industries and the necessary steps these institutions must take to stop these egregious activities— and instead, implement FPIC, Indigenous rights and due diligence, while also investing in solutions within a climate justice framework centering Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
Additionally, given the severity of the climate crisis and existential threat to all of humanity, it is important to highlight that 80% of biodiversity remaining on Earth is in Indigenous lands and territories. Respecting Indigenous knowledge, ways of life, and FPIC, and the right to say “no” to continued extraction, is thus paramount to the discussion. This was a formal side-event of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2022.
Speakers included: Michelle Cook (Dine’/Navajo), Human rights lawyer and founder of Divest Invest Protect and Indigenous Human Rights Defenders and Corporate Accountability Program; Summer Blaze Aubrey (Citizen of the Cherokee Nation and a Descendant of the Blackfeet Nation), Law Fellow, Indigenous Human Rights Defenders & Corporate Accountability Program and Staff Attorney for the International Indian Treaty Council; Leila Salazar-Lopez, Executive Director of Amazon Watch; Sônia Guajajara (Guajajara), Executive Coordinator for Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (APIB); Casey Camp-Horinek (Ponca Nation), Ponca Environmental Ambassador and WECAN Board Member; Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN); and Special Guests Maria Violet Medina Quiscue (Nasa), Autoridades Indigenas en Bakata, Colombia with Xiomara Chingate.
Building Systemic Change:
Frontline Women-Led Solutions for Climate Justice
Building Systemic Change: Frontline Women-Led Solutions for Climate Justice, 2022
During this event Indigenous, Black, Brown, and frontline women leaders and global advocates addressed multiple interlocking crises, and presented a diverse array of visions, projects, policy frameworks and strategies based in a climate justice framework, including forest and biodiversity protection, Indigenous rights, food sovereignty, protection of women land defenders, and community-led solutions. This was formal side event hosted as part of the sixty-sixth session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66).
A recording of this webinar is available via the buttons below.
Global Women's Assembly for Climate Justice:
Solutions from the Frontlines and the Protection and Defense of Human Rights and Nature
During the Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice, grassroots, Indigenous, Black, Brown, and frontline women leaders, global advocates, and policy-makers will join together in solidarity to speak out against environmental and social injustice, draw attention to root causes of multiple interlocking crises, and present the diverse array of visions, projects, policy frameworks and strategies with which they are working to shape a healthy and equitable world. The Assembly was held during the UN General Assembly from September 25-30, 2021, and was an inclusive space across identities and the gender spectrum.
The assembly brought together over 100+ speakers across 20 diverse panels.
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Assembly topics included the intersectionality of gender, racial and environmental justice; Indigenous rights and resistance efforts; the just transition to renewable, regenerative energy; feminist global policy; women and forest protection and regeneration; fossil fuel resistance campaigns; agro-ecology/farming/soils; environmental racism; feminist care economics and policy agendas; rights of nature; challenging corporate power; and women and feminist leadership across all sectors.
Structuring an Economy for People and the Planet
in the Time of Climate Crisis & COVID-19
2020 - Structuring an Economy for People and Planet in the Time of Climate Crisis & COVID-19
During the webinar, women and feminists from different regions of the world will unite to discuss alternative economies that counteract extractive economic systems, colonization, racism, and patriarchy— and instead uplift women’s labor, center Indigenous knowledge, and prioritize people and planet. There could not be a more important time to ensure we do not go back to business as usual.
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the severe cracks in our global economic system. Rooted in neo-liberal capitalism, the current economic system is set to continue to rapaciously extract resources from the Earth and drive the dual crises of climate chaos and pandemics, while exploiting the labor of people worldwide to line the pockets of wealthy CEOs, fossil fuel companies and other large corporations.
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A recording of this webinar is available via the buttons below.
As we see disaster capitalism play out in real time, we must disrupt the system and call for a regenerative, rights-based economy that prioritizes communities and nature. What is needed now is an investment in alternative economic models predicated on community-led solutions, Indigenous knowledge, and ancient concepts of reciprocity with the Earth and all living beings. Already there are Indigenous economies to learn from and an emergence of socially just, place-based, caring economic models that are structuring a path forward.
Speakers include: Melina Laboucan-Massimo (Lubicon Cree First Nation), Campaign Director, Indigenous Climate Action; Ruth Nyambura, Kenyan Activist with African Ecofeminist Collective; Dr. Julia Kim, Program Director, Gross National Happiness (GNH) Centre Bhutan; Cindy Wiesner, Executive Director, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance; Ellen Brown, Attorney and Founder of the Public Banking Institute; Rauna Kuokkanen (Sápmi) Research Professor of Arctic Indigenous Studies at the University of Lapland, Finland; Comments and moderation by Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). Full bios are available here.
Global women leaders strategize together - Photo via Lori Waselchuk
Resources & Blogs From Past Online Trainings
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Global Voices and Women-Led Calls to Action in Response to COP27 (2022)
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Women Leading Solutions for a Healthy and Just Planet, Stockholm+50 Event (2022)
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Womxn Act for Climate Justice: International Women's Day Online Event (2021)
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Ratifying the Escazú Agreement: Women for Human Rights and the Defense of Nature (2020)
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Indigenous Rights and Women's Leadership are Central to Divestment Strategies (2020)
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Caring For Our Communities: Covid -19, Our Health, Climate, and Systemic Change (2020)
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Indigenous Women on the Frontlines of Fossil Fuel Resistance (2019)
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Indigenous Women on the Frontlines: Report Backs and Calls To Action (2018)
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Rights of Nature: Protecting and Defending the Places We Live(2018)
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Women for Soils: Healthy Soils, Restorative Small-Scale Farming and Carbon Sequestration (2017)
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Bringing Power to the People: Women for 100% Renewable Energy (2016)
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Uplifting Rights of Nature to Protect Our Living Earth (2016)
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Direct Action and Non-Violent Civil Disobedience: Tools for Your Advocacy Work (2016)
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Health and Climate Change: What Is At Stake, What Can Be Done? (2016)
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'We Are All Solar Sisters': Women for 100% Renewable Energy (2015)
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'For Our Children & All Generations: Health & Climate Training Recap Day One' (2015)
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'Health & Climate: Changing the Narrative - Training Recap Day Two' (2015)
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'Resistance & Solutions: Women on the Frontlines Training Recap' (2015)
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'Rights of Nature & Community Rights Training Resources' (2015)