By Farah Milhar, media officer, Minority Rights Group International

Defending human rights is a risky business, but for women on the job the threat is much greater. In every country, amid the deepest crisis - be it in eastern Congo or Sri Lanka - women human rights activists are at the forefront, challenging governments, military forces, militants, community leaders and men in their societies.

At the Hague, Netherlands, late last week Dutch funding agency CORDAID and Justitia et Pax brought together some 30 women rights defenders from across the world to share experience and generate solidarity for their groundbreaking work.

The women were from diverse backgrounds and struggling for a range of issues including extra-judicial killings, evictions, torture, sexual violence, female genital mutilation and domestic violence. Many were from ethnic and religious minorities and indigenous communities, meaning they face multiple levels of discrimination.

"People see you as the enemy. I had to stop going to my parent's house because it was too dangerous for them," said a pastoralist woman from an east African country. Together with other women in her community, this activist - whose name has been ommitted for her safety - has challenged attempts by her government to forcibly take away their land to build a tourist resort.

The price she paid was severe. A member of her family was killed, she has been questioned and interrogated several times by the police, and she has been forced to cut ties with her parents out of fear of their security.

She explained how, when human rights violations occur, women are uniquely affected. "When land is taken away, the men can go to the towns and find work. Women can't. They don't have the education and it is not in our culture," she said. "They have to find a way to live, to bring up the children and so they fight to keep the land."

Many of the women's stories emphasised the particular way women are affected. "We must recognise how rape is used as a weapon in war," said a Colombian activist who works with women victims of rape and sexual attack.

Men do not take up these cases, and women find enormous difficulties dealing with them because the victims they work with are stigmatised, traumatised and afraid to make public complaints.

When they do, and the perpetrators are exposed, it puts the victims and their defenders under severe threat with little or no protection from the state or their societies.

Like their male colleagues, women rights defenders face personal threats to life and security in the line of duty, but they are also specifically targeted because they are women.

They too, like the victims they work with, are vulnerable to sexual attacks, assaults and rape. For women, torture often means sexual torture and rape.

Sometimes they have to cut contact with their families and their children are taken away. They are personally attacked and stigmatised by community leaders.

"They ridicule my husband, asking him why your wife talks about her private parts in public," said one activist who challenges female genital mutilation in Africa. Her work is both traumatic and risky, as she challenges male community and religious leaders, arguing that the practice violates human rights and has no religious precedent as is believed in parts of Africa.

The gathering at the Hague was rare on two counts. Firstly, women do not often get such an opportunity to share their experience and show solidarity to one anothers' struggle. Secondly, it was unusual because support and recognition at the international level for women human rights defenders is limited.

Because of the nature of their work, these women are not just under threat and targeted by governments and state officials, but they can also become unpopular with leaders and the men in their communities.

Quite often they become lone fighters, isolated and working in dangerous circumstances. International awareness and support is often crucial for their very survival.

The names and nationalities of quoted activists have been left out of this article for their security.

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