From domination to care. Recognising and combating the common root of gender violence and environmental degradation

In the recent years research has highlighted the link between climate change and gender-based violence. The impact is so significant that the Committee on the Elimination of Violence against Women first introduced the issue in Recommendation No. 35/2017, and then specifically addressed it in Recommendation No. 37/2018. The phenomenon is fuelling the increase in migration flows, in which the female component is preponderant. These data seem to confirm the ecofeminist thesis (since its origin to the latter philosophical development) that there is a link between violence against women and violence against nature; male domination over women, nature, animals rests on the same paradigm of exploitation, abuse and subjugation of the other. If we share this assumption, then a rights approach is not enough to address the problem, but rather a redefinition of relations among living beings is needed, based on a critique of capitalism, a claim for environmental justice and an ethics of care.