This essay analyses the contemporary activism of women's organisations of Nicaragua's North Atlantic Coast autonomous region. Its thesis is that the struggle against gender violence has enabled local women to develop a common agenda over and above whatever ideological–political differences and ethnic–racial hierarchies divide them. It argues that the role of Coast women activists has been central to articulating, in a reflexive way, a position as indigenous, Mestizo and Afro‐descendent women in order to adapt a human rights approach to the regional political–cultural context, and to use it effectively to achieve a life free of violence.