Despite
the hype surrounding the recent Asean Summit in Bali, a women's caucus in the
region said it saw no signs of Asean advancing women's rights and gender
equality.
The Southeast Asian Women's Caucus is urging
the regional group to include some points reiterating women's rights in the
Asean Declaration of Human Rights, which is currently being drafted.
The caucus, a network of 60 nongovernmental
organizations from the 10 Asean member states plus Timor Leste, formally
submitted its input to the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights
to ensure the declaration would incorporate issues on equality and
nondiscrimination, freedom from violence, sexual and reproductive health rights
and work standards in local and overseas employment.
Rena Herdiyani from Kalyanamitra, an
Indonesian NGO focusing on women's issues, said the caucus was keeping a close
eye on the drafting of the declaration; and that it recently held a meeting
after the Asean Summit to formulate several points to be submitted to the human
rights commission.
"Women's rights are not up for further
negotiation. Asean must acknowledge our inherent rights, as affirmed in the
Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW) and other international human rights instruments."
At the recent Asean Summit, caucus members
said they were alarmed at Asean's support for Myanmar a country where cases of
women's rights violations are mounting, to become Asean chair in 2014.
Moreover, there are qualms over the space
afforded to civil society in Cambodia, which is due to assume the chairmanship
of Asean next year. "Although there has been some progress during
Indonesia's chairmanship this year, such as Asean being more transparent with
civil society, there remain concerns as Indonesia ends its term and passes the
baton to the next chair," Rena said.
"Asean has yet to show it's serious about
guaranteeing women's rights, especially concerning violence against women,
cases of which routinely occur in Asean countries. The [regional] grouping puts
more attention on political and security issues rather than women's
issues," she added.
As the declaration will be finalized by the
human rights commission in December, and will be deliberated and adopted under
Cambodia's leadership next year, the caucus is calling for open and safe space
for civil society.
"We are not just feminists and activists,
we are stakeholders of Asean. We have to critically engage with the
process," said Kunthea Chan from the Cambodian women's organization,
Silaka.
On the issue of Myanmar, the country's Women's
League said there were at least 81 cases of rape committed this year.
The Myanmarese army's widespread attacks
against civilian communities, especially women, were an egregious violation of
international law, and they blatantly showed the lack of the rule of law in
Myanmar, the league announced in a statement.
"The security of women is not a minor
issue but a major problem, which should be addressed before a nation can
progress."
The women's caucus, meanwhile, hopes that
Myanmar will improve its efforts toward eliminating violations of women's
rights before the country assumes the Asean leadership post in 2014.
Desy Nurhayati in Denpasar/The Jakarta Post |
ANN
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