The Hon. Mr. Peter O’Neill
Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
FAX: 675 327 7490; 327 6630
PO Box Parliament House Waigani NCD, PNG

10 May, 2013

Your Excellency

I write to you on behalf of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development (APWLD) to express our alarm over the levels of violence against women in Papua New Guinea. We express solidarity with women’s movements and other social movements in PNG who are bravely demanding change and request that your government work with women’s movement to implement urgently needed legal, political and social reform.

We have been informed about the many attacks on women, some of which have been reported in the media, many of which have not. We note that women human rights defenders and those challenging violence are particularly and we mourn the death of Women Human Rights Defender Mrs Rumbali and Pastor Mathew who was defending women’s rights.

Recent research has revealed that the single most crucial factor in improving policy and practice to end violence against women is the existence of autonomous women’s movements. The practices in PNG are actively discouraging the growth of women’s movements by targeting leaders with violence and threats.

We note that the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women has noted that women, particularly widows or women without family, are disproportionately affected by ‘sorcery’- related violence in PNG.

We urge you and the authorities in PNG to:

1. Support women’s movements to grow and involve them in all policy making decisions relating to violence against women as well as broader development policy in PNG;

2. Provide protection to Women Human Rights Defenders and investigate and prosecute all threats to them;

3. Take urgent action to prevent and punish ‘sorcery’-related violence;

4. Bring all perpetrators to justice, swiftly and justly.;

5. Take urgent action to prevent any further ‘sorcery’-related violence and provide the survivors with support and full access to health and other services;.

6.  Repeal the Sorcery Act immediately and publically condemn all violence and threats of violence.

Yours Sincerely,

Kate Lappin
Regional Coordinator

Letter to PNG Govt

I would like to reiterate our requests to the RIM, which may be summed up to the call for government delegates to be BOLD enough to embrace a transformative development agenda – the agenda that rethinks the concept of growth/ alongside reform of economic governance and within our strained planetary boundaries; the agenda that establishes “economies that work for the people, and not people working for the economy,” also the agenda that tackles the root structural causes of inequality between and within countries, between rich and poor and between men and women.

Concretely, we recommend the following:

1. We call for deep and structural changes in existing global systems of power, resources and decision-making. We need frameworks and institutions that are  democratic, transparent, accountable to all people, particularly the most vulnerable and marginalized. this should be based on internationally agreed human rights standards and obligations, Rio Principles and previous sustainable development commitments.

2. On key priorities for Post 2015 development agenda, we think that the new development framework should guarantee:

• People’s control over resources and sustainable livelihoods, particularly for rural, indigenous peoples. We need to urgently address climate change, the trend of land and ocean grabbing in the region, and place food sovereignty framework at the core of SDGs.
• Ensuring environmental sustainability and animal welfare
• Guarantee decent work and living wages, full employment, universal social protection and social dialogue. Including ensuring policies to protect migrant workers and recognizing domestic work as work.
• Placing peace and security based on justice as highly important and integral element of sustainable development. This includes measures on the elimination of all forms of violence against women.
• Lastly, good governance starts at home with women able to make decisions over their own bodies, sexuality and lives. We need a minimum guarantee that the new development framework ensures sexual and reproductive rights for women and girls, and access to quality and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls

3. On the means of implementation, we call on governments and other stakeholders for:

• using the human rights architecture as its’ basis and prioritize public financing over public-private partnerships in order to realize states obligations to allocate the maximum available resources.
• Transparent and inclusive mechanisms for data collection and analysis for monitoring progress that draw inputs from marginalized groups – including women; Transparency of information, including budgets, Transparent and inclusive decision-making processes and mechanisms at all levels and across thematic themes
• We also call on developed countries to honor their Rio commitments to provide financial resources and transfer technologies to least developed and developing countries.

Excellencies, Distinguished delegates….

We call for special and deliberate attention to the plights of SIDS, LDCs and other vulnerable countries; and for special efforts to ensure the meaningful participation of marginalized and vulnerable groups and stakeholders in policy- and decision-making. We welcome the support for multi-stakeholder processes, but stress that engagement with the private sector must be complemented by accountability.

We also call on governments and ESCAP to recognize the contributions that civil society is making and call for the formalization of our participation in decision-making. We feel the importance for our voices to be acknowledged and to be heard, and to have an equal partnership with governments in the decision-making on national, regional and global forum.

That is what we believe as genuine and meaningful regional and global partnership.

There can be no sustainable development without full, meaningful and effective participation of civil society and people’s movements. Thank you.

Thank you Chair and member states delegations.My name is Teresita Vistro representing Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development. I’m speaking today on behalf of the Women’s Major Group.

The Asia and Pacific region faces some major challenges to achieving sustainable development. In order to address these challenges, there is an urgent need for clarity on the practices of maldevelopment that must be discontinued in our region, and on transformative development alternatives that will instead positively impact on the lives of people in Asia-Pacific, including women and girls.

We affirm the statements of those governments here, that emphasize the centrality of human rights and gender equality in sustainable development and the Post 2015 development agenda. We also strongly call for more explicit mention of gender equality and women’s rights in all national and regional statements, government policies and programmes as we move into these global Open Working Group process, and High Level Political Forum deliberations.

Further, the Women’s Major Group demand increased government, UNESCAP and civil society attention to escalating cases of land and ocean grabbing in the region. We further call for strongest attention to the impacts of global warming, climate change, ocean acidification in the region, and globally.

Moreover, we call for an end to government policies that promote rapid and resource intensive practies such as extractive industries, forestry and illegal logging, deep sea mining,  and unregulated fishing. These have led to poor men and women in Asia and the Pacific living in the most precarious environments, rendered homeless and also often forcibly evicted from their homes and land. Add to this unsafe household and industrial waste contaminating living environments, waterways and oceanic pollution and it is exceedingly clear that the region must indeed move quickly toward a new kind of sustainable development, and new state responses to poverty eradication.

We reiterates that Asia and Pacific development has been built on the backs of women, and it is time to end this. Women in our region produce the world´s products at increasingly lower prices; working for below subsistence wages in unbearable conditions. Women workers are denied rights to organise and bargain. Women working as domestic workers, Asia and the Pacific´s most common occupation for women are working 18 hour days, without a day off, nor guaranteed wage. They are separated from family and routinely abused at home and abroad where they also now take on roles in an unregulated and often exploitative  global care chain  In homes, countries, and the region, women’s rights and autonomy over our bodies and life decisions are violated, especially due to the escalating fundamentalism and the politicization of religion.  Moreover, Women face sexual and gender based violence, and are forced to work in a globally dysfunctional economic system that further exploits in the name of development. The current development model has clearly failed rural, indigenous, migrant women.

These are the realities of too many women in Asia and the Pacific, and has to be addressed urgently. This is the time for us to aim for a transformative and redistributive framework that reduce inequalities of wealth, power and resources, and that exacerbates gender, ethnic, class, and many other forms of inequalities.

Concretely, the Women’s Major Group recommend the following:

• We call for deep and structural changes in existing global systems of power, resources and decision making. We need new frameworks and institutions designed to be democratic, accountable to all people and particularly those most affected, based on internationally agreed human rights standards and obligations;
• The Post-2015 development agenda framework must be based on existing human rights legal norms, standards and political commitments. International human rights law, including the UDHR, CEDAW, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, ECSR, and ICCPR  and their follow-up programmes must form a non-negotiable base;
• There must be clear and time-bound commitments, with targets and indicators measuring quality  as well as quantity and aiming to address inter and intra-state inequalities.
• On Means of Implementation, we call for timely collection and disaggregation of data on the basis of all the grounds of discrimination and their intersectionality as essential to identify, visibilise and respond to inequalities and violations of human rights and to increase accountability. Mechanisms for data collection and analysis for monitoring progress must be transparent and inclusive of input from women’s groups; require transparency of information, including budgets, as well as of decision-making processes and mechanisms at all levels and across thematic themes, as a principle to underpin the Post-2015 development framework.  We demand it not only from governments, but all other development actors;
• We call on UNESCAP, UNEP and whole UN system to reflect diverse needs of all women in their programs and practices. The UN system is accountable in fully protecting and promoting  gender equality and women’s rights including urging governments to implement their human rights obligations;We demand the new development framework includes dedicated gender equality goals, as well as specific targets and indicators throughout. It should be an explicit priority of governments and all major groups;
• Finally Member states, We call for your full guarantee of women’s control over resources and sustainable livelihood, the full implementation of decent work and living wage, full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all decision bodies in all levels, elimination of all forms of violence against women, and an environment of peace and security for women to fully realise their rights. Lastly, we urge government to guarantee sexual and reproductive rights and access to quality and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services to women and girls. When women from Asia and the Pacific do not have the ability to make decisions on all aspects of their sexuality and decide the number and spacing of their children, then they cannot participate wholly in any aspects of our lives.

Mr. Chair, Honorable Delegations, Major Groups; we are now have the opportunity to chart a new sustainable development course; one that the vast majority of this world wants. It is indeed one that is based on global equity, sustainability of justice, realisation of univeral human rights , gender equality and dignity for all – including all women and girls in Asia and the Pacific.

This is the time for us to be brave!

Wardarina – APWLD Program Officer of Breaking Out of Marginalisation – delivered the intervention on the session of SDGs and Post 2015 Development Agenda:

Thank you Chair, my name is Wardarina from Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD). We are a regional women network with 180 members in 25 countries in Asia-Pacific who work with rural, indigenous, migrant women. I’m speaking on behalf of women major group.

Our world is currently at a crossroad. Facing multiple and interconnected crises of environment, finance, food, energy, democracy and most of all a crisis of deep inequalities, we are confronted with a challenge and an opportunity. Policy making over the past 3 decades has led to wealth, power and resources accruing to a tiny minority of the world´s richest and most powerful people and corporations.

Our world is now a plutocracy. This model of wealth accrual is directly responsible for the crises we now confront. Policies of increasing consumption, financial speculation, unregulated exploitation of the world´s resources, privatisation of essential human services, resources and infrastructure, deregulation of labour and economies have made the world unsustainable, insecure and grossly unequal. The burden of this policy making and the crises it has caused lay on the shoulders of those least responsible: poor women and men living in the global south.

Women producing the world´s garments at increasingly lower prices who work for below subsistence wages in insufferable conditions, separated from their children and denied rights to organise and bargain. Women working as domestic workers, Asia Pacific´s most common occupation for women, working 18 hour days, without a day off, without a guaranteed wage, without OH&S protection, separated from family and routinely abused at home and abroad. Women living in the most precarious environments, rendered homeless from climate disasters and from increasing corporate and government land-grabbing, forced evictions and land degradation. Women suffering the tyranny of violence at home and internationally where might is normalised as the source of power. Women denied autonomy over their bodies, reproductive choices and life decisions.

The High Level Panel has the opportunity to chart a new course, a course that the vast majority of this world wants, a course of global equity, of sustainability of justice, human rights enjoyment and dignity for all; the responsibility to develop a transformative and redistributive framework that aims to reduce inequalities of wealth, power and resources between countries, between rich and poor and between men and women.

We need to be brave, to imagine that another world is possible, to take steps that the vast majority of the world want. We need a new development model now.

The High Level Roundtable on Women’s rights and Global Partnerships in Post 2015 Development Agenda took place at the Westin hotel in Bali, organized by Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) and FEMNET to deliberate women’s visions to the High Level Panel Members of Eminent persons on how a post-2015 development framework should look like and to present key priorities and recommendations that is informed by the lived realities and aspirations of women. It also aimed to articulate how the global partnership in the post-2015 framework should be shaped to advance women’s rights and gender equality and to provide women who are most often marginalized from global development and partnership processes an opportunity to engage in a structured dialogue with the HLP members.

APWLD welcomed the High Level panel members and women advocates from around the global. Present were the Advisor of John Podesta, Chair of Center of American Progress, USA; Advisor of Maria Angela Holguin, current Foreign Minister Columbia; Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development, UK; Advisor of Tawakkol Karman, Yemen.  Jean-Michel Severino, General Inspector of Finances, French Ministry of Finances and  Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Minister of Finance of Nigeria were absent. Among participants, John Hendra, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy and Programme at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) also joined the session.

Women’s Key Demands
6 (six) women speakers delivered presentation on women’s demands for women’s rights and global partnership in Post 2015 Development Agenda which were based from Women Caucus Statement on 4^th HLP Meeting.

Access to Land and Resources – by Teresita Vistro, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)

The situation of rural women is getting worse. The face of hunger and poverty continue to be that of women. UN World Food Programme states that women make up 60% of the world’s hungry people; that hunger is the world’s health risk, which kills more people each year that AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. In Asia, of the 1.8 billion people living in poverty, 70% are women.

There is an increasing body of evidence that show that women’s access to land and other resources for livelihood is a strong poverty eradication measure. When women gain economic power and gain control over this resource, this translates into stronger development outcomes for families and communities, such as decreased malnutrition in families, more funds going to education for children and increased food security. Added contribution are that there is greater maintenance and protection of biodiversity as women are able to maintain their roles of keeping their seeds and medicinal plants, and keep their sustainable farming practices. In many countries however, women’s claim to this important resource are hampered by customary laws and patriarchal views which dictate that men should own the land as they are the heads of households and responsible for feeding their families. Land grabbing further diminishes further land rights claims of women, and even is the cause of displacement of women from the land

Recommendation:

The new development goal should secure women’s access and control over land and other resources to make their lands productive such as water, energy, finance, education and markets.

Proposed indicators: (1) the existence of country’s laws and policies that guarantee equal rights of women to own land, (2) where legislations on land rights exist, an indicator should measure the percentage of the land that is under the control of the women, and legislations should measure that women are protected against forces evictions and land grabbing, (3) As a way of developing these indicators, a participatory mechanism that legislated must be put in place. Through this mandated mechanism rural, indigenous women must be sufficiently and democratically consulted, their participation in the implementation, monitoring/evaluation of the results must be ensured and strengthened.

Transformation of Global Structure– Wardarina, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)

The world needs a global architecture that has fairer distribution of wealth, power and resources, between countries, between rich and poor and between men and women. So far, the current architecture has done the opposite. Global policy making in this past 30 years, has one clear result; which is the accrued of wealth of tiny minority. It has stimulated economic growth by deregulating government, privatising public assets and encourages foreign direct investment.

The current development model, which emphasizes global partnership has given the private sector a center place as a development actor. This central space has given even further power to not only the immensely powerful transnational corporations, but the international trade (WTO) and financial institutions (World Bank, ADB, etc) have even more clout in this ‘global partnership.

Recommendation:

• New institutions are needed to transform the development and reduce inequalities. Institutions that are designed to be democratic, accountable to all people but particularly those most affected and whose accountability frameworks lie in human rights standards and obligations, and therefore set goals and target that require evidence of action, not symptomatic measures.
• Need to build goals that are establishing “economy that working for the people, not people working for the economy”, therefore need to firstly revisit the policy of deregulation, liberalization and privatization. To study and look into other forms of economies that are more democratic, and ensuring policies that protect and promote economies that are essential for the poor through universal social protection and universal access to free healthcare, education, energy, water and sanitation, ensuring decent work and living wage that can support a family to live in dignity.
• Need a global structure that allows women have control over their land and productive resources, and also a big percentage of arable land controlled and accessed by small land owner. We need a global structure where decisions was not being made in boardroom in Washington, but governments and development institutions must ensure that women, especially rural, indigenous and migrant women are not only present in the formal process, but also contribute their perspective and recommendations in decision making at all levels of development issues. This must be done through a bottom up, decentralized process, owned by people.  Need to have a macro economic systems that acknowledge and value reproductive work, transformed macro economic policies would not aim to increase women´s ´productivity‘ without recognising the enormous productive contributions women already make. Recognising the value of reproductive work would also result in the recognition of domestic work as work.

Governance and Accountability– Shannon Kowalski, International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC)

As women we look for governance that is based on human rights, justice, and the rule of law as well as the principles of equality and inclusion.  We look for transparency of both information and processes, and accountability to people, and not for profits. We look for decision-making bodies that are inclusive and include proportionate representation of women, particularly in leadership roles.“good governance is not a one-way street, it requires an active and empowered civil society, including women’s groups, that are engaged in decision-making, monitoring implementation, and demanding accountability at all levels”.
We want to see all of these elements embedded into the post-2015 framework, because without them we are convinced that we will not be able to achieve the world that we as women want.

Recommendation:

• Post-2015 framework must be fundamentally based on existing human rights legal norms, standards and political commitments. International human rights law, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as related international consensus documents like Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, must form its non-negotiable base. These commitments provide us with a legal and normative framework for building just, healthy, equitable, resilient and sustainable societies
• Post-2015 framework be designed as a tool to empower women to monitor and hold governments, businesses, international institutions and other development actors to account. Need to provide accountability mechanisms from grassroots to the global, community monitoring tools, budget monitoring, shadow reports to provide input in monitoring mechanisms. At the national level, parliaments, judiciaries, and national human rights mechanisms should be empowered to oversee implementation and provide remedies where governments fall short.  At the global level, the human rights architecture, including treaty bodies, special procedures including special rapporteurs, and the universal peer review mechanisms should also be used as tools for accountability.
• Post-2015 agenda must also include clear and time-bound commitments, with targets and indicators that measure quality as well as quantity and aim to address inequalities. The timely collection and disaggregation of data on the basis of all the grounds of discrimination and their intersectionality is essential to identify, make visible and respond to inequalities and violations of human rights and to increase accountability. Mechanisms for data collection and analysis for monitoring progress must be transparent and inclusive of input from women’s groups
• Transparency of information, including budgets, as well as of decision-making processes and mechanisms, should be a principle that underpins the post-2015 framework.  We demand it not only from governments, but from other development actors.
• The thread that will hold all of this together is women’s empowerment and transformative leadership at all levels. Parity of representation in decision-making bodies should be a key goal for the post-2015 framework. The importance of women’s movements must be recognized. We demand decision-making and accountability process that are truly democratic and incorporate the voices of the women who are most marginalized.
• Good governance starts at home with women able to make decisions over their own bodies, sexuality and lives.  For that, we must at a minimum guarantee that women can fully exercise their sexual and reproductive rights, be economically independent, and ensure that they have a voice in decision-making. Only then will we accomplish the kind of transformative economic, social, political, cultural and ecological governance change that we need to achieve the world we want and the future of generations to come.

Sexual and Reproductive Health, Gender Based Violence, Fundamentalism, Conflict and Peace– Irina Costache, ASTRA Network

The ending all forms of violence against women is indispensable to ensure that women are able to participate and benefit from development. “Without a commitment to ensure women’s physical security, bodily integrity and personal comfort, we cannot talk to women as active agents of development or of people-centered development”. VAW is an achievable goal with targets and indicators. The Commission on the Status of Women and its’ agreed conclusion on Violence against Women showed a global consensus on ending violence against women is possible, but the questions remains on how to further profit from the consensus and secure the very means to implement so that “ending violence against women” is not merely noble slogan, but becomes a concrete commitment for governments. Ending violence against women is a sound and basic first step towards promoting leadership of women at all levels and also a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality, sustainable development and genuine democracy.

Recommendations:

• Ending all forms of violence against women, including intimate-partner violence and its intersections with HIV infection, as well as forms of violence enabled within public spaces and highlighted forced sterilizations, forced abortion in health care facilities and sexual violence in refugee camps among others as concrete issues that need to be addressed
• Ensure finance and accountability mechanism, such as committed public funds to make concrete steps toward eradication of VAW. Global Partnership discussion should lead into finding solutions for raising these funds, need to secure partnerships both at national and at regional levels, centered on women’s rights and in the interests of women.
• Ensuring women’s meaningful role in development is universal access to sexual and reproductive health and the safeguarding of sexual and reproductive rights. Sexual and reproductive health and rights are central to human development and interlink to all key development agendas: equality, human rights, poverty, migration and population dynamics, food security and access to resources, health. Need to address the removal of all barriers (legal, social, economic) for women and teen girls to access sexual and reproductive health services including contraceptives, safe abortion, prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections and HIV, reproductive cancers and safe delivery. The sexual and reproductive rights of women must be safeguarded. Women must have the information and the means to decide independently when and how many children they want to have and once they do that, they should not risk their lives whenever they make such decisions.
• Rising costs of health care and essential drugs were highlighted. Public-private partnerships in the health sector and including pharmaceuticals /contraceptives/ARVs have to take into account that health is a universal right and a common good, one that raises ethical problems in relation to profit seeking.
• Sexual rights are fundamental human rights and within that acknowledgement we ask that laws and policies that discriminate on the basis of gender; criminalize or marginalize specific groups of women based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, participation in sex work, or other status be repealed;
• Rising populist politics and fundamentalisms have a way of focusing their politics over the control of women’s bodies and LGBTQI lives. Governments and supra-national institutions need to ensure and guarantee that all people have control over their private lives as individuals and that acts of discrimination (including in law) find redress in justice. The principle of non-discrimination is closely bound with the principle of equality that we hope to see imbedded in the post 2015 agenda and to those of human rights that drive all UN efforts

Grassroots and Global Partnership by Caroline Usikpedo, National President (Niger Delta Women’s Movement for Peace & Development), Co-Chair for the women’s major group.

Grassroots women are the most affected on the impacts of climate change, environmental degradation and poverty, yet their voices are least heard and they are not seen when policies are being decided.  She explained that many countries especially in Africa are off track in terms of achieving the MDG’s.

“In 2000, there was relative stability, prosperity and coherence when western economies were on the rise and the conditions were good for forging agreements on global targets for development. From the 2005 Paris Declaration onwards, traditional aid donors and recipients had committed to work in partnerships, driven by policies and goals ‘owned’ by recipient countries. But traditional donors would not let go and ‘accountability’ often became the cover for continuing control, and many developing countries did not have the confidence and technical competencies to drive the agenda. The present MDGs were largely cooked up by donors. Their failure lies in their weak implementation and an outcome that sees the poor and vulnerable mostly women still left behind. The lack of consultation at its inception to build ownership led to the perception that it is a foreign and donor-centric agenda”.

It is important to raise stakes to the knowledge of the grassroots women and create awareness among the women and the community leaders and to alert the international community of the several neglect exercised on the rural women in rural communities.

In 2009 and 2011, Niger Delta Women’s movement for Peace and Development and the Gender and Climate Justice Hearings with rural women organized three Tribunals and Public Hearings on Women, Water, Poverty and Climate Change which feed into the final results presented at the Climate Forum 2009 in Copenhagen and in Durban respectively. The tribunal created the platform and opportunity to hear from the women on the impact of climate change and polluted farmlands on low crop yield and impoverishment; the lack of portable water, the pollution of and other relating to the activities of oil multi nationals which resulted in extermination of aquatic life and soil infertility.

Recommendations

• New transformative new development framework that should put grassroots women at the center of defining, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of all development commitments and to create space for dialogue among multiple stakeholders including women and women’s movement, parliamentarians, trade unions and other social movements.
• Global goals, as well as contextualized national targets for countries aiming at a sustainable and equitable global development, as well as the eradication of extreme poverty must be included and based in full accordance with international human rights laws. The goals need a stronger focus on livelihoods for the grassroots /rural women; inequality; the environment; and resilience in face of disasters. The Framework should be holistic, accountable, inclusive, equitable and universally applicable, including being a demanding monitor of the new post-2015 development goals and indicators.
• Development of a Post 2015 Development Agenda should enable to allow grassroots women to negotiate for their own development priorities throughout this process.

Financing for Development By Cai Yiping, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)

Yi Ping shared a story from her community showing the necessity to build development projects around human rights and women’s rights in a comprehensive and holistic manner. The story tells us about a woman living with HIV who was able to access treatment, but as a victim of domestic violence, her bruises on her face remained.  The story shows that the new development framework must be embedded and based on human rights and the urgency to break down the silos that the MDGs have created. However, government programs are focused on targets and indicators and are less interested in cross sectorial approaches.For example, the current narrow focus on reduction of maternal mortality shows that governments ignore the serious range of difficulties during women’s sexual and reproductive years and lives, and neglect to provide access to the full range of services throughout the life cycle. Maternal mortality cannot be reduced without fully addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights.

On global finance accountability and role of UN should play, she stressed that the process should not be driven by donors and private philanthropic foundations; and to look critically at bilateral trade agreements. The new development paradigm must reform and global macro-economic structures must be coherent with human rights obligations.

Recommendations:

• Use the human rights architecture as its basis and include concrete means of implementation that prioritize public financing over public-private partnerships in order to realise states obligation to allocate the maximum availability of resources.
• Promote innovative, democratic financing mechanisms, including long-term, flexible support for civil society organizations, including women’s organizations.
• Urgently reform monetary, financial and trade rules globally in line with human rights obligations, that ensure policy space at the national level to implement macroeconomic policies, trade and investment agreements to achieve gender and social justice.
• Phase-out, eliminate financial support, and impose moratoria on harmful economic activities which affect the health of people and the environment, particularly in the areas of mining, nuclear energy, and chemicals.
• Guarantee investments in public services such as in child care, education and elderly care in order to eliminate the sexual division of labour;
• Guarantee women’s rights to participate in leadership and decision-making at all levels, including in economic and social development and international financial institutions.
• Innovative, democratic financing mechanisms that allocate specific resources to women’s rights and gender equality must be a priority. Women must be involved in the development and monitoring of budgets at all levels.

Responses from HLP Members

Advisor of John Podesta – responded that the HLP focuses on 3 aspects: ensuring political, social and economic participation throughout. When women are central to political and social process, changes occur. He stressed the need to be bold in this area and change is possible: “We have now quotas for political participation. It is not an admiration, it is now a norm.”

From an economic perspective, focus on women access to credit (land issue) is important. The HLP are well aware of the issues; agriculture production will grow when women are in control. He refers to the Gender Empowerment Index that refers to this.  He highlighted a best example of a program of the Philippines government is giving women entitlement to land.

Country ownership must reflect voices of women: “Nothing about them, without them” is a commitment of USA. He mentioned Afghanistan where there is good guidance on how to protect in emergency situation and that all projects undergo a gender impact statement. Especially on infrastructural projects in areas of indigenous women, whose voices are most ignored. He added the issue of child marriage and women engagement in peace processes (women peace makers protection). He echoed the need to talk about mainstreaming and the importance of gender as a cross cutting issue.

Advisor of Maria Angela Holguin –Columbia, current Foreign Minister – explained that the panel has discussed gender explicitly. One of the main concerns is how to effectively mainstream: if you have the stand alone goal, what are the targets, and are these shared among other goals such as under food security. Columbia has been arguing for mean streaming across goals. Women’s groups need to come up with implementable targets for effective mainstreaming.

The other key issue is data: disaggregated data that are universal and applied to all. It is important to focus on issues specifically about empowering women and on women access. Sometimes the discourse gets blurry. The discourse of ‘job creation’ often comes from a male dominated world. But livelihoods are more important for women than jobs. She lies down the question on how to have the core targets that are going to make a difference?

Tawakkol Karman – the advisor expressed that Tawakkol Karman strongly supports women in the agenda, mostly on the area of changing policies targeting women. He added that barriers of certain behaviors that don’t allow women’s empowerment to move forward. He fully supports and likes to hear more to look into after this session

Justine Greening – supported the push for a separate goal and the need to be mainstreamed in the framework. She focuses now on how to make it practical enough. She presented a solution using the key words: CHOICE (such as access to employment), VOICE (participation, business, communities), CONTROL over women’s lives (such as violence). She supported a target on Ending VAW.  She also mentioned the vulnerability in emergency situations.

John Hendra highlighted several key messages such as the importance of rights based and CEDAW; the universal perspectives on VAW and the opportunities this brings; UNWOMEN’s paper on reflection on Beyond 2015. It includes a twin track approach (stand-alone goal, core issues are physical safety, ability choice bodily integrity, and voice (household/private sector.) that is being prepared. It will be more robust, it should be focused on key elements. He also stressed to look at collective effort of moving forward (investment, financing) as gender equality is underfunded and there is a need for outcome indicators on this. Lastly, he highlights indicators that drive change. Not only focus on what is available. Broader investment is necessary to have a proper baseline and indicators in place.

Conclusion

Misun Woo of APWLD closed the session with highlighting the importance for women have equal dialogue and are making decisions in the global system. For example, women currently having seats secured for feminists in the CS global partnership for Development Effectiveness, “now it is up to us to make this happen at local, national level”.

The 20th century has seen the inclusion of an increasing number of women, both as voters as well as parliamentarians. However, statistics continue to reflect the under-representation of women in political institutions and structures at the local and national levels. As of the end of 2012, women account for 18.4% of members of Asia’s legislatures, up from 15.2% in 2002. While women have taken initiatives to engage in decision-making and occupy leadership roles, they have had to do so in the face of many challenges ranging from cultural barriers to growing influences of neo-liberal globalisation, fundamentalisms, and militarisation.

Recognizing that among the measures that have been influential in increasing the proportion of seats held by women includes targeted training, APWLD has been carrying out its two levels of Gender & Politics (G&P) trainings through its Women in Power (WiP) programme since 2006. Working with women engaging in multiple level of politics and leadership to strengthen their political participation and challenge gendered political structures, APWLD organises capacity building on Gender & Politics with women political leaders, activists, campaigners and trainers.

The Level 1 training aims to build on skills and capacity of women who want to engage in political processes and advance women’s agendas in their respective countries and across the region.

To apply, please review details below and email/fax completed Application Form, CV and recommendation letter to the attention of:

Diyana Yahaya
Programme Officer, Women in Power, APWLD
diyana@apwld.org
For applications through email, please indicate in the subject line “Application for South Asia Gender and Politics Level 1 Training”

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS FRIDAY 19 APRIL 2013

The specific objectives of the training are:
• To increase the capacity of participants to reflect on and understand gender issues;
• to enhance participants understanding of non-discrimination, equality, politics and decision making processes in politics;
• to share experiences and develop skills of participants on how to raise gender issues within existing political institutions; and
• to identify personal,  social and political barriers to women’s participation in political processes in general of participants

The training will focus on the following themes: politics and political systems; gender and patriarchy; politics for change; leadership for social transformation, legislation; and advocacy and lobbying for gender and issues.

Due to limited resources, simultaneous translation facilities will not be available.

Participants will be selected based on the following criteria:
• Balance representation from countries from within APWLD’s geographical mandate in the sub-region of South Asia.
• Preference will be given to individuals with institutional affiliations and recommendations from the APWLD network.
• A government official in a decision-making position who can initiate measures for the greater political participation of women.
• Selection will be based on an equitable mix of activists, politicians, academics and legal experts who has preferably been working on women’s political participation and/or women’s human rights.
• Limited group size of 16-20 participants from across the sub-region.

Selected participants must:
• Attend the training in its entirety.
• Respond to emails in a timely way as that will be our way of communicating with you about deadlines, registration, hotel and travel arrangements.
• Produce a Personal Action Plan towards the end of the training.
• Commit to respond to periodic follow up from APWLD after the training.

Procedure:
• All applicants should submit a completed Application Form and send it along with their Curriculum Vitae
• The recommending institution/organisation should certify that the person recommended has worked in the area of women’s human rights and is committed to applying the core learning points from the training in their future work.
• Recommending organisation also needs to explain its commitment and work and vision towards enlarging spaces for women in politics.

Cost of the Training and Sponsorship:
APWLD will cover costs of boarding and lodging for the three-day training period. In addition, APWLD will also cover costs of discounted economy airfare, visa fee, airport tax, travel tax and other travel related expenses. It is strongly advised that participants secure additional funds to cover non-funded meals and other expenses such as telephone calls and other miscellaneous expenses.

Only selected candidates will be contacted for further details.

Call for Application – South Asia Sub-regional Gender & Politics Level 1 Training
Application Form – South Asia Gender & Politics Level 1 Training

Media Statement
8 April 2013

On 6-8 April 2013, Southeast Asia Women Caucus on ASEAN (Women’s Caucus) participated in the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ ASEAN People’s Forum (ACSC/APF) 2013 held in Brunei Darussalam with the theme “ASEAN: Building Our Future Together.”

According to the Women’s Caucus, as ASEAN aims to achieve a regional integration by 2015, ”One ASEAN Community” is possible only when people have a meaningful say in determining their own future. Women demand an ASEAN future that is firmly based on human rights and truly transformative, democratic and sustainable where women, girls and the most marginalized have the greatest voice.

Women’s Caucus organised a panel discussion on the situation of women domestic workers in the ASEAN region where three domestic workers also shared their stories. The panel demonstrated that access to justice has been elusive to a number of Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Brunei who have yet to obtain justice for discriminatory labour practices and gender-based discrimination and violence. “A contract is just a piece of paper,” said a returning Filipina domestic worker interviewed for the research who suffered abuse and violation of her rights. For three years now, an Indonesian domestic worker’s demand for her unpaid wages is yet to receive justice in the Bruneian court. With no work for three years, she is unable to support her families back home.

In Asia, domestic work is the single largest form of employment for women with little to no labour rights protection because there is no legal recognition of domestic work as work in most countries in the region. Research conducted by the Women’s Caucus shows that women domestic workers want a future where they can enjoy their rights to decent work and living wage, communicate and access information, live with dignity, access to justice and free mobility.

“The economic growth model of development has only resulted in the concentration of wealth to a small minority. Migration for employment often becomes the only option for many women in Southeast Asia. Majority of women migrant workers engage in domestic work, which is a continuation of women’s gendered role at home and in communities. They receive poverty wages (less than USD 1 per hour) while they often struggle with non-payment of their wages. There should be a measure for both policy and implementation to protect the fundamental human rights and freedoms of domestic workers,” said Dinda Nuur Annisaa Yura from Solidaritas Perempuan, Indonesia.

Policy coherence that is centered around human rights was emphasised. “ASEAN member states especially Brunei, Indonesia and Philippine governments are called upon to recognise domestic work as work. There is still no multilateral framework at the level of ASEAN that lays the basis and the standard for member states to adhere to in the promotion and protection of the rights of domestic workers. The human rights bodies in ASEAN should strive towards protecting the rights of all migrant workers particularly domestic workers and undocumented migrants. We call on ASEAN to establish a mechanism that shall facilitate women domestic workers’ access to justice and provide redress, remedies and other support services for those whose rights have been violated,” said Chang Jordan of Women’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau (WLB), Philippines.

“Domestic workers, women human rights defenders and others who are most vulnerable to human rights violations, poverty, violence and discrimination should have a safe space given a voice in ASEAN. Policy makers must listen to them, and it is our responsibility as people’s movements to deliver their voices and recommendations to our political leaders”, says Nur Judy Abdullah, Council on Social Welfare, Brunei Darussalam.

Participants noted many similar struggles of women across the region such as: increasing use of women as cheap labour; militarisation and conflicts that fuel violence against women; multiple forms of discrimination due to women’s intersecting identities such as women with disability, indigenous women and women of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity; lack of control over women’s body to restrict women’s sexual and reproductive rights; and the exclusion of women in decision-making. “Women’s movement and transformative leadership has a crucial role and contribution and is growing in strength day after day. We demand that the governments in all ASEAN place women’s rights and women’s democratic participation at the centre of ASEAN’s work,” said Thida Khus of SILAKA, Cambodia.

The next ACSC/APF will be held in Burma/Myanmar in 2014, which this early is making not only the ASEAN but also the global community interested in having peoples’ gathering in a rapidly changing country. “We are thrilled to take the leadership of organising this important annual forum where people from Southeast Asia gather to discuss our visions and aspirations for the future we want. An ASEAN community that guarantees a space where our voice can be heard and women become active decision-makers at home, in communities, at the national level and globally.” Says May May Pyone of NGO Gender Group, Burma/ Myanmar.

For further information contact: apwld@apwld.org/ +66 53 284 527

An environment of intense insecurity prevails as a result of armed conflict pursued by extremists, and growing ethnic and sectarian violence. The great escalation of violence seriously undermines women’s ability to participate in public life, aggravates violence experienced by women as well as defenders of women’s human rights and negatively impacts their work. Poor governance and the government’s inability to address structural causes of VAW rooted in patriarchy further exacerbate violence against women in Pakistan.
Notwithstanding significant legal and policy steps taken to address VAW in Pakistan, we believe that the state has failed to act with ‘due diligence’ to eliminate VAW.
We, the representatives of CSOs, call on the Government of Pakistan to:
• Safeguard the security, human rights and fundamental freedoms of all citizens including ethnic and religious minorities
• Fulfill its obligations to support and protect women human rights defenders, who face particular risks including violence both because of their gender and because of the nature of their work
• Ensure the elimination of all forms of violence against women which prevent full gender equality, such as the feminization of poverty; the sexual division of labour; the lack of social protection; full access to education and health care, including sexual and reproductive health care; lack of recognition of home based work and religious and ethnic discrimination
• Collect and publically share gender disaggregated data on violence against women and maintain an integrated and reliable database accessible to public
• Ensure implementation of existing legislation and develop a framework for effective enforcement of legislation that has been introduced to respect, protect and promote women’s rights
• Ensure substantial participation of women in decision making in all forums and at all levels for the prevention of conflict and disaster, protection and post conflict and disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts
• Ensure provision of gender responsive relief strategies and strong preventive measures to bring services to women and girls, including SRHR, and protection and relief from sexual and gender based VAW in disaster and emergency situations
• Adopt a comprehensive approach to ensure access to information and quality care at all stages of a woman’s life cycle and across location (home, community and health facilities) to overcome difficulties faced by women, including marginalized women in accessing affordable skilled care
• Ensure capacity building and awareness of implementers for gender sensitive services and educate them about all aspects of violence against women
• Repeal discriminatory laws and develop new legislation that fully respects and promotes the rights of women and girls; and enact domestic violence legislation in all administrative units.
• Promote the elimination of violence against women and girls as a priority in the Post 2015 development framework for gender equality.

For immediate release: 7 March 2013

Indigenous women from Asia and Pacific speak out about sexual violence and multiple forms of discrimination against indigenous women and girls.

This week, indigenous women from throughout Asia-Pacific have gathered to raise their voices and present their concerns to the on-going session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York. This session of the CSW is focusing on the priority theme of violence against women and girls.

In preparation for the discussions taking place this week, indigenous women have submitted to the Commission a range of documents detailing how indigenous women experience violence against themselves and their peoples. These documents also reiterate the fact that indigenous women suffer disproportionately from a multi-fold of discrimination and oppression based on their ethnicity, race, location and economic status together with their sex.
In a statement_ delivered to the Commission this week, indigenous women from Asia highlighted the connection between the collective rights to lands and resources on which indigenous peoples depend, and the status of indigenous women and their vulnerability to violence.

The statement notes the impact of militarization of indigenous peoples’ lands in Bangladesh: “occupation of indigenous peoples’ land, evictions and sexual harassments, including rape and murder of indigenous women by military and settlers continues”.

The statement also notes that this phenomenon is not restricted to a single example but can be found throughout the region: “dispossession goes hand in hand with violence by state armed forces, settlers or the security personnel of private companies. The occupation of indigenous peoples’ land not only means forced eviction but murder and sexual harassment including rape of indigenous women”.

The women gathered in New York this week have presented to the Commission a number of recommendations_ to help address these issues, primarily by providing for the effective participation of indigenous women in the governance of their own communities, peoples and nations.

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This statement is supported by the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), the International Indigenous Women’s Forum (FIMI) and all the indigenous women participants in the CSW 57.

For further information about indigenous women delegates from Asia-Pacific and interviews, please contact:
Anne Lasimbang at: annelasimbang@yahoo.com.sg
Shimreichon Luithui-Erni at: chonchon@aippnet.org

Relevant resources:
Statement and recommendations by Indigenous Women from Asia-Pacific and the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact Foundation (AIPP) to CSW: http://www.forestpeoples.org/sites/fpp/files/publication/2013/03/aipp-statementto57session-cswmarch2013.pdf

Written Statement by the Asia Indigenous Peoples’ Pact Foundation (AIPP) and the Forest Peoples Programme ‘Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls: a complex phenomenon’: http://www.aippnet.org/home/statement/1023-written-statement-violence-against-indigenous-women-and-girls-a-complex-phenomenon-

Greetings from the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)!

For this year’s engagement at the CSW-57, we have partnered with Asia Indigenous People’s Pact (AIPP), Disabled People’s International Asia Pacific (DPI-AP), and Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC).  Together with our partners and with the support of UN Women, we are able to have a delegation of about 20 women coming from the countries of:  Indonesia, Lao, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Timor Leste, Cambodia, Myanmar, Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Fiji.

As part of the activities of the delegation we have organized side events and panels that illustrate the situation of the most marginalized women (rural, indigenous and migrant women) as well as their recommendations on how to effectively address VAW and their perspective of development.  These panels have been organized to assert their voice and participation and somehow influence the language and discussion at the CSW.

The side events/panels are:

• Whose Paradise? Pacific Women Leading Efforts to Eliminate Violence Against Women
  Monday 4th March, 8:30am,
  V-Hall Armenian, Convention Centre, 630 2nd Avenue New York, NY 10016

• Violence Against Women and Women with Disabilities
  Thursday 7th March, 10:30am
  10th Floor Church Centre, UN Plaza

• Between a rock and a hard place: The multiple dimensions of violence faced by indigenous and rural women
  Thursday 7th March , 2:30pm
  Y-room, Armenian Convention Centre, 630 2^nd Avenue New York, NY 10016

• Women with Disabilities and Violence: Challenges and Visions in the Asia Pacific Event Culmination : Launch of the Asia Pacific Women with Disabilities United
  Friday 8th March, 12:30 pm
  Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations
  Sponsored by: Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Republic of Korea
  *RSVP required

• Development justice: Transforming development frameworks to address the structural causes of inequalities
  Monday 11th March, 4:30pm, Hardin Room, 11th floor, Church Center 777 1st Avenue, E 44th Street, New York [PDF]

For more information or to RSVP your attendance,
please send your inquiry and confirmation to:

__________________________________________________________

For further information on the side events, see the invitation flyers in pdf here.