Virada Somswasdi (left) in Tagaytay, Philippines, in 1986 when APWLD was formed

A speech given at the General Assembly of APWLD, Chiangmai, February 2006 The courtship with APWLD’s mothers or the women’s movements, so to speak, first took place at Nairobi NGO Forum on Women, Law and Development held in 1985 in parallel with the UN Third World Conference on Women and continued to New Delhi soon after.

A wanted pregnancy for the birth of a child whose mission would be to take on heavy responsibilities in fighting for women’s human rights in the region was planned and fatherless.

APWLD was conceived and delivered in late 1986 at Tagaytay, Philippines, despite the attempts of forced abortion by some relatives who had a different perspective.

The infant had a beautiful mind with a flaming heart. She was blessed, raised and nurtured in her first home in Malaysia set up in 1987, to challenge the world of powerful patriarchy and empower women with the concept of using laws and international human rights instruments to realise social transformation for equality, justice, peace and development.

Through the years, our girl had found friends in the region and the world over while fighting vigorously against enemies of women’s dignity. In the course of growing up, she had willingly announced and chosen companions in urban, suburban, rural areas, hills, streets, slums, law offices, universities, parliaments and the UN. They shared experiences in fighting for the cause in the areas of culture, religion, politics, and economics.

She had seen and been through tough times in her puberty age going into adulthood of daily life problems and state intimidation. She found it hard to carry on with normal life pace, while her friends found it hard to be with her or to come to see her. Her mothers then realised the crisis they were confronting with, while anticipated higher risk in keeping her in Kuala Lumpur. Consequently in 1997, she moved to her new home, Chiangmai, Thailand.

She had to regain her old friends’ faith, trust and thrust assuring them that their friendship had never died down or lessened, while trying to make new friends in a new neighborhood. She moved ahead with strong spirit and action to convince her old friends of her sincerity. She has steadily and beautifully grown up in a true adulthood in the new home and reached out to make lots of new friends, near and afar, from the Pacific islands to Central Asia and the Mekong region.

They join hands and expand their fight in new areas on environmental issues. They fight against globalisation, fundamentalism, militarisation and defend human rights defenders and women affected by natural disaster while keeping alive feminist perspectives in issues on culture, religion, politics and economics.

She is an inspiration to a great deal of women, both individuals and groups. She has reached the front line as powerful advocate for women’s human rights in the international arena through providing education, training, lobbying and rallying with friends in house and on sites.

Her presence is always felt at international human rights gatherings.

Difficult situation in her daily life comes at times and intimidation from patriarchal states continues, yet, she determines to keep moving and fighting till the end. She is now much in demand for service from her growing number of friends.

She needs to have your continuing affirmation, faith, trust and thrust in bringing equality, justice, peace and development to women’s and our lives. I am certain that she can count on you for continued solidarity. Thank you all wholeheartedly for your friendship with APWLD!

Happy 20th Birthday to APWLD - a beautiful mind with a flaming heart!

Hina Jilani at the International Consultation on Women Human Rights Defenders, Sri Lanka, December 2005

Hina Jilani, a founding member of APWLD UN Special Representative to the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders

Excerpts from an interview taken at the International Consultation on Women Human Rights Defenders, Sri Lanka, December 2005

The creation of APWLD must be looked at more with regards to its significance in giving a new dimension to promoting the work of defending women’s human rights. APWLD perhaps was the 1st regional organisation which was set up by women activists in the Asian region, in that context we have elevated ourselves from the national movement to the regional movement. I think that is the contribution of APWLD that must always be remembered.

A lot of women who participated in APWLD activities have contributed to the sense of solidarity among Asian women for human rights. It is also important to remember that many of us who participated in the APWLD events went back home with enriched experience, a stronger sense of our own value and worth and with much more capacity to pursue our various human rights interests and to be able to confront and grapple with particular issues that we faced in our different national contexts. I think in that sense APWLD was instrumental in taking national movements and putting them together as regional movement for women’s human rights.

When we initiated the creation of APWLD the group of women who became APWLD’s founding members were themselves in the initial stages of their struggle for human rights. We were trying to build our own capacity. I think in many ways I benefited greatly from my experience of creating an organisation, it gave me confidence that women can not only come together to talk about their issues but that women can go beyond just talking and can create institutions.

The kind of work I do frequently puts me at risk. I feel a sense of protection in many ways because I have colleagues outside my country who have the confidence to speak out if I was in trouble, just as I would speak out when anyone from the movement in the region was in trouble. So these were lessons that we learned and the experience of not just creating

Taking stock of 20 years of promoting women’s human rights in Asia Pacific

APWLD but developing it, making it grow was very important for many of us working in the field of human rights. We may have diverse responsibilities in our own countries or at the international level but I’m sure, like me, many of the colleagues who were with me when we formed APWLD still have a special commitment for the growth and development of APWLD as an institution.

Radhika Coomaraswamy at the International onsultation on Women Human Rights Defenders, Sri Lanka, December 2005

Radhika Coomaraswamy, a founding member of APWLD UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, 1994 - 2003

Excerpts from an interview taken at the International Consultation on Women Human Rights Defenders, Sri Lanka, December 2005

I think the most important contribution that the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development has made, is to create a very vibrant network of women and women’s organisations in Asia that deal with issues, share experiences and provide a great sense of solidarity. I think solidarity is really the word that comes to mind when I think of APWLD. In addition, of course they have been doing a lot of good work like training and having seminars and discussions for conceptual clarity on many issues. They had a briefing every year with me, as UN Special Rapporteur, with regards to Asian issues on violence against women, which has to be appreciated. But more that it has given a great sense of solidarity for women in Asia and a sense of an Asian identity in fighting for a lot of these issues at the global level and some of the issues that are of concern for Asia to come out very strongly at the global level as well. So, all in all it has been a very successful time for APWLD and I think there are a lot of challenges ahead. But working at the regional level is very important for Asia, especially because the Asian region is often seen, state wise, to be the least supportive of human rights at the international level. Asian states tend to be more sceptical about human rights so I think it is very important to have grassroots activists coming together in solidarity and working together to push issues of the human rights.

Nimalka Fernando, APWLD’s Regional Coordinator in early 1990s, in APWLD office in Kuala Lumpur

Nimalka Fernando, a founding member of APWLD Women’s Alliance for Peace and Democracy, Sri Lanka

Excerpts from an interview taken at the International Consultation on Women Human Rights Defenders, Sri Lanka, December 2005

At the time we founded APWLD, the main challenging theme was the issue of law and its impact on the lives of women. So in that sense, a regional body trying to grapple with the issue of laws and legal strategies for women was a heart breaking process that we managed to initiate within Asia Pacific. If we look at South Asia we found that while there were certain laws in place most of the laws were discriminatory or disinherited women and also these laws had the major connection to religious beliefs and practices. So by forming Asia Pacific Forum for Women, Law and Development we were making a political statement in aiming to look at laws affecting our lives, which disempower us. At the same time we were trying to develop new strategies for the development of new laws that would enhance women’s rights and also bring the national laws in our countries to respond to the international framework already in place such as the CEDAW. The APWLD’s contribution was that it has tried to bring down to earth the international frameworks or the international standards to be able to translate them into local needs. You have the CEDAW but there is no point in having the CEDAW at the international level unless it is translated into the realities at the ground level where women are fighting. So I think APWLD has been trying to breach this important gap and trying to make its contribution in a pioneering way

Fatima Burnad at the women’s human rights defenders rally organised by APWLD at the Beijing+10 NGO Forum, Bangkok, July 2004

Fatima Burnad, member of APWLD Regional Council Society for Rural Education and Development/Tamil Nadu Dalit Women’s Movement, India

Excerpts from an interview taken at the International Consultation on Women Human Rights Defenders, Sri Lanka, December 2005 and the speech at the APWLD General Assembly, Chiangmai, February 2006

I congratulate APWLD with its 20th anniversary. I am very happy that it reached 20 years mark and I hope it will continue its successful work for, at least, another 20 years. It is very important to have a regional organisation like APWLD: it has been educating grassroots workers about regional perspectives. I appreciate its efforts on coordination and networking building with other movements. APWLD is the only network that supports grassroots women to participate at regional conferences which helps grassroots movements to grow with other movements.

I joined APWLD in 1989. APWLD gave me orientation on International Conventions such as CEDAW, UN instruments, which I carried back to my groups. APWLD has taught me about food security, land rights, political rights, issues of culture and religion. APWLD has also campaigned on caste discrimination and supported the Dalit movement to bring up the issue of caste discrimination to the international level whilst there are not many regional and international organisations advocating for Dalits’ rights.

APWLD changed my views on certain things: I was against lobbying and advocacy before I joined APWLD. I used to believe in militant action by women but APWLD tamed me in that respect. I was very much against the UN system. I thought: I cannot reach them, they are in Geneva, they don’t care about grassroots people. Now I believe we must take our issues to the regional and international levels. We cannot fight alone on the issues such as imperialist globalisation.

APWLD was initiated by mainly lawyers. As an activist, I used to dislike lawyers. For me lawyers mean 5000 rupees. Poor women cannot afford them but APWLD changed my perception of them, for an activist it is important to know the legal aspect of the issues we are working on to be able change the discriminatory laws.

I would like our sisterhood to develop and grow. Let us continue to be a powerful network. If our sisterhood is powerful then APWLD is powerful.

Kamala Chandrakirana at the International Consultation on Women Human Rights Defenders, Sri Lanka, December 2005

Kamala Chandrakirana, member of APWLD’s Women’s Human Rights Working Group Komnas Perempuan, Indonesia

I see APWLD’s role in helping national groups access global women’s movement and become part of strategising and developing new concepts. Being part of global solidarity force is very important for national women’s groups. What we do with this access is the responsibility of APWLD members and partners so that it can benefit women at the national level. In my own experience, it has given very big impact on the kind of decisions and strategies my organisation made and promoted within the Indonesian movement. For example, being part of APWLD helped us access the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women at the time when my organisation was just established. And Radhika Coomaraswamy was able to come on an official mission to Indonesia (in 1998) to look into the issue of violence against women and mass rapes during riots in East Timor. It was through dialogues with her that we were able to establish a framework and decide where to begin. She included the findings of her visit to Indonesia in her annual report to the UN and made a clear set of recommendations. We studied her recommendation very carefully to help us navigate on working as a national commission on violence against women.

Taking stock of 20 years of promoting women’s human rights in Asia Pacific

Zanaa Jurmed at the Labour and Migration Task Force meeting, Chiangmai, 2004

Zanaa Jurmed, a member of APWLD Regional Council Director, Centre for Citizens’ Alliance, Mongolia

I’ve been a member of the APWLD Regional Council since 2004. It was a great opportunity to work with women dedicated to the cause of advancing women’s human rights in the region.

I think APWLD’s Taskforces are the most effective mechanism of implementing its activities to achieve its goals. As a member of Labour and Migration Taskforce I was able to join campaigns for migrant workers’ human rights in South East Asia. When the Indian Ocean Tsunami struck the countries where our members work we have supported their relief efforts financially and raised concerns on violations of women’s human rights in the tsunami aftermath at the regional and international level. We raised funds to help survivors of the earthquake in Pakistan. It was from our soul and heart and I am proud of being part of these solidarity actions.

This year’s Asia Pacific NGO Consultation with the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women annually organised by APWLD will take place in Mongolia. We, women activists of Mongolia, have high expectations from this meeting. Violence against women and marginalised groups of people in Mongolia is one of the heartbreaking issues. I congratulate APWLD with its 20th anniversary and wish all the best to our sisters who started this wonderful NGO.

S.K.Priya at Feminist Legal Theory and Practice training, Chiangmai, 2005

S.K.Priya, India member of APWLD’s Women’s Participation in Political Processes Task Force

In 1996, I attended APWLD’s Strategic Planning meeting in Bangkok and that was my introduction to APWLD. It was at that meeting that the idea of the Task Forces that we have today was planned. Since then, I have served as a member of the Regional Council and now defunct Steering Committee. Small wonder that my thoughts went back to that first meeting as I sat at the General Assembly in February this year. As always, the meetings were strenuous as I tried hard to focus on so many different issues and decisions over the course of two and a half short but packed days. I have seen APWLD in action and have been impressed by the colourful, varied but committed membership. In this, our 20th year, I am proud to be part of this regional body which seeks to include and create affiliations among lawyers, academics and activists and meld such divergent streams into a harmonious partnership.