ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children
MAKATI, 22 October 2015 – The Eleventh Meeting of the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) was convened on 18 20 October 2015 in Makati, the Philippines.
The Meeting reviewed the Terms of Reference of ACWC, and implementation of the Work Plan 2012-2016 including the three on-going thematic studies. The Regional Study on Child Protection System under the UN CRC Implementation in ASEAN Member States led by Indonesia is currently on-going. The preliminary draft Report, which was considered by the Meeting, provides an analysis on the characteristics of the child protection systems in ASEAN Member States including the legal framework, programmes, and resources.
The regional assessment on the laws, policies and practices within ASEAN Member States relating to the identification and treatment of victims of trafficking, especially women and children, is on-going under the coordination of Lao PDR. The regional consultant, national researchers and regional project coordination had been recruited and met on 16-17 October 2015 in Makati to discuss the national research plan including national report outline, methodology, guiding questions and timeline for incountry data gathering in ASEAN Member States in November 2015.
The draft Progress Report on Women’s Rights, Empowerment and Gender Equality was reviewed by the ACWC. The draft Report was scheduled for completion and launching on 8 March 2016 in time of the 50th Anniversary of ASEAN. The study reviews the progress in advancing women’s political, economic and social rights at regional and national levels.
Towards the development of ASEAN Early Childhood Care, Development and Education (ECCDE) Quality Standards, a regional consultative meeting was planned for 7-10 December 2015 in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. The Representatives of the ACWC, ASEAN Inter Governmental Human Rights Commission (AICHR), and ASEAN sectoral bodies on education and health would be invited to share good practices especially on national quality standards for ECCDE and to develop regional minimum standards.
Under the coordination of Thailand, the development of an ASEAN Guideline for a Non-Violent Approach to Nurturing, Care, and Development of Children is on-going. The revised draft ASEAN Guideline was considered at the Meeting. The Guideline aimed to promote the implementation of a non-violent approach in nurture, care and development of children, with particular reference to children in the settings of home, school, educational settings, the community, workplace, alternative care/children’s shelters, and juvenile justice centres. The focus is on utilization of positive communication, positive discipline, and the need for children to protect themselves to increase their resilience.
The Meeting also provided inputs to the draft video spot prepared by Thailand for the ACWC’s public campaign on the theme “Violence against Women at All Life Cycle”. This fourth public campaign of ACWC was planned for airing on 25 November 2015 in commemoration of the International Day on Elimination of Violence Against Women. The Meeting considered the requests for cooperation by a number of civil society organisations and welcomed further exploration in the areas of mutual interests. The Meeting planned for a consultation meeting with civil society in early 2016 to discuss, among others, collaboration in implementing the RPA EVAW and RPA EVAC following the planned adoption at the 27th ASEAN Summit in November 2015.
There was also an open session with UNICEF EAPRO in which the publication entitled “Legal Protection from Violence: Analysis of Domestic Laws related to violence against children in ASEAN” was introduced to ACWC.
The ACWC also met the ASEAN Committee on Women (ACW) on 20 October 2015 to discuss the initial steps to implement the Regional Plan of Action on Elimination of Violence Against Women (RPA EVAW) in post-2015. The ACWC and ACW reviewed the outcomes of completed activities, notably: Regional Conference of Senior Officials on Gender-Responsive Migration Management Practices and Experiences Towards Policies to Promote and Protect the Rights and Welfare of Women Migrant Workers held on 13-14 November 2014 in Manila, the Philippines; Regional Conference on Social Impact of Climate Change on Women and Children in ASEAN held on 25-26 March 2015 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and Regional Workshop on Gender Issues in Climate Change and Its Adaptation on 9-11 June 2015 in Langkawi, Malaysia.
The ACWC and ACW planned for a Regional Meeting in November 2015 to discuss strategies and processes to eliminate gender stereotyping and sexist languages in textbooks and to promote gender sensitive curriculum at primary to tertiary levels. The Regional Meeting would involve the Ministry of Education of each ASEAN Member State. The Twelfth ACWC Meeting is scheduled for 17-19 February 2016 at the ASEAN Secretariat. The Network of Social Service Agencies (NOSSA) is planned to be launched tentatively back to back with the Meeting.
A number of AMS remain vulnerable to natural disasters, which tend to disproportionately adversely affect the poor and the near poor or low income populace. Pollution and resource degradation are also increasingly serious problems in a number of AMSs. ASEAN is also among the most highly vulnerable regions to climate change and will need to find solutions to adapt to climate change in building a resilient ASEAN.The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5I) of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals that regardless our current actions in combatting with climate change through mitigation; global community is facing the increased amount anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions as the main caused of climate change. The IPCC also predicted that the temperature will be rising up from 1- 2.5C, and the change would bring negative effects to the process of development, particularly on livelihood, food security and health.
The Tenth Meeting of the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) was convened on 25-27 February 2015 at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia. The review of the implementation of the ACWC Work Plan 2012-2016 was followed by the discussion of the development of the Work Plan for 2016-2020.
Since the Ninth ACWC Meeting in October 2014, two activities have been completed. The ASEAN Regional Conference of Senior Officials on Strengthening the Protection and Empowerment of Women Migrant Workers was convened by the Philippines on 13-14 November 2014 in Manila. The Conference was a joint undertaking of ACWC and ASEAN Committee on Women (ACW) with the support of the International Labour Organization (ILO). In the same month, the ASEAN Consultation on Cultural and Religious Practices Impacting the Rights of Children was hosted by Indonesia with the support of UNICEF on 18-20 November 2014 in Jakarta. Religious leaders, cultural leaders and government officials from ASEAN Member States were engaged in the Consultation.
The Meeting adopted the Gender Sensitive Guideline for Handling Women Victims of Trafficking in Persons which aims to support the improvement and enhancement of practices in handling women and girl victims of trafficking by law enforcement agencies, social workers, health officers, service providers, and other frontline agencies and NGOs that are dealing with human trafficking cases. The Guideline had been reviewed and enriched by the inputs of the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and other relevant ASEAN sectoral bodies.
As for the establishment of the ASEAN Network of Social Service Agencies (NOSSA) led by Singapore, with the support of ASEAN-US PROGRESS, a series of in-country consultations were conducted in January-February 2015 to solicit feedback from social service agencies and other relevant stakeholders on the future programmes and possible structure of the Network. There was good response for the establishment of NOSSA. The findings of the in-country consultations were shared with the ACWC and the next steps discussed leading to the launch of NOSSA Thirty-three nominated social service agencies involved in preventing, protecting and helping victims of violence against women and violence against children from ten ASEAN Member States have been appointed as the initial members of NOSSA.
ACWC is developing Regional Plans of Action for the implementation of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) and the Elimination of Violence Against Children (EVAC) as adopted at the 23rd ASEAN Summit in 2014, coordinated by Thailand, as one of the ACWC’s initiatives aiming at implementing the Declaration on EVAW and EVAC in ASEAN. A series of workshops would be conducted to finalise the Regional Plans of Action for adoption by ACWC this year. The Meeting noted that the Regional Conference on Social Impact of Climate Change on Women and Children, led by Cambodia would be held on 25-26 March 2015.
The ACWC had a consultation with the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN (CPR) on 27 February 2015 to share information on the progress of ACWC’s work, and exchange views on ways to promote gender equality, women’s and children’s rights across the three pillars in the ASEAN Community building beyond 2015 as well as visibility of ACWC at international level.The ACWC met with Madam Marta Pais, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Elimination of Violence Against Children, on 27 February 2015 to exchange views on current children issues such as the use of technology and cyber pornography, social protection for children, and bullying. In January 2012, ACWC issued a joint statement with Madam Marta Pais reflecting their commitment to collaborate in areas of mutual interest to eliminate violence against children.
The Eleventh ACWC Meeting was scheduled for 18-20 October 2015 in the Philippines.
February 28th, 2015|
JAKARTA, 8 March 2014 ? International Womens Day observed globally on 8 March celebrates the achievements of women in all walks of life.
On this occasion, the ASEAN Secretariat is joining women all over the world and particularly in the ASEAN region to commemorate this day. The Secretary-General of ASEAN, H.E. Le Luong Minh, said Achieving gender equality, empowering women politically, economically, socially, and culturally is an issue in which both men and women of the ASEAN need to champion more persistently and consistently. Only then will our efforts work effectively towards the development of women in our people-oriented Community.
In commemoration of International Womens Day 2014, the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) initiated the Stop Violence Against Women public campaign. Posters, pamphlets, and stickers were disseminated to ASEAN Member States. The 2014 campaign video can be found at www.asean.org/acwc
All ten ASEAN Member States have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). ASEAN Member States have throughout the years progressed considerably in applying the CEDAW framework for the development and implementation of laws, policies, and programmes. To date, noticeable efforts have been registered throughout the region with new laws enacted and existing laws amended to protect women against domestic violence, sexual harassment, anti-trafficking and other forms of violence. This has been due to direct efforts by the governments, civil society and other stakeholders.
In this vein, ASEAN reaffirmed its goals and commitments to eliminate all forms of violence against women through concerted efforts through the adoption of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Elimination of Violence Against Children in ASEAN at the 23rd ASEAN Summit on 9 October 2013. Acting upon this, the ACWC and other relevant ASEAN bodies joined hands in bringing those eight areas of commitments reflected in the Declaration into actions.
H.E. Alicia dela Rosa-Bala, Deputy Secretary-General for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community said We are confident that ASEAN governments will continue in this positive direction of realising the commitment to promote womens rights and participation in the political – security, economic, and socio-cultural spheres of life.
The ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children
(ACWC) concluded its Special Meeting convened on 26-27 September 2013 in Bandar Seri
Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.
Subsequent to the adoption of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women
and Elimination of Violence Against Children in ASEAN by the Leaders at the 23rd ASEAN
Summit on 9 October 2013, the ACWC discussed strategies to implement the eight areas of
commitments reflected in the Declaration. A framework of actions was discussed based on the
corresponding projects under the ACWC Work Plan 2012-2016. An inter-sectoral consultation
meeting with other relevant ASEAN bodies and dialogue session with civil society organisations
were planned for February 2014 to socialize the Declaration and explore their potential
contribution to its implementation.
Progress of completed, on-going and planned projects under the ACWC Work Plan 2012-2016
was reviewed at the Meeting. Follow-ups to the projects completed this year were discussed,
notably the launching of the publication of ASEAN best practices in elimination violence against
women and violence against children was planned for 11 December 2013 in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. Recommendations of the Regional Workshop on Promoting the Rights of ASEAN
Women and Children through Effective Implementation of the Common Issues in CEDAW and
CRC Concluding Observations with Focus on Girl Child which was held on 20-22 August 2013
in Da Nang, Viet Nam, were also discussed.
Moving forward, the Social Service Agencies Conference and Training were planned for April
2014 in Singapore. The Workshop on the Promotion of Access to Justice for Women Victims of
VAW Trafficking Cases was scheduled for 3-5 February 2014 in Brunei Darussalam. The
Regional Conference on the Social Impact of Climate Change on Women and Children in
ASEAN was scheduled for March 2014 in Cambodia. Preparation of the annual public campaign
to stop violence against women to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of
Violence Against Women on 25 November next year was discussed. The Regional Study on
Strengthening Economic Rights of Women with regard to Feminization of Poverty Particularly
Women’s Rights to Land and Property was also planned to begin next year.
On 27 November, the ACWC visited “Pusat Bahagia” which is an institution responsible in
conducting programmes and activities to support persons with disabilities / people with special
needs (intellectual, physical, visual and hearing impairment).
The eighth ACWC meeting was scheduled for 17-20 February 2014 at the ASEAN Secretariat,
Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Regional Workshop on Promoting the Rights of ASEAN Women and Children through Effective Implementation of the Common Issues in CEDAW and CRC Concluding Observations with Focus on Girl Child was held jointly by ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC), Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) of Viet Nam, and United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) from 20 – 22 August 2013 in Da Nang, Viet Nam.
Download PDF: Recommendations_Workshop on CEDAW CRC Common Issues_FINAL
The Regional Workshop on the Promoting the Right to Nationality for Women and Children in the implementation of CEDAW and CRC in ASEAN held jointly by the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC), Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of Viet Nam (MOLISA), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and United
Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) on 19 August 2013 in Da Nang City, Viet Nam recommend the following concrete actions to promote the right to a nationality of women and children in ASEAN Member States for the consideration of the relevant ASEAN bodies.
The ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and
Children (ACWC) concluded its Seventh Meeting convened on 22-24 July 2013 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Meeting was participated by ASEAN Member States (AMS) and the main event was the finalisation of the draft Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (VAW) and Elimination of Violence Against Children (VAC). The said Declaration addresses the concern of VAW and VAC as obstacles to achieving equality, peace and development, and reflects the collective efforts of ASEAN to intensify and strengthen policy, legal frameworks and institutional capacity to counter VAW and VAC. The ACWC reaffirmed its commitment to remove such obstacles in the context of strengthening regional cooperation, collaboration, and coordination endeavored to eliminate VAW and VAC. Goals and commitments made related to such were reaffirmed and key measures, such as building adequate resourced national welfare systems, protection, recovery and rehabilitation of victims, promotion of legislation against VAW and VAC, protection of the right of women and children, were highlighted. The Declaration further enhanced the coverage of vulnerabilities and emerging forms of abuse confronted by women and children such as conflict, migration, disaster, emergency situation, climate change, human trafficking, labor, cyber based abuses, persons with disabilities, statelessness and belonging to ethnic and/or indigenous groups were to be addressed.
The Meeting recognised the contributions of AMS, sectoral bodies and Civil Society
Organizations (CSOs) in providing relevant inputs in enriching the Declaration period. The Meeting further accentuated the need for intensified collaboration and partnership among AMS, CSOs, governments, and relevant institutions, both local and international, to effectively eliminate VAW and VAC. The Declaration will be presented to the 23rd ASEAN Summit in October 2013 for adoption.
Other matter taken up was the progress of implementation of projects and activities led by AMS under the ACWC Work Plan 2012-2016. A total of ten proposals for funding by EU under the READI Facility were taken up and plans were firmed up to proceed with implementation. Likewise country coordinators appraised AMS of respective initiatives to promote rights of women and children, justice for women victims, strengthening economic rights of women, impact of climate change, standards on service delivery for children with disabilities, review mechanism in managing and treatment of trafficed women and children, promotion of best practices in eliminating VAW and VAC, economic empowerment of women, and key action points to campaign, legislate, document and strengthen efforts to stop VAW and VAC. Supports extended by external parties from the EU, USA, and New Zealand were recognized and follow up activities with said parties were discussed in pushing forward the ACWC’s efforts in eliminating VAW and VAC.
The Meeting culminated with a visit to the Ministry of Women, Family, and Community Development of Malaysia and the TASKA Nur, Child Care Center.
The eighth ACWC meeting was scheduled in early 2014 at the ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Source http://www.asean.org/component/zoo/item/seventh-press-release-of-the-aseancommission-on-the-promotion-and-protection-of-the-rights-of-women-and-childrenacwc?Itemid=101
