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Thursday, March 22, 2012

On the eve of the ACSC and the APF, the 1st Cambodian Women's Forum (CWF) gathered over 120 Cambodian NGOs who advocate for Women's and Children's Rights


On 21-22 March, 2012, SILAKA hosted the first Cambodian Women’s Forum with the support and collaboration with regional and international donor organizations including Oxfam Great Britain (Oxfam-GB), Life With Dignity (LWD), United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UNWOMEN), and Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD).

As the residing chairman and the host of the ASEAN Summit,  it is essential to harness the opportune moment to collectively voice our concerns regarding the pertinent issues plaguing Cambodia and the Cambodian people to insure that our issues are addressed during the upcoming ASEAN Intergovernmental Meetings leading up to the ASEAN Summit later in 2012. 

Participants represented various network of National Non-governmental Organizations whose efforts to promote and advocate for the protection and promotion of women and children’s rights. The forum was attended by over 120 participants from different Cambodian NGOs, and it was held for two days focusing on different topics which were previously identified and strategize during a plenary session on 12 March, 2012 lead by Mrs. Thida Khus, SILAKA Executive Director and the National Focal for Cambodian Women’s Caucus (CWC). 

 The forum objective set out to collect concerns, problems, recommendations, and suggestions of affected and vulnerable women from Cambodia to put in the joint statement to be presented during the upcoming ASEAN Civil Society Conference (ACSC)/ASEAN Peoples’ Forum (APF) will be held in Phnom Penh, on March 29-31, 2012.
 
Related Links

Cambodian Women's Forum Participant List                                                            PDF file click here
Cambodian Women’s Forum (CWF) Joint Statement 20-21 Mar 2012- Khmer       PDF file click here
Cambodian Women’s Forum (CWF) Joint Statement 20-21 Mar 2012- English      PDF file click here


Cambodian Women Skeptical of ASEAN


Participants at the Cambodian Women's Forum by Meng Kimlong
‘”Cambodian women have the most to lose from the planned 2015 ASEAN integration, a coalition of more than 100 Cambodian women said yesterday at the Cambodian Women Forum.’”

By Tep Nimol
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Phnom Penh Post

 Workshop participants listen to speakers at the Cambodian Women Forum yesterday afternoon. Women have the most to lose from ASEAN integration, the forum says. Because Cambodian women are so poorly educated, when the job market opens up, competition from other countries like Thailand or Malaysia will adversely affect the unemployment rate of Cambodian women, attendees said.

“The ASEAN integration in 2015 will badly affect Cambodian women, particularly in such areas as economics, industry, unemployment and external labor migration,” Thida Khus, Executive Director of SILAKA, said.

“This is because of how poorly educated women are.”

The Cambodian Women Forum will be calling on ASEAN to reconsider the current integration plan for 2015.

Thida Khus said, ‘”The Cambodian government should raise questions with ASEAN about how this integration will affect competition in the job market between the women in other ASEAN countries.’”

The forum also discussed labor issues and said that garment workers, karaoke parlour employees and domestic workers are the most abused, underprivileged women in Cambodia.

Soun Sokunthea, a garment worker in Phnom Penh, said worker representatives also intend to send a complaint to ASEAN about the abuse, ill health and low wages of workers making high-priced garments.

Tun Sreyphea, 23, a karaoke worker, said that problems in her industry were common across ASEAN.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Cambodian Women's Caucus Statement to AICHR on AHRD




Cambodia Women Caucus Statement on AHRD

Women’s Rights are ASEAN Human’s Rights

In solidarity with ASEAN Women, we ask that the ASEAN Ministerial whom going to meet in Phnom Penh in a couple a days, to ensure that the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) is shaped by a process founded in transparency, inclusiveness and accountability to the 600 million ASEAN peoples, with the aim to strengthen institutional understanding and capacity of states to implement its human rights obligations.

We recognized the effort of ASEAN in conducting the process with limited consultation with Civil Society Organization at the national and regional level, but however, only Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, and Cambodia have conducted national consultation. The Consultation conducted only on key principles of the AHRD, but didn’t release the first draft of AHRD to participants for review and comments.

The Cambodian Women Caucus, as a member of Southeast Asian Women Caucus on ASEAN, we hope that this process would be the step towards engaging with various communities. For the AHRD to be relevant to its people both men, women, and children; it must go further in the processes to be informed by the realities on the ground, which can be provided only with the feedback from practitioners, with genuine interest and effective mechanisms to engage grassroots communities included unions in meaningful dialogues, and offer all of us the sense of ownership and pride ASEAN.

But the previous consultations  lacks  genuine consultation , we are concerned that the AHRD will have the language and substance below the international human rights standards. The AHRD must refer to the treaties, legally binding documents, and Universal Declaration on Human Rights especially should refer to the Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

We urge the ASEAN member states to fully incorporate state obligations to the international human rights treaties and agreed commitments of the various rights-based global policy documents in shaping the spirit and text of the AHRD. The AHRD must assure that the important gains and struggles of women’s movements around:

1.      the rights to bodily integrity;
2.      the sexual reproductive health and rights;
3.      the sexual orientation and gender identity;
4.      the rights in marriage and family life; and
5.      Freedom of movement and citizenship especially in a region. 

If these women rights are not guaranteed, women and girls are bearing dangerous consequences. The ASEAN region   must inspire to be model for the rest of the world on women’s human rights. As part of the bigger women’s movements, we forge on to keep these from being overlooked or diluted. As AHRD will set the tone for other human rights documents, including an ASEAN Convention on Women, for instance, this document are fundamental to the people in the region. 

We reiterate that women’s rights are ASEAN human’s rights!
This is the only way forward for ASEAN to shape an enabling environment for people-centered sustainable development, economic growth, peace and security!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Women’s Caucus Submission on the AHRD in Khmer Language


On March 1 2012, the Cambodian Women Caucus (CWC) through SILAKA Organization and Positive Change for Cambodia were contracted by Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) to implement activities in correlation with the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) Campaigning Project.

Subsequently, a localized version of the Women’s Caucus submission on the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration is now available in the Khmer Language. The submission was translated by SILAKA. The original English version was submitted to AICHR on 21 October 2012, as a result of a series of consultations.

PDF file below:
Khmer Version PDF file click here (Under Construction)

More information of Southeast Asia Women's Caucus Visit there page at: SEA Women's Caucus Official Website

Localised AHRD Campaign Material available in Khmer


On 21 October 2011, the Southeast Asia Women’s Caucus on ASEAN made a submission on the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD with the goal of advancing women’s human rights in the first
Rights Human Declaration in ASEAN and the Asia Pacific region.

In the process of gaining support for this submission, the Women’s Caucus (WC) embarked on a     serious of national and regional campaigns which would essentially promote the need to integrate the perspective of women’s human rights into the AHRD draft. The activities required to implement the campaign included translations of the submissions into the national language, publication of the case studies showcasing the stories of ASEAN women, workshops on AHRD, cost effective budget sensitive campaign materials, meetings with ASEAN officials and/or other international missions, videos production, road tours, media briefings, and key messages diffusion via video and radio plugs.

Subsequently, on March 1 2012, the Cambodian Women Caucus (CWC) through SILAKA Organization and Positive Change for Cambodia were contracted by Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) to implement activities in correlation with the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) Campaigning Project.

The action-oriented goal were set to provide a real, measurable ways to support a specific objective for the project implementation activities which include: to spread awareness on the Women’s Caucus’s submission on the AHRD and to translate and produce campaign material that will reach out to the masses with an ultimate aim of increasing visibility and citizen’s overall knowledge base on ASEAN and AHRD.

Outputs for the project included the translation of the submission of WC Submission on AHRD in Khmer and produce cost effective budget sensitive campaign material that will be utilized during the Women’s Caucus Campaign within the local context.

Campaign Material available: 
AHRD Poster in Khmer (A2), PDF file here

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

SCWHR in ASEAN Project Launch-30 November 2011 to 31 March 2012


I.          Introduction

On 30 November 2011, Silaka and UN Women entered into a contract with the project ID: 74770 Activity ID: DRF11, BCA-KHM-2011-002 “to engage Cambodia women groups and ASEAN bodies (particularly Cambodian representatives to AICHR and ACWC) to work together for better promotion and protection of women’s human rights”. The project period is 13 months from 30 November2011 to 30 December 2012. This report covers 4 months period from 30 November 2011 to 31 March 2012. This project is called: “Strengthening Cambodia Contribution to Promote and Protect Women’s Human Rights in ASEAN” or in short:  “SCWHR” in ASEAN project.

SILAKA commits to achieve project goal and outcomes; since we submitted the proposal to UN Women, SILAKA facilitated 22 Women and children organizations to organized 6 meetings to form Cambodian Working Group on the Rights of Women and Children-CWRWC with Vision, Mission, Two year plan, Structure, and Role and responsibility. And during this report period SILAKA worked hard and successes in building solidarity of women and children NGOs to organize Cambodia Women Caucus and launched the project among its members, mobilizing resources among Cambodia Women Caucus as well as international NGOs to organize The Cambodia Women Forum on 21-22 March 2012, as part of the activities planned for SCWHR in ASEAN project.

The following is the first quarter report implemented by SILAKA carried out with 3 core strategies to increase awareness on ASEAN process, procedure and mechanisms women rights advocates, civil society organizations, and the general public in advocacy with ASEAN to make ASEAN more responsive to the rights of women and girls:
o   Networking and Partnership
o    Establishing and strengthening Cambodia NGOs Women Caucus include Cambodian Working Group on Women and Children Rights in ASEAN (CWCR-ASEAN) and coordinate existing sub-national and national levels both with the demand and supply sides to share lessons learned and innovative ideas on how to strengthen participation of women in the promotion and protection of women’s human right at the national and regional level, ASEAN.
o    Coordinating to build and maintain partnership among key stakeholders, including CNCW, AICHR, and ACWC representatives in Cambodia, the Ministry of Women Affairs and civil society organizations, especially women’s groups to share responsibilities, joint actions, and collaborate closely to address women and girls issues.
·         Empowerment
o    Building capacity of Cambodia young generation for future effective advocacy for promotion and protection of women’s human right in sub-national, nation, regional, and international level.

o    Building capacity of Cambodia NGOs Women Caucus and its members, Young Women Activists, and provincial NGOs to confidentially educate their respective CSOs, community people including indigenous and minority groups to be able to exercise their rights and to participate in the advocacy for promotion and protection of women’s human right.

o    Building ownership and commitment of social actors through media campaigns and Face book on Legal framework of Women’s human Rights in Cambodia Vs ASEAN and its obligation to response to CEDAW. 

o    Facilitating the Cambodian Women CSO Caucus to be operationalized to implement the strategies and to further mobilize resources to support the implementation of the strategy.
·         Communication
o    Using positive and action oriented (Non-Violent and Active Communication model) as the core principle for advocacy with different stakeholders. The principles will be the foundation for all communication of this project, with the aim to engage them in positive and constructive dialogue to bring about desirable results to the women as a whole.  The techniques contained with the teachings of Non-Violent and Active Communication and establishment of communication mechanism enable individuals to build connection based on what they share in common (universal human needs) and to work through that recognition to arrive at greater understanding and a willingness to find creative solutions to problems.

o    Maintaining communication with national, regional and international civil society and government entity to exchange best practices of advocacy ways and together advocate for better promotion and protection of women’s human rights

o    Using the easy and broadly communication system to share information on ASEAN women activities, ASEAN women network in Cambodia, situation on women’s human rights in Cambodia and ASEAN.

II.            Expected Results

In order to respond to the project’s goal, SCWHR in ASEAN project has the following outcomes and outputs:

Outcome 1- Cambodian women’s NGO caucus is strengthened to effectively advocate for the promotion and protection of women’s human’s rights to ASEAN bodies at local and regional level.

Output.1.1-        Working group of Cambodia NGOs working on Women issue is established with functional coordination and communication mechanisms.
Output.1.2-        Young women activists are empowered to effectively advocate for better promotion of women’s human rights
Output.1.3-        Information on ASEAN, situation of women in Cambodia is prepared and disseminated to public and ASEAN representatives
Output.1.4-        Women’s human rights and concerns are reflected in the program of 2012 ASEAN People Forum

Outcome 2- Strengthened relationship between women’s NGO caucus and ASEAN Human Rights bodies

Output 2.1-        Cambodian civil society’s inputs on the draft of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration are consolidated and submitted to Cambodia representatives of AICHR and ACWC
Output 2.2-        dialogues conducted with AICHR and ACWC representatives on thematic areas of AICHR and ACWC priority 

Related Project Documents
1. SCWHR Project -PPT presentation-click here
2. SCWHR Project- Brochure-  click here


Friday, October 21, 2011

Women’s Caucus Submission on the AHRD to AICHR

Principles: The Southeast Asia Women’s Caucus on ASEAN, also known as the Women’s Caucus, is committed to uphold and ensure the following three Principles:
  •  Human Rights For All Above All, particularly for the more vulnerable, marginalised, disadvantaged women and girl children; 
  •  Ensure Accountability to Women and the Peoples of Southeast Asia through independent, transparent, effective and responsive processes and structures which are consistent with Member States’ human rights obligations to protect, promote, fulfil and realise the human rights of women. This includes extraterritorial obligations and recognition of primacy of human rights over and above other obligations;
  • Meaningful and Substantive Participation and Representation of Women in ASEAN which is inclusive and representative of the diverse and multiple sectors of society aimed at eliminating discrimination and ensuring substantive equality of all women in Southeast Asia.

 Women’s Caucus’ submission on ASEAN Human Rights Declaration
The South East Asian Women’s Caucus on ASEAN sent its initial submission on the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) to ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) on 21 October 2011. The submission is a result of a series of national and regional consultation among the Women’s Caucus members, their partners and communities. The submission highlighted among different human rights, non-discrimination, sexual and reproductive health and rights, freedom from violence, decent work, freedom of movement, equal rights and roles in marriage, participation in peace processes.
Further Reading