Human Rights

The realization of women’s human rights is at the centre of UN Women’s work. Constraints on fundamental freedoms are daily realities for many women in South East Asia.

Educational and economic disparities between men and women, inadequate female representation in politics and public life, and entrenched law enforcement, judicial, cultural and religious practices legitimise violations of women’s human rights, which perpetuate gender inequality.

Governments have obligations to advance women’s human rights. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is described as the bill of women’s rights. All ten countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have ratified or acceded to CEDAW.

UN Women in Action

Since 2004, UNIFEM has provided support to national actors in government and civil society to implement CEDAW and strengthen women’s human rights in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam.

The UN Women CEDAW South East Asia programme works in the following areas:

• with governments to develop technical expertise, political commitment, and constitutions, laws and policies to implement CEDAW across its legislative, judicial and executive branches
• with civil society organizations to build expertise, maximize the use of CEDAW in their advocacy and services, and to hold governments accountable in their commitments to women’s human rights
• to enhance the responsiveness of these national mechanisms by putting special emphasis on marginalized groups such as poor or indigenous women

Signs of progress in the realization of women’s human rights in Southeast Asia include:

• a growing pool of national CEDAW experts and resource persons advocating for gender responsiveness
• an expanding array of national resource materials enabling increased public awareness, capacity development and advocacy
• a strong and diverse monitoring network of civil society organisations

Heightened awareness of CEDAW, including knowledge exchange between countries, is enabling the advancement of gender equality as a universal human rights issue and is contributing to the emerging dialogue about rights between government and civil society.

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