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peakers at a two-day conference opened in Yogyakarta on Thursday agreed that parliamentarians, government institutions, NGOs and civil society must work together to eliminate violence against women throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Secretary-General of the Asian Forum of Parliaments on Population and Development (AFPPD), Pinit Kullavanijaya, said that efforts must be focused on ending discrimination and violence against women, empowering women and protecting the most vulnerable.

“It is the aggregate power of individuals and collective action which will result in our successfully achieving our goals,” Kullavanijaya said in his address at the regional ministers’ and parliamentarians’ conference.

Some 75 members of parliaments and staffs of women empowerment ministries from 17 Asia-Pacific countries joined the conference, jointly organized by AFPPD and the Indonesian Forum of Parliaments on Population and Development (IFPPD) with support from AusAID.

Since its inception in 1981, Kullavanijaya said, AFPPD has seen good progress and achievements in the duction of violence against women.

This included drafting new legislation and reviews of existing laws including those aimed at reducing gender disparities and addressing gender-based violence in countries such as Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.

Speaker of the House of Representatives of Indonesia, Marzuki Alie, agreed, pointing out that the House had passed Law No 23/2004 on the elimination of domestic violence.

Another speaker, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative in Indonesia Jose Ferraris, however, reminded listeners that the passing of laws was not the ultimate goal. “Our responsibility does not stop there,” he said.

Parliamentarians, according to Ferraris, must also play a part to ensure that the laws they have passed are translated into tangible actions which bring positive change; actions that will help women’s voices to be better heard, actions which provide protection and support for women, and actions to ensure that perpetrators of violence are penalized.

Violence against women, he added, is a complex and multifaceted issue that requires a comprehensive approach that should involve parliamentarians, the judiciary, the police and law enforcement agencies, social welfare agencies and civil society including women’s organizations and religious and traditional community leaders.

AusAID’s principal adviser on gender equality, Gillian Brown, agreed, saying that parliamentarians played a key role in changing attitudes and improving responses to violence against women within their respective communities.

This, according to Brown, included ensuring that their respective country’s justice systems would be able to provide protection for women against violence, acting as a deterrent against possible offenders, and imposing penalties on those who committed domestic violence and sexual assaults.