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Catalyzing change for gender equality
The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review will meet in Bangkok this week to explore how more commitments of the Beijing Declaration can be met to improve the lives of women and girls in the region. Asia-Pacific governments have reviewed their progress and identified three priority areas where action is imperative to accelerate progress in the coming five years.
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Today, the region’s governments are committed to overcoming the persistent challenges of discrimination, gender-based violence and women’s unequal access to resources and decision-making. (JP/Budhi Button)
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reat strides have been taken to empower women and girls in the Asia-Pacific region in the 25 years since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing adopted an ambitious global agenda to achieve gender equality. Gender parity has been achieved in primary education; maternal mortality has been halved.
Today, the region’s governments are committed to overcoming the persistent challenges of discrimination, gender-based violence and women’s unequal access to resources and decision-making.
The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review will meet in Bangkok this week to explore how more commitments of the Beijing Declaration can be met to improve the lives of women and girls in the region. Asia-Pacific governments have reviewed their progress and identified three priority areas where action is imperative to accelerate progress in the coming five years.
First, we must end violence against women, a severe human rights violation which continues to hinder women’s empowerment. As many as one in two women in the region has experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner in the last 12 months.
Countries in the region have adopted laws and policies to prevent and respond to violence against women. This is progress on which we must build. In 2015, ASEAN adopted the Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and in 2018, the Regional Plan of Action on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Free legal services, hotlines and digital applications to report violence, emergency shelters and safe spaces for survivors are increasingly common.
New partnerships are underway that challenge stigma and stereotypes, working directly with boys and men. However, more investment is needed to prevent violence and to ensure that all women and girls who experienced violence will have access to justice and essential services.
Second, women’s political representation must be increased in Asia and the Pacific. Our region’s representation rates are behind the global average: Only one in five parliamentarians are women in the Asia-Pacific.
