International Women’s Day 2005

Celebrations in East and Southeast Asia

8 March 2005

United Nations, Bangkok

Rebuilding Women’s Lives in the Aftermath of Disasters The Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality organized the IWD event this year with a theme on “Rebuilding Women’s Lives in the Aftermath of Disasters”.  150 participants attended the event at United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok which  was covered by  the media.

The IWD theme on the impact of the 2004 Tsunami focused on women’s vulnerability in the aftermath of disasters and the importance of their role in the rebuilding process. Ms. Lucita Lazo, the Regional Programme Director of UNIFEM East and Southeast Asia, spoke about the importance of moving from a needs based response to disasters using a rights based framework for relief and rebuilding efforts, to ensure long term benefits to women’s lives.

During the panel discussion, opinions were exchanged on how the Tsunami has shown the existing inequalities between women and men and how some women have been subjected to increased sexual violence since the disaster. Many disaster relief efforts have failed to address the special needs of women, including pregnant, lactating and menstruating women.

Some emergency housing and toilet facilities have neglected to consider women’s needs, and women have not used them due to lack of privacy and security. Future disaster relief efforts must be guided by the principle of gender-sensitive programming that guarantees the right to equal participation in disaster needs analysis and response development, the right to non-discrimination in accessing resources, the right to equal access to health care services, the right to human security, freedom from violence, the equal right to access and own land and right to livelihood.

Thailand CEDAW SEAP Programme

Celebrating Our Gains, Accelerating Change

Gender and Development Research Institute, Bangkok Over 1,500 Thai grassroots woman leaders nation-wide met from 3 to 4 March 2005 at the   Gender Development Research Institute (GDRI) in Bangkok with joint support from UNIFEM through CEDAW Southeast Asia Programme to celebrate the International Women’s Day. The 2-day gathering was organized congratulating the newly elected women Member of Parliaments and seeking their support on legislative changes and affirmative measures to increase women’s representation in politics and administration; establishing linkages between the newly elected women MPs and women's organizations to ensure their full support to accelerate the changes and raising awareness of the participants and the public on the important role and contribution of women in economic, social and political development of the country.

The percentage of newly elected women MPs in the February 2005 election has increased from 8.6 percent to 10.6 percent. Half of them participated in the IWD event. All of them committed themselves to promoting the status of women while at the same time also asked for support from women and women’s organizations for the realization of their commitments.

During the special discussion on Newly Elected Women MPs: Commitments to Improve the Status of Women, women MPs from different parties shared their concerns on:

• women’s issues and their common commitment to support the amendment of discriminatory laws against women,
• the passage of domestic violence act
• the affirmative measures to allow equal proportion of women and men in the Sub-district Administrative Organizations.

 As a spin-off of this event, the leader of the key opposition party also delivered his statement in March 8, 2005 on the party’s concerns to promote more participation of women in social and economic development. He stated that the party was ready to resubmit the draft law on domestic violence for the consideration in the parliament. The draft law on women’s reproductive health would also be proposed.  This is the first time in Thailand that a major political party made a commitment to promoting women in development and addressing their concerns.

The Prime Minister’s plaques and certificates were given to 11 Outstanding Women in different fields, 1 Outstanding Man who has  advocated for women and 1 Outstanding Sub-district Organization with gender perspective in their budget allocation received the awards for their outstanding roles  as change agents toward gender equality.

A forum was held to share with the grassroots women leaders on topics relating to factors influencing their success, problems encountered, and strategies to overcome those problems, and their future plans to promote the roles and status of women in their respective communities.

Vietnam

Vietnam Women’s Union Conference Center

Hanoi The United Nations and the UNIFEM CEDAW SEAP Programme in Vietnam organized a panel discussion on Transforming the Roles of the Vietnamese Women In the 21st Century. Discussions highlighted the contributions of the Vietnamese women to their country’s development and in transforming the traditional roles of Vietnamese Women in the New Millennium.

Around 70 participants from the UN, business, art, journalism, science, education, social development sectors came together for the event.  Madame Ha Thi Khiet, President of the Women's Union and Chairperson of the National Committee for the Advancement of Women opened the Forum. Mr.Jordan Ryan, UN Resident Representative to Vietnam also attended the forum.

The panelists emphasized on the need for women to play an active role and be responsive to the challenges ahead. They also called for support from family, men, society and government to create an enabling environment for the advancement of women. Madame Duong Thanh Mai, Director of Law Research Institute, organized a session on CEDAW and how to use CEDAW as a means to obtain women’s human rights in order to gain gender equality. Her presentation on CEDAW was clear and easy to understand especially to the multi-stakeholder groups.

Ms. Rose Marie Greve,ILO Country Director, talked about the challenges for Vietnamese women in the New Millennium. Various issues and concerns were expressed during the open forum such as: qualifications for the modern Vietnamese women; call on the men to support and help the women in house work and other responsibilities; improving infrastructure to liberate women of the double burden of paid work and unpaid house work including deconstruction of the cultural stereotype about women in Vietnam.

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Updated: 16 March 2005