CEDAW Southeast Asia Programme (CEDAW SEAP)

UNIFEM is implementing a four-year programme to strengthen CEDAW in Southeast Asia. The programme is funded by CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) and commenced implementing activities in late 2004.

This programme is designed to facilitate the realisation of women’s human rights in the Southeast Asian region, through the more effective implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in seven countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Vietnam.

In-depth consultations with a multiplicity of stakeholders in the seven countries over the past year have generated widespread consensus on designing the programme to achieve three inter-linked outcomes as follows:

Outcome 1:	Increased awareness of women’s human rights and deeper understanding of CEDAW by state organs and organised civil society groups including women’s NGOs
Outcome 2:	Capacity of governments and organised civil society, including women’s NGOs to promote women’s human rights under CEDAW, are strengthened at the national and regional levels.
Outcome 3:	Stronger political will and commitment to CEDAW implementation generated/strengthened by popularising CEDAW and helping to develop women’s knowledge and capacity to claim their rights

Built upon these three envisaged outcomes, CEDAW Southeast Asia Programme aims to stimulate and support systematic action at the national and regional levels to overcome critical constraining factors which have hindered implementation of CEDAW in the region to date. The programme will specifically target the substance of discriminatory laws, institutional structures and procedures, and cultural factors, through an integrated, multi-sectoral approach that involves the main organs of government, organized civil society, and the general citizenry in activities to enhance CEDAW implementation in strategically selected areas of concern to women.