| Overview : The “Regional Programme on Improving Women’s Human Rights in Southeast Asia” (CEDAW SEAP), implemented by the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), funded by the Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFADT), endeavors to contribute to the reduction of discrimination against women in Southeast Asia. The CEDAW SEAP Phase II, is being implemented from mid 2012 through mid 2016, covers eight countries in the region, including: Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam. The CEDAW SEAP aims to achieve three main outcomes, namely: (1) increased skills and knowledge for ensuring CEDAW compliance in development and monitoring of new and revised legislative frameworks; (2) increased awareness among formal and informal justice system actors of CEDAW commitments; and (3) strengthened monitoring and accountability mechanisms for implementation of CEDAW commitments.
Thailand acceded to CEDAW in 1985 with 7 reservations on participation in political and public life, nationality, education, employment, legal capacity, marriage and settlement of dispute by International Court of Justice. In 2000, Thailand ratified the Optional Protocol to CEDAW. Thailand has made significant progress in line with the recommendations from the CEDAW Committee relating to law reform. Gender discriminatory provisions in the laws on nationality, prostitution, labor protection, education, marital rape, betrothal, divorce have been repealed. Anti domestic violence legislation and procedural legislation to protect the aggrieved women have been adopted in 2007, the same year as the latest Constitution which reaffirmed the guarantees for equality between women and men, expanded to protect women’s rights in the trial process particularly in sexual violence cases and provided them access to services. It also reiterated national obligation to implement international human rights treaties. However, there are still serious shortfalls in terms of their real impact on women’s human rights, including inadequate institutional capacities of government agencies in different sectors to implement and monitor the State commitments under CEDAW.
In terms of access to justice of women facing violence, the findings of a UN Women-supported study on Sexuality in Court Decisions in Thailand conducted in 2007 indicated that court decisions on sexual violence cases were not just based on application of the law, but were influenced by individual interpretations of judges derived from their personal beliefs, values and opinions. The study also found that some court decisions included the history of women’s sexuality and background, thus not adequately taking into consideration the dynamics and complexities involved around the incidences of violence. As a consequence, in cases of women convicted of murder, the decision to imprison them often does not take into account their experience as victims/survivors of violence (domestic violence, sexual assault) prior to the commission of the murder. These attitudes and biases are also found among other justice personnel and support service providers. With such biases and institutional barriers, most f women victims/survivors do not receive an immediate, adequate and/or fair response from some service providers, especially concerning legal aid from the state justice system. Their voices are thus not fully heard. The high cost of litigation, language barriers, geographical distance separating many women victims/survivors from courts, inadequate capacity of justice personnel also prevent women, especially marginalized women, from coming forward and pursuing their claims for their rights both through the formal domestic and through international legal/human rights channels such as Optional Protocol to CEDAW. In the southernmost provinces where Muslim Personal Law on Family and Inheritance is incorporated into the state system including the quasi-state mechanism like an alternative system to dispute resolution, different rules regarding marriage, divorce and inheritance are currently applied to women and men resulting in gender inequality and discrimination of women’s human rights.
For Thailand, key State institutions involved in monitoring of implementation of the CEDAW Convention and of other international treaties are the Office of Women’s Affairs and Family Development (OWAFD) of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security as the national machinery for the advancement of women, and the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT) as the public accountability mechanism for human rights promotion and protection, including investigation into violence cases.. The OWAFD is about to submit Thailand’s report to the CEDAW Committee. The NHRCT is developing CEDAW indicators together with the rest of international human rights treaties and welcomes the recommendations of the CEDAW Committee’s by planning to prepare the independent report to ensure closer collaboration for promotion, protection and realization of human rights of women and girls. Along with the State organizations, the women’s NGOs also play monitoring and advocacy roles in the follow-up actions recommended in the CEDAW Committee Concluding Observations. The draft alternative reports of women’s NGOs and the tribal women’s groups received initial support from UN Women during CEDAW SEAP Phase I and need further updating and improvement in order to be submitted by the end of 2014.
The OWAFD, NHRCT and women’s rights NGOs have a significant role to play in ensuring women’s access to justice (including marginalized women) and they also have a crucial role in the monitoring of State follow-up actions to assess their compliance to CEDAW Committee’s Concluding Observations. A lot more needs to be achieved to enhance knowledge and awareness of women’s human rights and gender equality, and national commitment among stakeholders to be able to effectively use CEDAW principles, the Optional Protocol, and to develop indicators to improve women’s access to justice, taking into account interaction of women’s human rights violations in state and non-state justice systems.
Please find more information in the following link: http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs |
