Women policy and administration
Women’s rights
The challenge for Asia's female politicians
Asia is seeing a new wave of successful female politicians, but getting to the top requires hard choices. What a disastrous few months for women in politics. The world started 2016 with the hopes of seeing both the first female UN secretary general and first ...
Activists say urban insecurity hampers women’s capacity
Women’s rights activists have called on the government to consider the needs of women in its delivery of public services while also increasing its budget for women, and enacting and enforcing laws and policies to protect and promote their rights. Action Aid Myanmar, in cooperation with ...
Abuses prevalent for Cambodia's transgender women: study
An overwhelming majority of transgender women on Cambodia’s city streets are subject to “shocking” harassment and abuse, according to a new report from the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights. The report, released on September 21, also shines a light on a disturbing new practice that has allegedly ...
ASEAN can no longer sidestep its rights obligations
In 2007, the 10 members of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations celebrated the adoption of the Asean Charter that for the first time in the region’s history includes human rights as one of its principles and objectives. The charter seeks to implement a human ...
Rights groups give NLD poor marks on party’s ‘100 days’ record
Two international advocacy organisations have slammed the new Myanmar government for failing to address fundamental human rights shortcomings in its first 100 days in office, echoing recent criticism from the international community. In a joint statement, the International Federation for Human Rights and the Alternative ...
Ongoing challenges in Kingdom's efforts to end domestic violence
Slow action from courts and police, a dire lack of mental health counselling and sparse government funding were named as ongoing challenges in Cambodia’s quest to eliminate violence against women at a conference on 4 July. Minister of Women’s Affairs Ing Kantha Phavi said that while ...
Isolated and lacking labor rights, housemaids toil in silence
Khin Htar Kyu was in her late teens when she left her village in Irrawaddy Division’s Wakema Township with her younger sister to find work in Yangon to help her indebted family. Across Myanmar, there are tens of thousands of girls like Khin Htar Kyu who leave ...
Viet Nam hosts workshop on gender in rural transport
Some 80 delegates from 11 countries in the East Asia-Pacific region gathered in Viet Nam yesterday to discuss gender integration in rural transportation. The World Bank (WB) workshop, hosted in Ha Noi, is part of a regional Gender Capacity Programme for Rural Transport projects, including exchange ...
Religious leaders take stand on violence against women
Religious leaders from four major faiths in Myanmar called for an end to violence and discrimination against women during an International Women’s Day debate in Yangon over the weekend. The three-hour discussion was organised by UN Women and Religions for Peace, a Yangon-based interfaith group bringing together ...
UN chief calls for empowerment of women as “agents of change”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a message to mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, has called for the empowerment of women as “agents of change” to address pressing problems. In poor parts of the world today, women still risk death in the process of giving ...
