Women
Women policy and administration
Doctors say survey underestimates number of women dying from botched abortions
Women denied the right to an abortion are injuring and killing themselves in an attempt to end their pregnancies, doctors and specialists say. In Yangon’s Central Women’s Hospital, it is estimated that from one-third to half of pregnancy deaths occur because of botched abortions, often ...
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 ...
As surrogacy industry expands, legal and ethical issues mulled
Despite a veil of secrecy, details are beginning to emerge about Cambodia’s burgeoning commercial surrogacy industry. In an article on the website Gays With Kids, a British-Polish couple has revealed how they became parents of one of the first surrogate babies born in Cambodia earlier this ...
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 ...
