Review
“We must ask ourselves why there was not much change to advance the human rights of women and put an end to injustice?”
In September 1995, after the fourth United Nations World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, a statement was published, among other things, that “women’s rights are human rights”. The resulting resolution identified 12 “critical areas of concern”, ranging from “the persistent and growing burden of poverty for women” to unequal access to education, to violence against women with “inequalities between men and women in the sharing of power and decision -making at all levels”.
Almost 30 years later, as Misun Woo – the regional coordinator of Pacific Women Forum, Law and Development (APWLD) – told the Diplomat’s editor, Catherine Putz, in the following interview, women continue to take many of the same challenges.
“We must ask ourselves why there was not much change to advance the human rights of women and put an end to injustice?” Woo stressed.
In the following interview, Woo highlights the interconnected nature of these challenges. It is not only patriarchy; Other “structural causes of marginalization and inequality” – such as globalization, climate change, various fundamentalisms and militarism – are at the origin of the stagnation of the rights of women and human rights in general.
In the coming years, Woo said: “It will be essential for feminist and women’s rights, in particular with feminist leadership in world South, to articulate solutions, recover the ways of living and the being that have been lost due to various forms of domination and oppression, and to connect these stories and solutions both vertically and horizontally.
By discussing with the many members and partners of APWLD across Asia, are there common themes with regard to the challenges that women face?
Women across Asia and the Pacific are faced with many forms of human rights violations and discrimination. These include sexual and sexual violence, deepening of poverty and economic exploitation – where the current global economy continues to extract the work of women (inexpensive), in particular in the work of unpaid / sub -paid care and the gap of the sexes – a political representation and a weak leadership power, and the expansion of inequalities and the lack of access to education and health. The debt crisis and privatization deepen these barriers, while the climate crisis and the intensification of the decline against feminist and human rights movements exacerbate these challenges.
The worst part of this story is that these continuous challenges faced by women are not new. For example, the Beijing for Action (1995) declaration and platform responded to the same concerns through its 12 critical areas of concern. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing declaration and action platform; The 25th anniversary of resolution 1325 of the United Nations Security Council, which communicates the Member States to support the participation and leadership of women in peace negotiations and post-conflict reconstruction; And the 10th anniversary of the Paris COP21 agreement on climate change and sustainable development objectives. However, for most women in Asia and the Pacific, this year will probably be a year of mourning because there has not been much change in rights violations, injustice, discrimination or inequalities they face.
We must ask ourselves why there was not much change to advance the human rights of women and put an end to injustice?
The answer is clear. This is because the structural causes of marginalization and inequality remain untreated. The causes are complex and interdependent, and therefore require long -term strategies and a cross pressure to change. APWLD’s analysis focuses on the merger of patriarchy with systems that regularly undermines women’s human rights: globalization, fundamentalisms and militarism, and how colonialism and imperialism continue to manifest itself in these interconnected oppression systems.
Thanks to countless conversations and the creation of space, we learn that there are common challenges with which women face Asia and the Pacific region. These common challenges do not work in silo but are deeply structural with intergenerational consequences composed on human rights of women. And this is why APWLD prioritizes these common challenges to help our intersectional movements to disturb and dismantle the very interconnected oppressions system.