New Directions and Focus Areas
Phases of Work from 1993-2007
IWRAW Asia Pacific has worked steadily since 1993 for the
progressive implementation of CEDAW. To view these activities and projects
chronologically, carried out by year from 2003-2007 click here.
New Phase of work for 2008 - 2010
The implementation of new aspects and focus areas of our
programme will be structured around the three programmatic strategies of Building
Capacity for Change; Enhancing Realisation of Rights; and Information, Dissemination,
Exchange and Application and bearing our past activities, achievements and
the present challenges to women’s human rights in mind, IWRAW Asia Pacific
now seeks to focus on:
- Consolidating the gains of our existing work by:
- Contribute to creating spaces for national level groups to work
towards the implementation of CEDAW nationally and regionally
- Implement a more strategic information dissemination programme
- Promote non-discrimination and equality at all levels of government
action towards the crafting and effective implementation of laws,
policies, and programmes, and securing remedies in cases of violations
or non-enforcement of these measures by state and non-state actors;
- Build capacity for litigation and use of OP-CEDAW;
- Enhance and expand areas of international advocacy to integrate
women’s perspectives of equality and non discrimination into:
- Work of other treaty bodies by expanding Global to Local to
other treaty bodies and charter based bodies and advise Global
to Local partners to send their CEDAW shadow reports to other
treaty bodies: CESCR, HRC, CRC, CERD and UPR
- the UN reform processes and treaty body reform
- Work with Special Rapporteurs including housing and health;
- Participate in expanding interpretation of standard at the
international level by contributing to the drafting of general
recommendations (CEDAW, CESCR)
- Input into the drafting (and eventual ratification and use)
of the OP ICESCR.
- Expanding our work to include:
- New Regions: Consolidating our work of strengthening
regional and national strategies located in women's realities in South
and South-East Asia, facilitating the building of regional strategies
for other regions including Pacific, Central Asia and Eastern Europe
as well as exploring the possibilities for such outreach and partnerships
in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America;
- New target groups: for building capacity to include:
- Governments: may include providing technical
assistance to governments on the implementation of the Convention;
reviewing draft laws and making proposals for law reform; assessing
compliance of legal system with convention requirements; developing
national plans of action for the implementation of the convention;
criteria for data gathering; develop monitoring indicators etc.
- Lawyers and Judges: building greater substantive
understanding of the principles of women’s rights to equality
and non-discrimination and their application in the law;
- National Human rights Institutions: building
capacity of NHRIs to engage in the CEDAW review process including
monitoring state compliance and reporting to the CEDAW committee;
- Mainstream Human Rights Organisations: building
capacity of mainstream human rights organizations to incorporate
a women’s human rights perspective into their work.
- New Dimensions of our work :
- Sharpening the orientation of our programmes towards exploring new
ways of addressing the following contexts and rights using the CEDAW
framework :
- Violence against women;
- Migration;
- Conflict/post-conflict;
- Erosion of women’s economic, social and cultural rights
in the context of neo-liberal globalisation;
- Federalism and decentralisation;
- Reproductive rights;
- Sexuality;
- Justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights
