Blog

An Organisational Update from IWRAW Asia Pacific

November 15th, 2023

Dear IWRAW-AP community, Over the past two years, IWRAW-AP has been through several processes as part of our commitment to growth and change. During this period, we have drawn on our rich legacy and contribution to a groundswell of women’s human rights activism regionally and globally. At the end of 2022, we completed an organisational […]

‘Grateful and privileged’: A farewell from Priyanthi Fernando

August 30th, 2023

Dear colleagues in IWRAW AP’s wider circle of partners, friends, and supporters, You would have been alerted in different ways that I am transitioning out of IWRAW AP as its executive director. The social media posts have made some very positive statements about IWRAW AP’s journey over the seven years of my tenure, and I […]

IWRAW Asia Pacific bids farewell to Executive Director

August 18th, 2023

Thank you Priyanthi ! At the end of August 2023, IWRAW Asia Pacific will bid a fond farewell to our outstanding Executive Director Priyanthi Fernando. During her seven-year tenure at IWRAW Asia Pacific, Priyanthi’s charisma, boldness, dedication, and expertise helped to steer our organisation through numerous complex challenges at both the external and internal […]

Feminists should put the Right to Development back on their agenda

January 9th, 2023

The Right to Development (R2D) emerged in the 1970s as the hallmark of post-colonial nations’ quest for a fairer economic order. Since its embodiment in the 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development, and despite the long-lived, tumultuous political debate that its recognition provoked between Global North and South countries, developing nations and human […]

Putting people and the planet at the helm of transformative climate action

December 7th, 2022

This blog post is adapted from an article co-authored by IWRAW Asia Pacific’s Environmental Justice Programme Officer, Marisa Hutchinson, and Fellow, Jhannel Tomlinson. The article was originally published on Open Global Rights. “For many Global South activists and communities, whose realities are already plagued by climate variability and change, the pledges and actions agreed […]

Towards a more inclusive feminist praxis: Strengthening advocacy through an intersectional lens

November 7th, 2022

“The better we understand how identities and power work together from one context to another, the less likely our movements for change are to fracture.” – Kimberle W. Crenshaw In the time following its introduction, the theory of intersectionality has become a fundamental aspect of a wide range of feminist and queer scholarship […]

Through the looking glass: CEDAW sessions within a hybrid model

August 12th, 2022

For the first time since the pandemic began, the CEDAW Committee met with the opportunity for in-person participation of both state delegates and NGOs. #CEDAW82 took place from 13 June to 1 July 2022 at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The Committee carried out constructive dialogues with eight states: Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, […]

The exclusion of Malaysian women with ADHD

April 15th, 2022

Like many other women’s issues in Malaysia, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Malaysian women is disregarded at varying levels. With little to no discourse on this matter, challenges faced by women with ADHD are swept under the rug. This blog post analyses the exclusion of women with ADHD in Malaysia in three parts. It explores the […]

Governance and resilience of Pacific women through the crises of climate change and COVID-19

March 25th, 2022

The Pacific is known to be one of the regions that is very vulnerable to climate change and climate-induced natural disasters. Today almost all the Pacific nations are battling the worst effects of climate change and COVID-19 in their communities. Many islands are finding it very tough to cope with the increasing impacts of climate […]

A template for change: The ILO’s C190 and justice for women at work

March 8th, 2022

It is no small fact that it has taken exactly 100 years for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) since its inception in 1919, to come out with C190 – the first-ever global treaty on violence and harassment in the world of work in 2019. History shows that the first few conventions of the ILO […]