Project profile — Improving Women's Rights in Southeast Asia

• Far East Asia, regional (100.00%)

• Democratic participation and civil society:
Democratic participation and civil society (15150) (15.00%)
Human rights (15160) (85.00%)

• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Gender equality (principal objective)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)

The aim of the project is to help achieve greater equality between women and men before the law in seven Southeast Asian countries. In support of this goal, the project focuses on improving access to equitable justice systems for women; strengthening the capacity of government and civil society experts to develop and implement legislation that is respectful of the United Nations Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; and helping to create regional standards with respect to equality between women and men.

Information on expected results is included in the description.

The programme contributed to stronger accountability and monitoring mechanisms on women’s rights through the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) reporting process. The programme also developed a guidance tool for CEDAW State report writing which is expected to be adopted by the CEDAW Committee as its global guidance. Results achieved as of the end of the project (June 2016) include: (1) 1,410 gender equality champions in eight program countries including government officials, senior officers, parliamentarians, lawyers, CSO, private sector and government parliamentarians, public security (police), Supreme court, prosecutors representatives improved their knowledge and skills related to CEDAW; (2) national and subnational government officials improved their understanding of how to integrate the principles of international conventions such as CEDAW into national and subnational laws and policies; (3)several regional and national non-governmental organizations improved their advocacy skills and were better equipped to monitor national policies and programmes and encourage CEDAW compliance; (4) National human rights commissions in Indonesia, Thailand, Timor-Leste and the Philippines proactively played a role in monitoring women’s human rights; (5)partnerships were developed with judicial training institutions, judges, parliaments and ministries of justice to ensure that laws being developed were CEDAW-compliant; and (6) 25 laws or strategies were enacted with inputs pertaining to gender equality across all countries with the exception of Myanmar.

• Proactive disclosure