The brief has been developed under the ‘Enhancing Access to Justice for Women in Asia and the Pacific’ Regional Programme, jointly implemented by UN Women, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Commission of Jurists, with generous support from the Government of Sweden.

In partnership with the Governments of Australia and the Republic of Korea, UN Women developed a five-year Regional Framework Towards Inclusive and Peaceful Societies, outlining strategies to tackle the most pressing governance and peace and security challenges across the Asia-Pacific region. This brief summarizes key approaches under the framework.

Indonesia recognizes that a stable, just and peaceful society cannot be achieved without acknowledging and highlighting women’s important role in building peace, preventing conflict and addressing emerging security threats such as climate change and violent extremism. Within the global framework of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), Indonesia has endeavoured to localize the WPS agenda into a National Action Plan (NAP). In 2014, through a Presidential Decree (Perpres No. 18), the first NAP for the Protection and Empowerment of Women and Children during Social Conflicts, also known as NAP WPS, was launched. It included three pillars: prevention, mitigation and empowerment, and participation of women and children.

Gender equality is a precondition for achieving Sustainable Development Goals and any kind of meaningful and sustained progress, including in laying out the foundation for peaceful and resilient societies. This brief outlines how the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific will support inclusive governance processes in the region for the years to come.

This ‘Easy Read’ document highlights the key learnings and recommendations discussed during the joint event ‘Access to Justice for Women With Intellectual and Psychosocial Disabilities,’ led by UN Women in partnership with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Irish Centre for Human Rights, University of Galway and the International Disability Alliance, during the World Justice Forum 2022.

In December 2020, Sustineo was engaged UN Women under the Women in Leadership in Samoa (WILS) Project to lead the design and implementation of Research on Leadership Pathways of Women in Samoa.

The Project Empowering women for sustainable peace: preventing violence and promoting social cohesion in the ASEAN aims to support ASEAN in advancing the implementation of the WPS agenda, including preventing violence against women and promoting social cohesion in the region. This report is a simplified and infographic version of the annual donor report 2021.

This book is a compendium consolidating 8 good practices from ASEAN member states, organized along the four Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 priorities of understanding disaster risk, strengthening risk governance, investing in DRR for resilience, and enhancing disaster preparedness for building back better.

This report identifies both the persistent trends and changing gender dynamics of violent extremism in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on an expert survey and interview research conducted between July and November 2021. It examined how and to what extent misogyny and hostile beliefs are fuelling violent extremism in the Southeast Asian region during the pandemic, the degree to which misogyny and hostile beliefs in the ASEAN region are fuelling violent extremism, and how these manifest themselves in the offline space.

The regional project Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace: Preventing Violence and Promoting Social Cohesion in ASEAN aims to achieve the ultimate goal that ASEAN Member States will advance and strengthen the implementation of the WPS agenda, including preventing violence against women and girls and promoting social cohesion in the region.

The regional project Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace seeks to operationalize a simple but revolutionary idea first introduced in the landmark United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) – that peace is inextricably linked to equality between men and women.

This brief provides an overview of the Rights of Nature, how the global movement is being translated into regional action, and its connection with indigenous knowledge and systems of living in harmony with nature. 

This issue of the WA2J Quarterly Brief highlights the project initiatives from April - November 2021 under the joint UN Women, ICJ, and OHCHR project titled "Enhancing Women’s Access to Justice in the Asia Pacific: Bridging the gap between formal and informal systems through women’s empowerment." The aim of the joint project is to make justice accessible for women by strengthening the formal justice system and creating an enabling environment for justice seekers by working with civil society organizations, women human rights defenders, and community-based justice mechanisms as well as initiating regional, national and community dialogues. The project is generously supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency SIDA.

A Sex, Age, and Disability Disaggregated Data (SADDD) pilot survey was conducted in three of the most climate-vulnerable districts in Bangladesh: Kurigram, Satkhira, and Cox’s Bazar.

The Bangkok Rules commit states, including the Philippines, to reduce the incarceration of women, and if they are already in prison, protect their rights and uphold their dignity.

The use of digital technologies in the justice sector has gained considerable momentum against a background of global trends in accelerating technology advancement, combined with an urgency to transform processes in the justice chain amid improve limited access to courts during the COVID-19 pandemic. What does this mean for access to justice for women and gender equality in the justice system? Read more in this op-ed titled What are the digital dividends for women seeking e-Justice?

The programme Enhancing Access to Justice for Women in Asia and the Pacific: Bridging the gap between formal and informal systems through women’s empowerment aims to make justice accessible for women by strengthen the formal justice system and to create an enabling environment for justice seekers by working with CSOs, women human rights defenders, and community-based justice mechanisms.

This Resource Pack for Orientation of Justice Sector Stakeholders has been developed by UN Women Pakistan to orient justice sector officials in Pakistan for understanding the process of legal aid/ assistance/ advice, client handling, and management of cases of Gender-Based Violence for better dispensation of justice. It details pro-women laws and legislative provisions and serves as a reference guide that can be adapted to respond to the needs of each particular audience.

Women entrepreneurs have always faced multiple challenges—from lack of working capital to difficulties in coordination of their businesses due to their care and domestic responsibilities. These obstacles have only increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 70% of women entrepreneurs reported being ineligible for credit under the recently launched Government of India’s AtmaNirbhar Bharat economic stimulus package.

This brief explores key ways that the work of WHRDs has been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, and how countries can ensure the work of WHRDs is recognized and protected during this time.