Judicial Colloquium on Access to justice for Women's Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in South East Asia

Objectives of the Judicial Colloquium:

1. To build on regional efforts towards strengthening women’s access to justice through a thematic lens  reflective  of  the  current  contexts  and  challenges  that  affect  women’s equal enjoyment of human rights within South East Asia;
2. To enhance understanding amongst judges on existing standards and principles under international human rights treaty law in relation to justiciability of women’s ESC rights;
3. To promote holistic interpretation and implementation of human rights principles by judges  so  as  to  secure  the  full  benefit  of  the  constitutional  protection  for  women claiming violations of ESC rights;
4. To enable open forums of discussions regarding best practices, challenges and obstacles in adjudicating cases relating to ESC rights in general and examining the impact of resulting jurisprudence on women’s enjoyment of ESC rights at the domestic level.

Outputs of the Colloquium will be as follows:

1. Greater pool  of peer advocates amongst  the judges within the region on issues relating to women’s ESC rights
2. Compilation of positive examples and best practices within the region including – best practices in adjudication of cases relating to women’s ESC rights; best practices on use of  human rights principles in adjudication of ESC rights cases in general (i.e. cases without specific claims of sex discrimination) with potential impact on enhancing women’s access to justice for similar violations relating to education, health employment and land and property rights;  best practices on implementation of international standards and principles of women’s human rights and gender equality in judicial pronouncements/ judgements which hold potential in impacting claims relating to women’s ESC rights.

Related documents:

• Concept Note
• Resource Guide to Advancing Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Using OP-CEDAW and OP ICESCR: Manual on Claiming Women’s Economic Social and Cultural Rights titled “Claiming Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights” (IWRAW, April 2013)

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