UN Women at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review and the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence

Photo: UN Women/Pornvit Visitoran

24 November | 25 November | 26 November | 27 November | 28 November | 29 November

The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review will bring together government officials, representatives from civil society organizations, think tanks, academic institutions, youth organizations, UN entities, independent experts and other key stakeholders from across the Asia-Pacific region to assess progress and challenges in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in Asia and the Pacific over the past 5 years.

The regional meeting takes place within the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, an international campaign aimed at mobilizing action to end violence against women and girls. The campaign commences on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and continuing until 10 December, Human Rights Day.

As a convener of the Beijing+25 Meeting and a global lead in the area of ending violence against women, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific is organizing and supporting a series of different events throughout the 3-day conference.

24 November

WHAT: Public Initiative to End Violence against Women Migrant Workers for 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence Campaign

“Spotlight on Women Migrant Workers” with an exhibition “Who Made This?: Behind the scene”

As part of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence Campaign, Safe and Fair Thailand by UN Women in partnership with Winrock International will organize an exhibition “Who Made This?: Behind the scene” highlighting experiences and challenges including gender-based violence women migrant workers have faced in their migration journey. Also, there will be interactive activities for participants to learn more about the rights and opportunities of women migrant workers and how they can help promoting their rights. In addition, there will be a panel discussion joined by representatives from Diocesan Social Action Center (DISAC), Labour Rights Promotion Network (LPN), Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ), and Police hospital’s One Stop Crisis Center (OSCC) who will share their insight of essential service delivery for women migrant workers subject to violence.

The event will be in Thai but there will be English speaking volunteers from Thammasat University who will assist participants with English summary.

WHEN: 24 November 2019, 10:00 – 18:00

WHERE: 2nd floor, Tha Maharaj riverside complex

WHO (in the order of appearance):

• Ms. Sumana Phakbulawat, Diocesan Social Action Center (DISAC)
• Ms. Patima Tungouchakul, Labour Rights Promotion Network (LPN)
• Ms. Chontit Chuenurah, Chief of Programme on Implementation of the Bangkok Rules and Treatment of Offenders (IBR), Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ)
• Dr. Danukrit Klampakorn, One Stop Crisis Center (OSCC), Police Hospital

25 November

WHAT: On International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Thammasat University as a first in Thailand, announces its commitment to “Say ‘No’ To Sexual Harassment on Campus”.

In showing their commitment, Thammasat University has set up a Committee on Ending Sexual Harassment on Campus and Promoting Gender Equality in October 2019 where UN Women introduced the Guidance Note on Campus Violence: Prevention and Response and will provide technical support to the body.

Thammasat University is one of the most prestigious state-run tertiary education and research institutions with the student body of 41,333, teaching faculty of 2,082 and 7,563 supporting personnel. Presided by the vice-rector on student affairs and composed of law professors, public health professionals, a medical doctor, human resources development and two external members from the National Health Promotion and a representative from UN Women, the Committee aims to end gender-based discrimination, support survivors, facilitate complaint mechanisms and promote gender equality on campus.

WHEN: 25 November 2019, 12.00 – 18.30 hrs.

WHERE: SC Hall, Social Sciences Lecture Hall, Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus

WHO: (in the order of appearance)

• Associate Professor Gasinee Witoonchart, Rector
• Professor Dr. Orapan Poachanukoon, Vice-Rector, Student Affairs
• Ms. Isobel Rivera, Head of Partnerships and Resource Mobilization, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
• Assistant Professor Dr. Ronnapoom Samakkikarom, Faculty of Public Health and National Committee on Gender Discrimination Complaints and Grievances, Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, and
• Ms. Vijita Rajatanantikul, Deputy Director-General, Department of Women’s Family Affairs and Family Institution, Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.

27 November

WHAT: Rewriting the Narrative: The Asia-Pacific Regional Commemoration for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence

UN Women will organize the Asia-Pacific Regional Commemoration for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence to kick off the campaign, with the global theme “Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands against Rape”. The Commemoration will feature the E. Quality talks session where survivor-activists share their experiences of gender-based violence and violence and their motivations for becoming activists, and artistic performances to involve guests in learning about gender inequality in creative, engaging ways. The Commemoration will ultimately act as a call to action for CSOs, policymakers, member states, and youth to challenge the status quo of violence against women and establish concrete commitments for positive change.

WHEN: 27 November 2019, 12.00-14.00 (Lunch will be served from 12.00-12.40)

WHERE: Conference Room 2, United Nations Conference Centre

WHO (in the order of appearance):

• Ms. Anna-Karin Jatfors, Deputy Regional Director, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
• Ms. Cindy Bishop, a host, model and actress, and creator of the #Don’tTellMeHowToDress Campaign
• Mr. Mohammad Naciri, Regional Director, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
• Ms. Dubravka Šimonović, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its causes and consequences

28 November

WHAT: Asian and Pacific Ministerial Conference on Beijing+25 Review

Session: Review of progress made and challenges to realizing gender equality for women and girls in the thematic area of “Ending Violence against Women, Stigma and Stereotypes”

The review of the Beijing Platform for Action provides a unique opportunity to address violence against women as a key dimension for the achievement of development goals and for addressing the unequal power relationships between women and men. In this context, the panel will be an opportunity to discuss the best practices for prevention, response and protection of survivors, by States and civil society, as well as discuss the constraints and challenges that have held back progress in eliminating violence against women. Discussions will present an opportunity to reflect on progress made, remaining and emerging challenges since the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, as well as to identify necessary steps to accelerate progress in the area of ending violence against women.

The discussion will focus on the following issues:

• The manifestations and prevalence of violence against women and girls, stigma and stereotypes in the region of Asia and the Pacific;
• Underlying causes of violence against women;
• The response of States and other stakeholders to violence against women and girls;
• Measures to accelerate efforts for the elimination of violence against women.

The panel will assess progress and challenges to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in Asia and the Pacific over the past 5 years in the area of ending violence against women and girls; highlight innovative solutions and exchange good practices and lessons learned; review priority actions required to stop all forms of violence, stigma and discrimination; and contribute to call to action for Governments to take measures to end all forms of violence, stigma and stereotypes.

WHEN: 28 November 2019, 10.35-12.00

WHERE: Conference Room 1, United Nations Conference Centre

WHO (in the order of appearance)

• Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Huyen, Vice Director of Gender Equality Department, Viet Nam
• Ms. Bandana Rana, Vice Chair of the CEDAW Committee, Nepal
• Ms. Kim Henderson, Director, Policy and Evaluation, Our Watch, Australia
• Ms. Veronica Fonova, Leader of the youth Kaz-Fem group, feminist activist, Central Asia

WHAT: Side Event at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review

Gender equality and online violence against women: experiences from South Korea and Asia

This side-event is co-organised by UN Women, the Korean Women’s Development Institute and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family of the Republic of Korea. The side event will explore how the global agenda for women’s rights, such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, have been implemented in Asia, with a particular focus on the experience of South Korea. The event will highlight the prevailing issues and future challenges within the Beijing +25 framework in thematic areas such as gender-mainstreaming, women’s health and gender-based violence. This side-event will enable discussion of the role and risks related to technology and women’s rights, highlight good practices and multi-stakeholder approaches required to address online violence against women and girls. It will provide an opportunity to leverage evidence on this new form of violence, the role of technology in promoting and hindering women’s rights and discuss promising practices. The event will include time for Q&A.

WHO:

Speakers:

• Ms. Jung-ok Lee, Minister of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Republic of Korea
• Ms. Insook Kwon, President of the Korean Women’s Development Institute
• Dr. Kyung Hee Kim, Director of Center for Gender Impact Assessment
• Dr. Young Taek Kim, Research Fellow, Korean Women’s Development Institute
• Dr. Jiso Yoon, Associate Research Fellow, Korean Women’s Development Institute
• Ms. Zarizana Abdul Aziz, Director of the Due Diligence Project
• Ms. Sandy Kunvatanagarn, Public Policy Manager, Facebook Thailand

The event will be moderated by Ms. Anna-Karin Jatfors, Deputy Regional Director, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

WHEN: 28 November 2019, 12.00-13.50, Conference Room 3 (*Light lunch will be served from 12.00-12.30 in front of the room)

RSVP: http://bit.ly/b25sideevent

WHAT: Celebrating the 20th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325: Identifying good practices on Women, Peace and Security across ASEAN

2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, which established a powerful normative framework to ensure women’s needs, voices and perspectives to prevent, resolve and recover from conflict and build sustainable peace. The side event will provide a platform for ASEAN and experts in the region to identify priorities and key interventions to overcome challenges for implementation in all or some of the six gap areas identified in implementing the Women, Peace and Security agenda in the diverse context of ASEAN. Organized by the ASEAN Secretariat with support from UN Women.

WHEN: 28 November 2019, 12.30-13.30

WHERE: Public Foyer, UNCC

WHAT: Realizing gender equality for women and girls in the thematic area of “Environmental conservation, climate action and resilience building”

The aim of this panel is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the situation, and to identify key strategies going forward to ensure gender responsive climate and disaster resilience across Asia and the Pacific. This in turn will contribute to realizing gender equality for women and girls in environmental conservation, climate action and resilience building.

WHEN: 28 November 2019, 15:35 - 17:00

WHO

• Mr. Mizan R. Khan, Deputy Director of International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and Programme Director of LDC Universities Consortium on Climate Change, Bangladesh
• Ms. Amelia M. Nairoba, Acting Principal Research Officer; Research, Policy & Monitoring Unit, Ministry of Women, Children & Poverty Alleviation, Fiji
• Mr Joe Mari S. Francisco, Development Management Officer, National Commission for Climate Change, Philippines
• Mrs. Nguyen Ngoc Ly, Director, Center for Environment and Community Research, Viet Nam
• Ms. Seblewongel Negussie, Gender and Social Specialist, Green Climate Fund, Republic of Korea

The event will be moderated by Ms. Anna-Karin Jatfors, Deputy Regional Director, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

WHAT: Borderless Youth Forum Showcase: Innovation & Gender Justice

The side event will showcase the outcomes and learnings from the two TIJ-UNODC Borderless Youth Forums held in 2019. The key messages will be particularly focused on the perspectives of youth, and how to address gender-based violence, e.g. through empowering young generations to orbit out of their norms to ensure gender equality for generations to come. Organized by the Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ); with support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific and UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

WHEN: 28 November 2019, 17.00-18.00

WHERE: Meeting Room A, UNCC

WHAT: Champions for Climate Change: Women fighting for climate action

How are women and girls in Asia-Pacific leading climate action? This interactive ted-talk style event aims to bring together women leaders, activists, innovators and champions across sectors to build awareness of experiences and tangible examples of driving institutional and community change in building gender-responsive climate resilience. The event will aim to capture intersectional voices of women and girls harnessing policy, community and civic action, technology, innovation, in the face of great socio-economic resistance, to raise their voices for climate action. Organized by UN Environment and the ACT Alliance with support from UN Women Asia-Pacific.

WHEN: 28 November 2019, 17.00-19.30

WHERE: Theatre, UNCC

29 November

WHAT: The launch of the exhibition “Extraordinary Women: Journeys out of the Ordinary”

With this exhibition the Spotlight Initiative through the Safe and Fair Programme, would like to celebrate the strength of women migrant workers in ASEAN. Migration benefits individuals, families, communities and countries. Migration enables many women to escape poverty, violence households and experience empowerment as they live, and work in another country. Along with the many positive stories of migration, there are also many women still experience violence during the migration route. This exhibition is shining a spotlight on 16 women who, despite experiencing violence, decided to become activists in their own communities and are now collaborating with grassroots organizations to support the new generation of women migrant workers so that their experience of migration can be SAFE and FAIR. The exhibition will be displayed throughout the 16 Days of Activism Gender-based violence, from 25 November to 10 December.

WHEN: 29 November 2019, 12.00-12.30

WHERE: Ground floor, United Nations Conference Center

WHO (in the order of appearance):

• Ms. Anna-Karin Jatfors, Deputy Regional Director, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
• Ms. Panudda Boonpala, Deputy Regional Director, ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

WHAT: Special event: Partnerships for gender equality

Time is Now: Partnerships and innovative financing to close the gender gap

This special session, co-organized by UN Women and UN ESCAP, will provide an overview of trends and challenges in funding gender equality and women’s empowerment globally and in the region, and highlight the strategies and innovative methods that various stakeholders are taking to close the finance gap to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, and the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. Through an interactive dialogue, the speakers will share experiences, best practices and challenges on the business case for investment on women’s empowerment and discuss the importance of cross-sector collaboration to drive systemic change, and to create impactful shared-value based partnerships. The event will include time for Q&A.

WHEN: 29 November 2019, 11.00-12.30

WHERE: Conference Room 2, United Nations Conference Centre

WHO (in the order of appearance):

• Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Executive Secretary, ESCAP [TBC]
• Ms. Anita Bhatia, Deputy Executive Director and Assistant Secretary-General, Resource Management, Sustainability and Partnerships, UN Women
• H. E. Ms. Lee Jung Ok, Minister of Gender Equality and Family, Government of the Republic of Korea”
• Mr. Jeff Senior, Chargé d’affaires a.i., Embassy of Canada to Thailand
• Ms. Sonomi Tanaka, Chief of Gender Equity Thematic Group, Asian Development Bank
• Ms. Caroline McLaughlin, Chief Partnerships Officer, Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN)

The event will be moderated by Mr. Mohammad Naciri, Regional Director, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

WHAT: Side Event at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review

25 years after Beijing: promising practices and successful measures in enhancing safe migration for women workers in ASEAN

The side event will provide an opportunity to discuss promising practices and successful measures in enhancing safe migration for women in and from the ASEAN region. The side event will bring out voices of women migrant workers’ expectations and experiences related to migration, both positive experiences of empowerment, as well as negative experiences of violence, abuse and exploitation. The side event is organized as part of the Safe and Fair Programme, under the Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls, a global, multi-year initiative between the European Union and the United Nations.

WHEN: 29 November 2019, 12.30 - 13.00

WHERE: Public Foyer, Ground Floor, United Nations Conference Center

WHO (in the order of appearance):

• Dr. Ratchada Jayagupta, Representative of Thailand to the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC)
• Dr. Porametee Vimolsiri, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Social Development and Human Security
• Ms. Nguyen Phu Tan Huong, Vice Dean, Faculty of International Politics and Diplomacy, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam
• Ms. Maureen Pagaduan, Women's Legal and Human Rights Bureau, Philippines - Ms. Rebecca Napier-Moore, Research and M&E Officer, ILO

The event will be moderated by Ms. Anna-Karin Jatfors, Deputy Regional Director, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

RSVP: https://bit.ly/safsideevent

WHAT: Unlocking Opportunities for Empowerment through Gender-Sensitive Infrastructure

The side event will consist of a panel discussion with the participation of member State representatives, CSOs and academics. The panel will put forward innovative ideas on gender mainstreamed infrastructure design with best practices from around Asia. It will also explore synergies between the Beijing Platform for Action and the SDGs as relates to infrastructure and its potential to unlock opportunities for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. Organized by UNOPS and UN Women.

WHEN: 29 November 2019, 12.30-13.30

• WHERE: Meeting Room A, UNCC