ASEAN gets commission for children and women

Thursday, April 8, 2010
Sri Wahyuni
The Jakarta Post
Hanoi

ASEAN officials inaugurated Wednesday the Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC), to augment the human rights body established last year.

The ACWC has a mandate to, among others, develop policies, programs and innovative strategies vis-à-vis the rights of women and children in the region.

“As commissioners we have the task of improving the standard of implementation of the rights of children,” Indonesian ACWC commissioner Ahmad Taufan Damanik said after the inauguration, held a day prior to the bloc’s summit, which kicks off Thursday in Hanoi.

Under the terms of reference of the establishment of the commission, the ACWC comprises representatives from the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Each state is represented by two commissioners, one for women’s rights and the other for children’s rights, who serve three-year terms and may be consecutively reappointed for an additional term.

Child rights activist Damanik, based in North Sumatra, has been appointed the Indonesian commissioner for child rights, while activist Rita Serena Kalibonso, from the Mitra Perempuan women’s crisis center, has been named the country’s commissioner for women’s rights.

“In the next three years, we are mandated to establish a children’s and women’s rights monitoring system in Southeast Asia and will deal with sensitive issues relating to children and women,” Damanik said.

Among the issues are child trafficking, abuse and labor, which he said was experienced almost universally in the 10 ASEAN member states.

Some states also face the problem of child combatants.

Damanik said tackling child trafficking could begin by focusing in the Mekong Delta countries of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, and between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Indonesian human rights activist Yuyun Wahyuningrum, who works with ASEAN, lauded the inauguration of the ACWC and said the new body had an even bigger mandate than the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR).

“The ACWC has a protection mandate, which the AICHR doesn’t,” she said in Hanoi.

She added the ACWC had the mandate to support the participation of women and children in the dialogue and consultation processes in ASEAN as related to the promotion and protection of their rights.

“This opens up the opportunity for public participation in the processes,” Yuyun said.

Indonesia’s representative to the AICHR, Rafendi Djamin, was upbeat about the rights commission and the ACWC working together and cooperating closely to prevent an of overlap of responsibility or scope of work.

Djauhari Oratmangun, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s director general of ASEAN affairs, said the establishment of the new commission boded well for the region.

“Some five years ago it was difficult to imagine that ASEAN would have special bodies dealing with human rights issues,” he said.

“Now, a year since the ASEAN Charter took effect, we have inaugurated the AICHR and the ACWC.”

UNICEF exhibition highlights children's rights

November 6, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

It's 20 years since UNICEF opened up the Convention on the Rights of the Child for countries to sign.

And ahead of the anniversary in nine days time, an exhibition has opened in New York showcasing some of the issues surrounding children's rights.

Presenter: Richard Ewart
Speakers: Guy Jacobsen, director, 'Redlight'; Ann M. Veneman, executive director, UNICEF; Anthony Asael, founder, Art in All of Us

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

EWART: Called "Art in All of Us", the exhibition was based around a book that features the art, photography and poetry of children. It also features the film documentary 'Redlight' which turns the spotlight on child trafficking in Cambodia.

SFX: 'Redlight'.

EWART: The film is produced and narrated by the Hollywood actress, Lucy Liu, who is also one of UNICEF's goodwill ambassadors. The director, Guy Jacobsen, says the movie sets out to inspire, by showing how people are overcoming the complex challenges involved in tackling the trafficking problem.

JACOBSEN: It's a very inspirational story. Not of the gloom and doom of how horrible things are, but to the contrary, how incredible people on the ground have been able to make a dent into this problem, even in the most difficult situation.

SFX: 'Redlight'.

EWART: The UNICEF exhibition was opened by the organisation's executive director, Ann M. Veneman. She says film and photography can be a powerful mechanism for exposing practices that might otherwise remain hidden from general public view.

VENEMAN: Photography and film are powerful means of shining a spotlight on the issues that are often left in the dark.

EWART: The founder of Art in All of Us is Anthony Asael. He says the issues affecting children can often be expressed most powerfully by the children themselves, using their own images and their own written words.

ASAEL: Sometimes they fear in some countries to speak out: having a camera or having pencils or using their hands, it's a lot easier for them to express themselves. So it's a very good opportunity that each kid in the world can grab that opportunity to speak out, and give their own opinion and express themselves.

EWART: UNICEF describes Art in All of Us as a powerful tool, bringing together a child's right to self expression, and the power of art as a vehicle for change.

Everyone wants development, but at what cost?

I wish to thank The Cambodia Daily for its full page story on the work of human rights defenders and the victims of land grabbing and forced evictions, in the article "Envoy Lambastes Government on International Human Rights Day" (Dec 11). Praise must be given to the UN human rights envoy Professor Yash Ghai for fulfilling his mission and for his tireless efforts to bring to light the grave violations committed by the Cambodian government in dealing with land issues and forced evictions—all in the name of development.

The failure of the government to meet with Professor Ghai shows its lack of responsibility as a signatory to UN conventions, in particular to the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

CEDAW provides the basis for realizing equality between women and men through equal access to, and equal opportunities in, political and public life—including the right to vote and to stand for election—as well as education, health and employment.

Among the principles covered in the CRC is the right to life, survival and development and the requirement to a child's best interests in all matters affecting them.

The government’s lack of policy and disregard for the Land Law, police brutality and corruption in the judiciary dealing with evictions are grave violations of our rights to be treated as human beings and destroy our children's hopes for a life free from fear and injustice.

Hundreds and thousands of our women, children and men continue to be victims of land grabbing and forced evictions because the city needs to be "beautified" or because the government is in need of land for development

I do not believe that our people are against development and progress, but the destruction of our children's hope for a better future and the damage to the well-being of their families is too high a price tag.

The governments win-win development policy benefits a few while victimizing and brutalizing too many.

Mu Sochua
Deputy Secretary-General,
Sam Rainsy Party