Enforcing Rights and Correcting Wrongs - Asia-Pacific Regional ...
Enforcing Rights and Correcting Wrongs - Asia-Pacific Regional ...
Enforcing Rights and Correcting Wrongs - Asia-Pacific Regional ...
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Outside the Middle East <strong>and</strong> North Africa, <strong>Asia</strong>-<strong>Pacific</strong><br />
has the highest percentage of CEDAW states parties<br />
with some form of reservation. It is also second only to<br />
the Middle East <strong>and</strong> North Africa in the percentage of<br />
countries that have not signed the CEDAW Optional<br />
Protocol, a complaint mechanism meant to strengthen<br />
enforcement of CEDAW. 43 In the <strong>Pacific</strong>, a study of nine<br />
countries on compliance with CEDAW within their laws<br />
found rates ranging from 18 per cent to 44 per cent, with<br />
Fiji having the highest ranking. 44<br />
Nevertheless, the CEDAW has been instrumental in some<br />
countriestoreformcivil<strong>and</strong>criminallaws.Forexample,the<br />
2003 Fiji Family Law Act removes systemic discrimination<br />
against women <strong>and</strong> children in a manner consistent<br />
with CEDAW. Vanuatu’s 2008 Family Protection Act<br />
is the only st<strong>and</strong>-alone legislation combating domestic<br />
violence in the <strong>Pacific</strong> which was guided by CEDAW<br />
<strong>and</strong> the Convention on the <strong>Rights</strong> of the Child. 45 Viet<br />
Nam is using CEDAW in its comprehensive review of<br />
legal normative documents that has followed the adoption<br />
of its 2006 Law on Gender Equality. In Cambodia, the<br />
Ministry of Justice is spearheading a CEDAW review of<br />
legislation on domestic violence, trafficking, domestic<br />
workers <strong>and</strong> marriage. 46<br />
In Nepal, although marital rape is still not a criminal<br />
offence, a judgment of the Supreme Court held that an<br />
exemption from marital rape conflicts with CEDAW. The<br />
Court used CEDAW <strong>and</strong> reasoned that if an act is an<br />
offence by its very nature, it is unreasonable to say that it<br />
is not an offence merely because different categories of<br />
individuals commit it. The Court ruled that marital rape<br />
is a denial of a woman’s independent right to existence<br />
<strong>and</strong> self respect. 47<br />
International instruments also aim to redress specific<br />
gender issues such as the conditions of female combatants.<br />
Women have been active participants in several armed<br />
conflicts <strong>and</strong> political upheavals – in Nepal’s Maoist<br />
movement, as volunteers in the Iraqi army, in the<br />
independence struggle of Timor-Leste, <strong>and</strong> in Sri<br />
Lanka’s Tamil conflict. They undergo intense physical,<br />
psychological <strong>and</strong> emotional experiences, <strong>and</strong> also pick<br />
up a variety of skills some of which are transferable to<br />
productive civil life. But post-conflict rehabilitation<br />
efforts that predominantly focus on civilians, refugees<br />
<strong>and</strong> other displaced population miss out on the special<br />
needs <strong>and</strong> enormous potential of females.<br />
Gender comes in the way when women <strong>and</strong> girls tend<br />
to be counted among camp followers <strong>and</strong> refugees<br />
rather than ex-combatants eligible for full rehabilitation<br />
packages. Both sexes share the same danger, insecurity <strong>and</strong><br />
living conditions as females function not just in “support”<br />
roles but also for all other activities like intelligence,<br />
combat, bombings <strong>and</strong> suicide missions, logistics<br />
<strong>and</strong> administration. To redress grievances of female<br />
combatants, the Security Council Resolution 1325, passed<br />
in 2000, aims to remove barriers to equal participation<br />
in peace building. 48 The Resolution encourages ‘all those<br />
involved in the planning of disarmament, demobilization<br />
<strong>and</strong> reintegration to consider the different needs of female<br />
<strong>and</strong> male ex-combatants’. 49<br />
There are other international instruments which address<br />
different aspects of discrimination against women. For<br />
instance Universal Declaration of Human <strong>Rights</strong> (1948),<br />
the International Covenant on Civil <strong>and</strong> Political <strong>Rights</strong><br />
(1966) <strong>and</strong> the International Covenant on Economic,<br />
Social <strong>and</strong> Cultural <strong>Rights</strong> (1966) address discrimination<br />
on the basis of sex. Thus, international instruments<br />
can support national efforts towards greater equality.<br />
Nevertheless barriers remain embedded in laws that<br />
govern justice systems. It is to these barriers that section<br />
four turns.<br />
14 <strong>Enforcing</strong> <strong>Rights</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Correcting</strong> <strong>Wrongs</strong>