Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697633433475.pdf (Australia)
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick 28 May 2014 Ms Sonya Fladun Inquiry Secretary Human Rights Sub-Committee Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Parliament House Canberra, ACT, 2600 By e-mail: jscfadt@aph.gov.au Dear Ms Fladun, House of Representatives: Inquiry into the human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific region Thank you for the opportunity to inform the Human Rights Committee Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade in relation to its Inquiry into the human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific region.
Challenges to the human rights of women and girls in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific region, especially regarding the impact of family and sexual violence, women's leadership and economic opportunities Women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific region face a range of human rights challenges ranging from gender-based violence (from the State, from the community and from intimate partners and family members, and including forms such as domestic and family violence, sexual assault, trafficking, forced or early marriage, female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices), to discrimination in many areas of public and private life – including unequal pay for work, sexual harassment in the workplace, unequal access to health, education and employment and discrimination in relation to property and inheritance laws.
They also face unequal access to justice and remedies for crimes committed against them and human rights violations.

There is an under-representation of women in leadership positions across the public and private sectors.

Entrenched gender stereotypes perpetuate gender inequality and discrimination across the region.
Achievements to date in advancing women and girls’ human rights in these key areas; Supporting civil society organisations that promote and protect women’s and girl’s human rights Australian Human Rights Commission ABN 47 996 232 602 Level 3 175 Pitt Street Sydney NSW 2000 GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 General enquiries Complaints infoline TTY www.humanrights.gov.au 1300 369 711 1300 656 419 1800 620 241 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 21 Women and girls, and women’s organisations, have played a prominent role in developing and implementing solutions and providing support for women and girls experiencing human rights violations.
Actively working with and supporting women’s non-government organisations and other civil society organisations promoting women’s and girl’s human rights, has been an effective way of addressing such issues in the region.
The UN Commission on the Status of Women at its 58th session encouraged governments to increase resources and support for grass-roots, local, national, regional and global women’s and civil society organizations to advance and promote gender equality.1 The Australian Government could further support and focus needs to be placed on the empowerment of women and the human rights of women and girls, including the protection of the rights of women human rights defenders.
Supporting National Human Rights Institutions NHRI engagement in bilateral cooperation with women’s organisations can advance the rights of women and girls in the region.

The Australian Human Rights Commission’s Human Rights Technical Cooperation Program which has been in operation since 1998 and is funded under the Australian Government’s aid program is one example.
China-Australia Human Rights Technical Cooperation Program: The Commission is cooperating with the All China Women’s Federation (ACWF) to support their pilot project on the establishment of crisis intervention centres for women and children affected by domestic violence.

They have established two pilot centres, in Hebei Province which provides direct assistance for women affected by domestic violence and in Beijing which focuses on research and data collection.
The Commission has also provided training and capacity building for staff of the centres.

In addition the Commission organised Domestic Violence Internships in Australia on 10-24 January 2014.

The internships provided further experience and skills development to support the ongoing development of these domestic violence crisis centres.
Vietnam-Australia Human Rights Technical Cooperation Program: The Commission is cooperating with the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) to advance women’s rights.2 In 2013, joint cooperation resulted in improved knowledge of women rights and legal information for 4,992 people in Quang Binh Province.
This was achieved through the distribution of leaflets to individual households; establishing legal bookshelves at commune information centres; organising community competitions on legal knowledge; conducting community art performances; and providing free mobile legal counselling services in association with the Department of Justice and Vietnam Lawyers Association.
The information disseminated included materials and advice on land rights, ethnic minority rights, trafficking in persons, domestic violence, gender equality, and marriage and family.

The Australian Government could actively engage with and support National Human Rights Institutions and the Asia Pacific Forum, within its programs in the region.
2 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 21 NHRIs are a vital part of strong national human rights protection systems in the region.3 They play a key role in linking the international and domestic human rights systems.

The Asia Pacific Forum works closely with NHRIs in the region to strengthen the institutional human rights capacity of States.
Together, they provide practical and effective support for good governance and human rights that are essential building- blocks for a prosperous region, both economically and socially.

In 2012, the APF adopted its Action Plan on the Human Rights of Women and Girls: Promoting Gender Equality.4 The Action Plan is a framework that sets out a number of practical commitments that APF member institutions have agreed to promote and protect human rights.
Implications for economic and social development in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific region of promoting women and girls' human rights Gender equality has been internationally recognised as a critical factor for the economic and development agendas for individual countries as well as the global economy.

The 58th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (2014) assessed the challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls.
The Agreed Conclusions recognised the empowerment of women and girls, their enjoyment of their human rights are essential to economic and social development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals; and the need to integrate women’s and girl’s human rights into development and alleviation of poverty.5 The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have also highlighted the importance of increasing women’s participation in workforces and in economic structures.
The recent World Bank report, Gender at Work: A Companion to the World Development Report on Jobs recognises that closing gender gaps in workforce participation is a prerequisite for ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity.
Drawing on a large body of evidence that demonstrates both the business and development benefits of increasing women’s workforce participation, the World Bank notes that raising female employment to male levels could have a direct impact on GDP, increasing it by 34 percent in Egypt to and 9 percent in Japan and in places where women’s paid work has increased, as in Latin America and the Caribbean, gains have made significant contributions to overall poverty reduction.6 The World Bank has called for bold, innovative measures to level the playing field and unleash women’s economic potential including:  eliminating legal and formal barriers to women’s work  removing restrictions to women’s work in labour and employment; and  allowing and encouraging women’s ownership and joint-titling of land; enforcing equitable inheritance laws.7 3 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 21 The World Bank also notes in its report Voice and Agency: Empowering women and girls for shared prosperity that enabling women’s and girl’s agency (eg promoting and protecting women’s and girl’s rights to: live lives free from violence; reproductive health; and equal representation in leadership positions) can generate significant outcomes in addressing gender-based violence and advancing women and girls’ economic security and development.8 The IMF has equally recognised that the lower contribution of women to measured economic activity growth has serious macroeconomic consequences.
It notes that the employment of women on an equal basis would allow companies to make better use of the available talent pool, with potential growth implications.9 Citing the ILO, they note that women’s work, both paid and unpaid, may be the single most important poverty-reducing factor in developing economies.10 The Asia Development Bank estimates that gender inequality and discrimination against women in this area of public life costs Asia USD 47 billion annually.11 The recent 2014 Meeting of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade also recognised the need to promote women’s active participation in national economies in the Quingdao Statement (17-18 May 2014) We reaffirm that greater inclusion of women in economic activities will expand prosperity in the region and is an investment for the future.
Women’s active participation in the economy at all levels, particularly in decision-making and governance, innovation activities, will result in favorable business environment, which are essential in addressing inclusive, sustainable and innovative growth objectives.12 The effectiveness of Australian programs to support efforts to improve the human rights of women and girls in the Indian Ocean - Asia Pacific region.
To increase the effectiveness of Australian programs to support efforts to improve the human rights of women and girls in the Indian Ocean-Asia Pacific region it is essential to integrate the promotion of gender equality and the rights of women and girls into Australia’s foreign affairs, economic development, trade, and aid policies and programs.
Such integration needs to be systematic across all areas of Australia’s foreign affairs, economic development, trade, and aid agendas, and not limited to isolated women’s and girl’s programs.

In particular there needs to be strong focus on addressing gender equality and women’s and girls’ human rights in Australia’s new aid architecture.

Especially, in terms of increasing the investment for programs that address women’s and girl’s human rights within the aid program.
There would be value in prioritising programs within Australia’s trade and aid portfolios that focus on gender equality and women’s rights programs.
For instance programs that aim to: increase women’s economic participation - particularly in decent work in the formal sector; recognise and value unpaid caring work, undertaken predominantly by women and girls; and increase women’s representation 4 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 21 in leadership positions across public, private and community sectors.

Equally Australia should focus on programs to address violence against women and girls.
Violence has been recognised as having a significant cost on economies and is a key constraint to women’s participation in the economy and national development.
…violence against women and girls are impediments to the development of their full potential as equal partners with men and boys in all aspects of life, as well as obstacles to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals… [and] social and economic development.13 The focus of gender equality programs should also consider the intersectional discrimination and inequalities faced by disadvantaged and marginalised women, including Indigenous, women living in poverty, women in insecure and informal work, women from minority groups, women and girls with disability etc.
Internationally the Australian Government should also promote gender equality and women’s and girl’s rights in forthcoming international development frameworks including the post-2015 framework.
The Agreed Conclusions from the 58th session of the UN Commission on the Status of women called for the adoption of a twin track approach to gender equality in the post-2015 framework, specifically by: Gender equality, the empowerment of women and human rights of women and girls to be reflected as a stand-alone goal and to be integrated through targets and indicators into all goals of any new development framework.14 As a member of the UN Security Council, the Australian Government also has a strong opportunity to promote gender equality within the regional and global security agendas, most specifically through supporting the empowerment of women and girls, and the promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls through the implementation of UN Security Resolution 1325 and related resolutions.
Recommendations:  Integrate the promotion of gender equality and the rights of women and girls into Australia’s foreign affairs, economic development, trade, and aid policies and programs.

 Increase the investment for programs that address women’s and girl’s human rights, particularly within the aid program.

 Actively work with and support women’s non-government organisations and other civil society organisations promoting women’s and girl’s human rights and NHRIs in the region.
We hope this information is useful for the Committee’s deliberations.

If you require any further information please contact Alison Aggarwal 5 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 21 Yours sincerely Elizabeth Broderick Sex Discrimination Commissioner 1 UN Commission on the Status of Women, Agreed Conclusions (2014), para 42 (ddd).

UN Doc E/CN.6/2014/L.7.

At http://www.unwomen.org/co/csw/csw58-2014#sthash.nggiautt.dpuf (viewed 20 May 2014).
2 Bilateral cooperation with the VWU has been in operation since 2006 and takes place under the Vietnam-Australia Human Rights Technical Cooperation Program, funded by the Australian Government and implemented by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

3 See the Asia Pacific Forum’s submission to the Inquiry.

4 Asia Pacific Forum, Action Plan on the Human Rights of Women and Girls: Promoting Gender Equality (2012).

At www.asiapacificforum.net/support/issues/womens_rights (viewed 20 May 2014).
5 UN Commission on the Status of Women, Agreed Conclusions (2014), paras 11-13.

UN Doc E/CN.6/2014/L.7.

At http://www.unwomen.org/co/csw/csw58-2014#sthash.nggiautt.dpuf (viewed 20 May 2014).

6 World Bank, Gender at Work: A Companion to the World Development Report on Jobs (2013), p1.

At http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/gender/publication/gender-at-work-companion-report-to-world- development-report-2013-jobs (viewed 5 May 2014).
7 World Bank, Gender at Work: A Companion to the World Development Report on Jobs (2013), p3.

At http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/gender/publication/gender-at-work-companion-report-to-world- development-report-2013-jobs (viewed 5 May 2014) 8 World Bank, Voice and Agency: Empowering women and girls for shared prosperity (2014).

At http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/gender/publication/voice-and-agency-empowering-women-and- girls-for-shared-prosperity (viewed 20 May 2014).
9 International Monetary Fund, Women, Work, and the Economy: Macroeconomic Gains from Gender Equity (Staff Discussion Note 13/10) (2013), p5.

10 International Monetary Fund, Women, Work, and the Economy: Macroeconomic Gains from Gender Equity (Staff Discussion Note 13/10) (2013), p5.

11 Asian Development Bank and International Labour Organization, Women and labour markets in Asia: Rebalancing for gender equality, (2011).
12 APEC, Quingdao Statement, 2014 Meeting of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade (17-18 May 2014), para 56.

At http://www.apec.org/Meeting-Papers/Ministerial-Statements/Trade/2014_trade.aspx (viewed 20 May 2014) 13 UN Commission on the Status of Women, Agreed Conclusions (2014), paras 30 and 32.

UN Doc E/CN.6/2014/L.7.

At http://www.unwomen.org/co/csw/csw58-2014#sthash.nggiautt.dpuf (viewed 20 May 2014).

14 UN Commission on the Status of Women, Agreed Conclusions (2014), para 43.
UN Doc E/CN.6/2014/L.7.

At http://www.unwomen.org/co/csw/csw58-2014#sthash.nggiautt.dpuf (viewed 20 May 2014).

6 Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 21