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Conference Report: The Solutions
Seeing Women's Rights as Personal Rights - and Targets for Advocacy
Too often, the human rights debate is conducted by lawyers in distant, sanitized conference rooms in Geneva or New York. In fact, agreed the seminar, human rights affect everyone's daily life. The challenge for advocates and campaigners begins in helping victims to make the connection, and identify the remedies to seek redress. When remedies do not exist, they must be created.
Accountability and advocacy have combined in dramatic fashion in South Korea, where several aging victims of Japanese brutality during the Second World War have realized – ever so belatedly – not just that their rights were violated, but that they can do something about it. Helped by ASCENT, one of the seminar organizers, several of these "comfort women" have told their story to a shocked world, and even taken the issue to the Japanese courts. It is an extraordinary story. Events that happened 50 years ago, and which had long ago been dismissed as the unfortunate by-product of war, have been turned into dramatic personal stories that catch the imagination and place violence against women in war on the international agenda. Who today does not know about the comfort women?
It took the Asian comfort women more than 50 years to tell their stories, despite the fact that they were victims of the atrocities of the Second World War. It might have happened only yesterday – so horrendous were the details of their sufferings in the comfort stations, and so terrible the denial of justice.
For Indai Sajor it is time to apply the same energy to areas of a woman's life previously thought of as "private."
"We must recognize our choices as women and that means recognizing our own bodies, and determining our lives. The right to self-determination is very relevant to women, as it would encompass the right to gainful employment, right to spirituality, right to political involvement, and the right to redress. When we ask women to stand up for their rights, we must understand that it is easier said than done."
In explaining how participants should think of rights, she urged them to consider "reproductive rights." This concerns aspects of everyday life that are not usually thought of in terms of international human rights – even less of violations in the traditional sense. But, said Sajor, "our communities and our whole society is shaped by our reproduction."
"Reproductive rights must include the rights to an abortion. This, of course, is a very sensitive issue in many countries. For example, the Philippines is a Catholic country – if I had an abortion I would go to jail. Also, doctors who help women to have abortions can go to jail. Costa Rica, Cuba, and Nicaragua are also very Catholic, very conservative countries where women are denied access to abortion. So they have started a campaign on the right to menstruate! Somehow, a blood clot is harder to identify with than a fetus. The law in the Philippines allows women to have ligation, and clinics provide it for free. But we still need our husbands' permission to have it done. In other words, the state decides whether women will be given the choice. Cambodia and Vietnam are more advanced [in that] they leave the decision to the women.
"Abortion is legal in Vietnam, illegal in Indonesia. In Thailand, it is only allowed in cases of rape or to save the health of the mother, or if a disease will pass to the unborn child. In Cambodia the law is more comprehensive. The woman can decide during the first three months. After that, it depends on whether the women has problems, or on the health of the fetus. If the mother is under 18, her parents have to give permission."
Allies and Entry Points
When seeking redress, where are the points of entry – the targets for advocacy?
National Laws: When human rights campaigners want to change laws, they must start with a clear definition of the problem. In the Philippines, rape was formerly considered a "crime against chastity" instead of violence against a person. It was also categorized under family law instead of criminal law. This made it a relatively minor offense. It also meant that the burden of proof rested with the woman, who had to show that she did not willingly surrender her virginity.
Women from all walks of life in the Philippines organized a large meeting to get the law changed, and rape redefined. They agreed to lobby the Senate and Assembly, and after three years the law was changed. Not only was rape defined as violence against a person, but the definition was also broadened far beyond the customary definition (penetration) to include oral sex and even acts of sexual torture (such as inserting a bottle in a woman). The new law even carries the death penalty. It was proof that women can mobilize to change laws.
Political Structures: As noted above, women are under-represented in Southeast Asian politics. This makes it hard for them to contribute to the drafting or enforcement of laws. How can they break through?
Women in Thailand have been using the country's emerging new constitution. Thai women's groups were determined that women would be involved in the process. They set up a task force of 35 women from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), various professions, and from universities. Together, they decided to do a comparative study of the ten previous Thai constitutions, and whether they had sufficiently addressed women's concerns. They also encouraged women to apply for the committee that was drafting the new constitution. Each of Thailand's 73 provinces had to choose a representative. Women applied in a third of the provinces, and 10 were chosen.
In short, drafting the constitution has proved to be a marvelous campaigning issue. Said the participants from Thailand: "We meet with decisionmakers, provide them with information, show why it matters. We meet with members of parliament (MPs) on the committee drafting the constitution. We contact our MP to get to Senators. We mobilize groups to attend every meeting related to the new constitution. They lobby during lunch, dinner, and tea break!"
This helped to produce a new Thai constitution that contains several articles on women and provides for equality, equal rights to education, and at least 12 years of free education for girls. For the first time, it also addresses domestic violence (article 53) and the rights of women workers (article 83).
The next challenge, of course, will be enforcement. A constitution is one thing; turning it into laws that make a difference is quite another. Cambodia's constitution is one of several in the region that insists on equality for women. But only seven women have been elected to Cambodia's Assembly.
Individuals, however, can make a difference. In a keynote address to the seminar, Cambodia's energetic Minister for Women, Mu Sochua, explained how her Ministry is working to build solid political and administrative foundation for women. It has won agreement from all ministries that women have a major contribution to make in Cambodia's rebuilding, and this features in the country's five-year development plan. It has also launched an ambitious decade for women, which will allow the ministry to take the lead in promoting issues such as trafficking, AIDS, and violence. Mu Sochua also proposed setting up a women's study center in the college of law.
The Ministry has produced a draft law on women in the civil service, and a law on violence (drafted with NGOs). Both are currently being reviewed by the Cabinet. Her Excellency Mu Sochua also pledged to find money and technical assistance for a comprehensive program of monitoring and documenting women's rights in Cambodia. This will include the adoption of a national plan against trafficking and violence, the adoption of a national policy on AIDS, enhancing the capacity of women in advocacy, and creating community legal assistance for women.
In a country that has long been a byword for lawlessness and violence, it was heartening to hear this from a prominent Cambodian politician. But, warned Indai Sajor, not all women politicians have the interests of women at heart – and not all men are indifferent to women's issues. In the Philippines, some women seek power for themselves. Others have been no help at all because they are very traditional, "from the dark ages." Many men, the other hand, have pushed hard for changes in the laws on rape and violence.
International Law: International law is an important weapon in the fight against women's violence. The relevant treaties range from the 1949 convention on the suppression of trafficking in women, to the 1984 convention outlawing torture and other cruel inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
The list is surprisingly extensive, and even though many of the treaties are fairly obscure, they could be very useful. For example, one calls for equal remuneration for work of equal value. Another, adopted in 1962, allows for the right to marry and also not be married against one's will. This could have been used against the practice of forced marriage as it was carried out by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (examined in Issue 4 of this series of On the Record). Yet another international treaty, adopted in 1941, covered the political rights of women.
Once again, however, there is a looming gap between law and practice. In spite of the 1941 convention, only five percent of those in politics worldwide are women. Second, many of these conventions were drafted in another era, well before violence against women was recognized as the problem it is today. The 1949 Convention on the suppression of the traffic of women, adopted in 1949, prohibits forced prostitution and the trafficking of women and girls for purposes of sex. The definitions of prostitution and trafficking are still relevant, but new forms of abuse have come up like trafficking for work.
As noted above, the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) laid the foundation for outlawing virtually any form of discrimination. Not only have governments entered more reservations in joining CEDAW than any other human rights treaty, but CEDAW does not cover violence against women. Nor does CEDAW allow individuals to enter complaints against their government – severely limiting its practical value.
Women's groups are now pushing for the addition of an "optional protocol" to CEDAW that would permit individual complaints, but even when this is drafted it will only apply to governments which voluntarily agree to submit to the procedure and ratify the protocol. It remains to be seen whether the governments of Southeast Asia would feel that confident.
These limitations merely underscore the importance of NGO lobbying. Left to their own devices, governments which are not committed to ending violence against women will draft weak conventions, decline to ratify (i.e. assume a legal obligation), or simply ignore implementation. NGOs have to push on all fronts and also throw their weight behind international initiatives that are advancing the debate
The United Nations: On the one hand, the United Nations (UN) can provide an important back-up for campaigners. One of the great successes in recent years was the 1995 Conference in Beijing, and its plan of action. Each year a UN Commission on the status of women examines how they are living up to the commitment, and incorporating the Beijing plan into domestic law. Beijing was an important point of entry into the international system and international law. Last year, in Rome, the Women's caucus succeeded in getting sexual violence listed as a war crime in the statute of a new international criminal court. The UN will shortly decide whether to establish a tribunal to prosecute the Khmer Rouge for their crimes.
But if such initiatives can provide focus and support for campaigners, the UN can also tie campaigners up in red tape and sap energy. Every year, the UN Human Rights Commission meets for six weeks, and advocates can easily waste time and resources if they are not clearly focused on goals, and resigned to achieving limited results. One special "rapporteur" (Radhika Coomeraswamy, from Sri Lanka) reports to the Commission every year on violence against women. Another, Gay McDougall, investigates systematic rape, sexual slavery, and slavery-like practices during armed conflicts.
The Commission gives NGOs a chance to publicize their campaigns, and Coomeraswamy and McDougall have done valuable work in collecting information on violence against women, but it helps to know their timetable. Campaigners stand a better chance of catching their attention while she is preparing a special issue, or reporting on a country just visited.
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is more focused on women's issues than the UN Human Rights Commission. Its members (usually government officials) are elected for periods of four years, and monitor implementation of the Beijing Action Plan. The CSW looks at major themes, and last year it reviewed the right to health, reproductive health, and armed conflict. (In its lobbying to governments on these issues, ASCENT demands not only that the laws are "implemented," but that sufficient funds are made available.)
All in the all, the UN cannot be viewed as an end in itself. When deciding whether to approach the Commission or submit material to the rapporteur, campaigners must select issues that do not require a quick resolution. They should work together with other women and campaigns. And they must be prepared for long delays and endless bureaucratic requirements. Even submitting a document can be time-consuming and frustrating. Certainly, real change is more likely to come from the bottom up than from UN – and from the energy of women meeting, planning, and complaining.
Media: The media has been an ally in getting the word out on human rights: indeed, for much of the last 50 years, human rights and the media have gone hand in hand. Journalists are hungry for a story, and human rights have given them a stream of rich material. The media have helped to keep alive the struggle for democracy in Burma and Indonesia.
How can the media be co-opted into the human rights struggle? The seminar discussed time-honored ways like seminars, publications, press conferences, radio programs, articles, stickers, and even T-shirts.
Of course, it requires a relatively free press to report on human rights, and a free press certainly does not exist in Burma. It is also important to remember that publicity can backfire. Indeed, Pornpit Puckmai, from Chiang Mai, Thailand, pointed out that the media has also abused sex workers. When the police raid a brothel, photographers are usually there to record the scene, ensuring that the women will be treated as criminals instead of protected as victims – and exposing them to humiliation from friends and family. Two weeks before the seminar, she said, the BBC had shown a film about sex workers in Cambodia. The BBC team had driven past the brothels filming women. "When the women saw the camera they were afraid. The BBC was talking about the exploitation of these women; unfortunately the BBC was also exploiting these women. The BBC was thoughtful enough, though, not to take pictures of the men, of the customers. They respected their rights to privacy, but seemed to think it was OK to frighten the women, disrupt their working time, and expose them to the world without their consent."
The How-To of Advocacy and Human Rights Monitoring
For all its intrinsic drama and even danger, human rights work is about hard work, perseverance, careful monitoring, and reporting. If the monitoring and reports are not used, they are useless.
This is well known to the seminar participants, who have interviewed hundreds of damaged and abused women across the region. These include refugees who have been forcibly displaced (Ayea Khaing); abused migrant workers (Keo Sokkhim); sex workers and prostitutes who have been abused by the police (Pornpit Puckmai); battered women and rape victims (Ung Vanna, Keo Sokkhim); victims of rape in war (Cut Zahara and Herlina Sari); women who need legal assistance (Peung Yok Hiep); victims of domestic violence (Keo Kheang). This group had much practical experience to share with each other.
Goals: Indai Sajor insisted that successful monitoring must start with a clear sense of the goals. These are:
Practical Skills: The training sessions also reviewed practical skills such as how to interview and how to use statistics. Spirited role-playing and group sessions made it easier to demonstrate and learn, and material prepared for the seminar contained useful advice. Interviewers, it suggested, should:
This requires patience, tact, understanding, and a close attention to details that might seem insignificant in a less charged context.
Making Sense of Statistics: The way that information is reported is critical. Statistics mean little unless they are put in context and analyzed. For example, don't report that "20 women were raped," instead explain that the women were raped in three different villages over three weeks – showing a systematic and widespread pattern. Also, try to show whether there has been an increase or decrease from a similar period a year earlier. This will help to define the type of sexual violence that the women experienced and the process of redress available to them.
Other practical tips were shared amongst participants. For example, terminology can be important. Some women object to being called "victims," preferring "survivors."
Stages of Advocacy - From Personal Testimony to International Networking
The personal dilemmas – helping a victim to speak out. All human rights monitoring and documentation starts with an individual story, and with a personal dilemma. How can the victim be encouraged to recall the details without reliving her ordeal?
Sometimes it just needs a spark. Hong Duk Song, from Korea, was the first "comfort woman" to speak out. She read in newspapers that Japan was going to contribute to the UN peacekeeping force in Cambodia. Recalling her own rape by Japanese soldiers in World War II, she resolved that it would not happen to others. She lived alone and was poor. Women's advocates met her and listened to her story. "They all cried together the first time," recalled Indai Sajor. They then agreed that some influential women would speak out, and called a press conference. At this, other "comfort women" decided to speak out, even though they were over 60-years-old by now.
"It takes lots of courage to speak out," says Indai Sajor. "I was a political prisoner and I was tortured. It took me a long time to talk, but it is good to do it." Or is it? One participant disagreed. Five years ago, she said, society looked down on sex workers. But today, a former sex worker might have put it behind her. She has a family. She may receive counseling. But does she really need to tell her story?
How can women be sure that they are emotionally and physically protected if they speak out? They need to be reassured that they are choosing an outlet that will carry some weight. They also need to be given the chance to remain unidentified – and that their face is not seen. One former "comfort woman" from Taiwan was willing to speak out, but wanted to remain anonymous. Her face was covered while she spoke to 1,000 people. She had made the move from one level of advocacy to the next, without publicly disclosing her identity.
Working in NGOs: An NGO can provide individuals with structure, credibility, and even protection. In Laos, the Lao Women's Union (with 600,000 members) brings together government and private sector organizations. It is not independent from the government, but it has considerable power to negotiate with the government over a range of issues, including some that one would not immediately think of as linked to human rights. For example, the LWU is trying to persuade the National Statistic Center to disaggregate data when compiling the census, so as to clearly identify the "women's angle." This is far from the kind of confrontation that a Western NGO might engage in, but could have huge practical value for aid donors and for the development of women's rights in Laos.
In Cambodia, NGOs received a boost when the UN sent as large peacekeeping force to the country in 1992: Four human rights groups were created, and an NGO Forum acts as a coordinating body for 64 organizations and NGO working groups (on women, the environment etc).
Public Hearings: Public hearings may be painful for the individual concerned, but they help to put a human face on a violation and show that justice is still being denied. Public hearings are a signal of courage and survival, of resistance and mobilization, of solidarity and unity, of the shared nature of the struggles that women wage in all fronts. They give women and men a sense of justice, and determination that atrocities should not be repeated again.
During the 1993 Vienna World Conference on human rights, women organized a public tribunal, where women spoke out for the first time on their experience of female genital mutilation in Africa, rape in Bosnia, sexual slavery in the Second World War, and incest. (There was no testimony at the time about reproductive rights – how women are forced to have babies against their will, or denied the right not to have babies. That would come later, as women began to assert control over their bodies.)
Networking: Nancy Spence, from the Southeast Asia program of the Canadian International Development Association (CIDA), noted that violence against women is often dealt with by small organizations with tiny budgets. One way for them to learn, and build, is by working with others and building alliances. The Cambodia seminar was itself an example of networking – and getting these dynamic women together so that they could share their experiences and learn from others in the region was an important contribution. Indai Sajor of ASCENT would like to see another regional conference held on violence, but seminars at the regional level are expensive, and can only be held occasionally.
Many NGOs are slightly dazzled by the idea of networking, which they view as an end in itself. But networking also must define its goals and aim for practical results; otherwise, it will devour resources and waste time. Groups must ask what they have to offer, and what do they need? For example, the Women's Crisis Center in the Philippines has developed a model of feminist counseling for victims of violence that is starting to interest groups from other countries. ASCENT would like to help the two women who developed this model to travel abroad. In Malaysia a man has started a one-stop crisis center for assisting victims of violence (women, children, and men). He has also developed a rape kit for use in hospitals. Handbooks can be written and shared with friends abroad.
Of course it helps if you know your friends, and can put a face to the name – and here is where the Phnom Penh seminar will hopefully lay the ground for future networking between these women of Southeast Asia.
Governments and Their Critics Play Cat and Mouse on the Internet
From the Editorial Desk
As women's groups in Asia refine their advocacy and step up their networking, they are making increasing use of email and the Internet. The Advocacy Project is pleased to help (see the next article).
But the new information technology is also proving to be a mixed blessing for human rights campaigners in Southeast Asia. On the one hand, the Internet allows them the opportunity to communicate with each other and the outside world at very low cost (The recent Cambodian seminar was organized largely by email.); on the other hand, the Internet is also attracting unwanted attention from insecure and autocratic governments. Governments are increasingly aware that this is a powerful tool in the hands of their critics, and are taking steps to impose controls and curbs. Teresa Crawford consulted the World Wide Web for some recent examples of this cat and mouse game in cyberspace.
Malaysia
The Internet has helped to fan international outrage at the treatment and trial of Malaysia former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, who was ousted on September 2, 1998. A personal website was quickly set up, and within a month it had received 800,000 visits, and been linked to 58 Anwar-related websites.
Burma
The interactive listserv Burmanet allows Burmese exiles and opposition members to communicate and lobby against the military regime, and is credited with having helped to persuade the US to impose sanctions on the Junta. The Free Burma Coalition has been advocating the cause on their website. The Junta bans private modems, but has been unable to prevent the flow of information across Burma's borders. So, it has opened its own webpage.
Indonesia
East Timorese conduct their international campaign for the independence of East Timor via a website that is hosted by the University of Coimbra in Portugal. The pressure may be paying off: the Indonesian government recently announced that the island would be granted autonomy. The Internet also helped to alert overseas Chinese to the mass rape of ethnic Chinese in the Indonesian riots last May, which are reported in this series of On the Record.
On the other hand, an award-winning Timorese website was recently forced to close down temporarily after a hacking spree apparently orchestrated by the Indonesian government. The East Timor Project, an Internet-based information service, was hosted by Connect-Ireland, one of Ireland's two domain guardians. It has received two web awards and succeeded in getting the International Standards Organization (ISO) to recognize East Timor's right to its own Internet domain (.tp) even though East Timor is under Indonesian occupation and still part of Indonesia.
This act of virtual sovereignty has apparently angered the Indonesian authorities. Connect-Ireland has suffered several attacks from hackers (known as "E-Nazis") in recent years. But it was not until January 26, 1999, that they succeeded in breaking through Connect-Ireland's security, and caused the system to close down. Connect-Ireland has registered a strong protest with the Indonesian embassy in London. (Information courtesy of HURIDOCS)
China
Over 1.5 million Chinese are thought to use the Internet, and the numbers are growing fast. Shanghai alone has over 400 Internet cafes. The government wants to encourage new technology, but is finding that it brings problems as well: according to Interpress Service (IPS), 95 percent of Chinese management centers that have access to the Internet have been attacked by hackers. Banking, financial, and securities institutions are the main targets.
The main concern, however, is that the Internet opens the way to "subversion." The government controls access to the World Wide Web through the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, and has been trying to control the use of the Internet since 1996. In that year, the State Council issued rules that ban hacking, spreading computer viruses, and using the Internet to "threaten national security.'
Earlier this year, according to the Washington Post, a police directive was issued by the Chinese government ordering police stations to monitor bulletin board services and shut down those carrying seditious messages. In Shanghai, the "Computer Security Supervision Unit" of the Shanghai Police Department has trained 200 Chinese government employees to be on the lookout for hackers and to enforce the new regulations.
On January 20, 1999, after a brief 30-minute trial in December, Lin Hai, a computer engineer, was found guilty of "incitement to subvert the state" and sentenced to two years in jail for having distributed 30,000 email addresses to VIP Reference, an electronic pro-democracy magazine that is run by Chinese students in Washington, DC. VIP Reference receives about 500 messages a day, as well as several dozen threats. It has also been hit by email "bombings" which fill up the Inbox with huge files. The charge against Lin Hai referred to VIP Reference as a "hostile foreign organization."
This case has sent a chill through the human rights community. Human Rights Watch described the verdict as a clear violation of China's obligation to allow free expression, and called on Internet software providers like Microsoft to speak out in protest. Meanwhile, Lu Si-qing, director of the Hong Kong based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, noted that he could obtain more than 100,00 email addresses merely by keying in "email" on a search machine.
On February 1, 1999 "Everything under the Sun" a web page run by a Chinese computer software company, was closed down by the Chinese authorities, according to the Hong Kong based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China. The web page had drawn 60,000 visitors in December and January, and been increasingly critical of the government.
Some of this material has been drawn from HURIDOCS, a distribution list that serves to distribute information on technology issues and how they may affect human rights information workers. Email HURIDOCS. Archives of previous human rights documents are kept by Human Rights Net. For information on censorship and the Internet, consult the Global Internet Liberty Campaign.
New Discussion List Established for Southeast Asian Women
This email list grew out of the seminar in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. All of the participants agreed that information sharing was essential to their work and would help foster a spirit of solidarity amongst them. The list is a way to communicate needs and actions quickly and efficiently. Feel free to post information related to your campaigns, requests for solidarity work or just updates on how you are doing.
The Advocacy Project is currently hosting this list and a web page will soon be posted with highlights of the training, pictures, contact information and providing profiles of several of the participants. If anyone has information they would like posted, please forward it to The Advocacy Project.
How to use the list:
In the next issue: Portraits of Courage
Issue 3: The Solutions
On the Record: Women of Southeast Asia Fight Violence
Issue 3: The Solutions
March 5, 1999
- Conference Report: The Solutions
- Seeing Women's Rights As Personal Rights and Targets for Advocacy
- Allies and Entry Points
- The "How-To" of Advocacy and Human Rights Monitoring
- Stages of Advocacy – From Personal Testimony to International Networking
- Playing Cat and Mouse on the Internet
- New Discussion List Established for South East Asian Women
Conference Report: The Solutions
Seeing Women's Rights as Personal Rights - and Targets for Advocacy
Too often, the human rights debate is conducted by lawyers in distant, sanitized conference rooms in Geneva or New York. In fact, agreed the seminar, human rights affect everyone's daily life. The challenge for advocates and campaigners begins in helping victims to make the connection, and identify the remedies to seek redress. When remedies do not exist, they must be created.
Accountability and advocacy have combined in dramatic fashion in South Korea, where several aging victims of Japanese brutality during the Second World War have realized – ever so belatedly – not just that their rights were violated, but that they can do something about it. Helped by ASCENT, one of the seminar organizers, several of these "comfort women" have told their story to a shocked world, and even taken the issue to the Japanese courts. It is an extraordinary story. Events that happened 50 years ago, and which had long ago been dismissed as the unfortunate by-product of war, have been turned into dramatic personal stories that catch the imagination and place violence against women in war on the international agenda. Who today does not know about the comfort women?
It took the Asian comfort women more than 50 years to tell their stories, despite the fact that they were victims of the atrocities of the Second World War. It might have happened only yesterday – so horrendous were the details of their sufferings in the comfort stations, and so terrible the denial of justice.
For Indai Sajor it is time to apply the same energy to areas of a woman's life previously thought of as "private."
"We must recognize our choices as women and that means recognizing our own bodies, and determining our lives. The right to self-determination is very relevant to women, as it would encompass the right to gainful employment, right to spirituality, right to political involvement, and the right to redress. When we ask women to stand up for their rights, we must understand that it is easier said than done."
In explaining how participants should think of rights, she urged them to consider "reproductive rights." This concerns aspects of everyday life that are not usually thought of in terms of international human rights – even less of violations in the traditional sense. But, said Sajor, "our communities and our whole society is shaped by our reproduction."
"Reproductive rights must include the rights to an abortion. This, of course, is a very sensitive issue in many countries. For example, the Philippines is a Catholic country – if I had an abortion I would go to jail. Also, doctors who help women to have abortions can go to jail. Costa Rica, Cuba, and Nicaragua are also very Catholic, very conservative countries where women are denied access to abortion. So they have started a campaign on the right to menstruate! Somehow, a blood clot is harder to identify with than a fetus. The law in the Philippines allows women to have ligation, and clinics provide it for free. But we still need our husbands' permission to have it done. In other words, the state decides whether women will be given the choice. Cambodia and Vietnam are more advanced [in that] they leave the decision to the women.
"Abortion is legal in Vietnam, illegal in Indonesia. In Thailand, it is only allowed in cases of rape or to save the health of the mother, or if a disease will pass to the unborn child. In Cambodia the law is more comprehensive. The woman can decide during the first three months. After that, it depends on whether the women has problems, or on the health of the fetus. If the mother is under 18, her parents have to give permission."
Allies and Entry Points
When seeking redress, where are the points of entry – the targets for advocacy?
National Laws: When human rights campaigners want to change laws, they must start with a clear definition of the problem. In the Philippines, rape was formerly considered a "crime against chastity" instead of violence against a person. It was also categorized under family law instead of criminal law. This made it a relatively minor offense. It also meant that the burden of proof rested with the woman, who had to show that she did not willingly surrender her virginity.
Women from all walks of life in the Philippines organized a large meeting to get the law changed, and rape redefined. They agreed to lobby the Senate and Assembly, and after three years the law was changed. Not only was rape defined as violence against a person, but the definition was also broadened far beyond the customary definition (penetration) to include oral sex and even acts of sexual torture (such as inserting a bottle in a woman). The new law even carries the death penalty. It was proof that women can mobilize to change laws.
Political Structures: As noted above, women are under-represented in Southeast Asian politics. This makes it hard for them to contribute to the drafting or enforcement of laws. How can they break through?
Women in Thailand have been using the country's emerging new constitution. Thai women's groups were determined that women would be involved in the process. They set up a task force of 35 women from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), various professions, and from universities. Together, they decided to do a comparative study of the ten previous Thai constitutions, and whether they had sufficiently addressed women's concerns. They also encouraged women to apply for the committee that was drafting the new constitution. Each of Thailand's 73 provinces had to choose a representative. Women applied in a third of the provinces, and 10 were chosen.
In short, drafting the constitution has proved to be a marvelous campaigning issue. Said the participants from Thailand: "We meet with decisionmakers, provide them with information, show why it matters. We meet with members of parliament (MPs) on the committee drafting the constitution. We contact our MP to get to Senators. We mobilize groups to attend every meeting related to the new constitution. They lobby during lunch, dinner, and tea break!"
This helped to produce a new Thai constitution that contains several articles on women and provides for equality, equal rights to education, and at least 12 years of free education for girls. For the first time, it also addresses domestic violence (article 53) and the rights of women workers (article 83).
The next challenge, of course, will be enforcement. A constitution is one thing; turning it into laws that make a difference is quite another. Cambodia's constitution is one of several in the region that insists on equality for women. But only seven women have been elected to Cambodia's Assembly.
Individuals, however, can make a difference. In a keynote address to the seminar, Cambodia's energetic Minister for Women, Mu Sochua, explained how her Ministry is working to build solid political and administrative foundation for women. It has won agreement from all ministries that women have a major contribution to make in Cambodia's rebuilding, and this features in the country's five-year development plan. It has also launched an ambitious decade for women, which will allow the ministry to take the lead in promoting issues such as trafficking, AIDS, and violence. Mu Sochua also proposed setting up a women's study center in the college of law.
The Ministry has produced a draft law on women in the civil service, and a law on violence (drafted with NGOs). Both are currently being reviewed by the Cabinet. Her Excellency Mu Sochua also pledged to find money and technical assistance for a comprehensive program of monitoring and documenting women's rights in Cambodia. This will include the adoption of a national plan against trafficking and violence, the adoption of a national policy on AIDS, enhancing the capacity of women in advocacy, and creating community legal assistance for women.
In a country that has long been a byword for lawlessness and violence, it was heartening to hear this from a prominent Cambodian politician. But, warned Indai Sajor, not all women politicians have the interests of women at heart – and not all men are indifferent to women's issues. In the Philippines, some women seek power for themselves. Others have been no help at all because they are very traditional, "from the dark ages." Many men, the other hand, have pushed hard for changes in the laws on rape and violence.
International Law: International law is an important weapon in the fight against women's violence. The relevant treaties range from the 1949 convention on the suppression of trafficking in women, to the 1984 convention outlawing torture and other cruel inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
The list is surprisingly extensive, and even though many of the treaties are fairly obscure, they could be very useful. For example, one calls for equal remuneration for work of equal value. Another, adopted in 1962, allows for the right to marry and also not be married against one's will. This could have been used against the practice of forced marriage as it was carried out by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (examined in Issue 4 of this series of On the Record). Yet another international treaty, adopted in 1941, covered the political rights of women.
Once again, however, there is a looming gap between law and practice. In spite of the 1941 convention, only five percent of those in politics worldwide are women. Second, many of these conventions were drafted in another era, well before violence against women was recognized as the problem it is today. The 1949 Convention on the suppression of the traffic of women, adopted in 1949, prohibits forced prostitution and the trafficking of women and girls for purposes of sex. The definitions of prostitution and trafficking are still relevant, but new forms of abuse have come up like trafficking for work.
As noted above, the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) laid the foundation for outlawing virtually any form of discrimination. Not only have governments entered more reservations in joining CEDAW than any other human rights treaty, but CEDAW does not cover violence against women. Nor does CEDAW allow individuals to enter complaints against their government – severely limiting its practical value.
Women's groups are now pushing for the addition of an "optional protocol" to CEDAW that would permit individual complaints, but even when this is drafted it will only apply to governments which voluntarily agree to submit to the procedure and ratify the protocol. It remains to be seen whether the governments of Southeast Asia would feel that confident.
These limitations merely underscore the importance of NGO lobbying. Left to their own devices, governments which are not committed to ending violence against women will draft weak conventions, decline to ratify (i.e. assume a legal obligation), or simply ignore implementation. NGOs have to push on all fronts and also throw their weight behind international initiatives that are advancing the debate
The United Nations: On the one hand, the United Nations (UN) can provide an important back-up for campaigners. One of the great successes in recent years was the 1995 Conference in Beijing, and its plan of action. Each year a UN Commission on the status of women examines how they are living up to the commitment, and incorporating the Beijing plan into domestic law. Beijing was an important point of entry into the international system and international law. Last year, in Rome, the Women's caucus succeeded in getting sexual violence listed as a war crime in the statute of a new international criminal court. The UN will shortly decide whether to establish a tribunal to prosecute the Khmer Rouge for their crimes.
But if such initiatives can provide focus and support for campaigners, the UN can also tie campaigners up in red tape and sap energy. Every year, the UN Human Rights Commission meets for six weeks, and advocates can easily waste time and resources if they are not clearly focused on goals, and resigned to achieving limited results. One special "rapporteur" (Radhika Coomeraswamy, from Sri Lanka) reports to the Commission every year on violence against women. Another, Gay McDougall, investigates systematic rape, sexual slavery, and slavery-like practices during armed conflicts.
The Commission gives NGOs a chance to publicize their campaigns, and Coomeraswamy and McDougall have done valuable work in collecting information on violence against women, but it helps to know their timetable. Campaigners stand a better chance of catching their attention while she is preparing a special issue, or reporting on a country just visited.
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is more focused on women's issues than the UN Human Rights Commission. Its members (usually government officials) are elected for periods of four years, and monitor implementation of the Beijing Action Plan. The CSW looks at major themes, and last year it reviewed the right to health, reproductive health, and armed conflict. (In its lobbying to governments on these issues, ASCENT demands not only that the laws are "implemented," but that sufficient funds are made available.)
All in the all, the UN cannot be viewed as an end in itself. When deciding whether to approach the Commission or submit material to the rapporteur, campaigners must select issues that do not require a quick resolution. They should work together with other women and campaigns. And they must be prepared for long delays and endless bureaucratic requirements. Even submitting a document can be time-consuming and frustrating. Certainly, real change is more likely to come from the bottom up than from UN – and from the energy of women meeting, planning, and complaining.
Media: The media has been an ally in getting the word out on human rights: indeed, for much of the last 50 years, human rights and the media have gone hand in hand. Journalists are hungry for a story, and human rights have given them a stream of rich material. The media have helped to keep alive the struggle for democracy in Burma and Indonesia.
How can the media be co-opted into the human rights struggle? The seminar discussed time-honored ways like seminars, publications, press conferences, radio programs, articles, stickers, and even T-shirts.
Of course, it requires a relatively free press to report on human rights, and a free press certainly does not exist in Burma. It is also important to remember that publicity can backfire. Indeed, Pornpit Puckmai, from Chiang Mai, Thailand, pointed out that the media has also abused sex workers. When the police raid a brothel, photographers are usually there to record the scene, ensuring that the women will be treated as criminals instead of protected as victims – and exposing them to humiliation from friends and family. Two weeks before the seminar, she said, the BBC had shown a film about sex workers in Cambodia. The BBC team had driven past the brothels filming women. "When the women saw the camera they were afraid. The BBC was talking about the exploitation of these women; unfortunately the BBC was also exploiting these women. The BBC was thoughtful enough, though, not to take pictures of the men, of the customers. They respected their rights to privacy, but seemed to think it was OK to frighten the women, disrupt their working time, and expose them to the world without their consent."
The How-To of Advocacy and Human Rights Monitoring
For all its intrinsic drama and even danger, human rights work is about hard work, perseverance, careful monitoring, and reporting. If the monitoring and reports are not used, they are useless.
This is well known to the seminar participants, who have interviewed hundreds of damaged and abused women across the region. These include refugees who have been forcibly displaced (Ayea Khaing); abused migrant workers (Keo Sokkhim); sex workers and prostitutes who have been abused by the police (Pornpit Puckmai); battered women and rape victims (Ung Vanna, Keo Sokkhim); victims of rape in war (Cut Zahara and Herlina Sari); women who need legal assistance (Peung Yok Hiep); victims of domestic violence (Keo Kheang). This group had much practical experience to share with each other.
Goals: Indai Sajor insisted that successful monitoring must start with a clear sense of the goals. These are:
- To hold governments accountable for violations. Documentation is essential in seeking redress, particularly legal redress.
- Laws must be made responsive to the needs of women, including the need to end violence in the family.
- The definition and understanding of human rights must be amplified, to outlaw new forms of violence against women and re-define them as political rights.
- The state must assume more responsibilities in protecting women.
- NGOs, civil society, and governments need to work together.
- Identify violators – non-state actors (individuals or groups) and government authorities.
- Build the legal case against violators, and lobby governments to make laws.
- Strengthen regional ties and networking.
- Expose abuse (women's rights are often hidden).
- Seek accountability.
- Secure a remedy (including giving assistance to the victims of abuse)
Practical Skills: The training sessions also reviewed practical skills such as how to interview and how to use statistics. Spirited role-playing and group sessions made it easier to demonstrate and learn, and material prepared for the seminar contained useful advice. Interviewers, it suggested, should:
- Take time (good interviews can last several hours);
- Ask questions that do not lead or suggest answers – for example, instead of asking "when were you beaten" ask "what happened next?"
- Make the interviewee feel relaxed;
- Don't interrupt answers;
- Avoid questions that can be answered by "yes" or "no," but yield substantial information.
This requires patience, tact, understanding, and a close attention to details that might seem insignificant in a less charged context.
Making Sense of Statistics: The way that information is reported is critical. Statistics mean little unless they are put in context and analyzed. For example, don't report that "20 women were raped," instead explain that the women were raped in three different villages over three weeks – showing a systematic and widespread pattern. Also, try to show whether there has been an increase or decrease from a similar period a year earlier. This will help to define the type of sexual violence that the women experienced and the process of redress available to them.
Other practical tips were shared amongst participants. For example, terminology can be important. Some women object to being called "victims," preferring "survivors."
Stages of Advocacy - From Personal Testimony to International Networking
The personal dilemmas – helping a victim to speak out. All human rights monitoring and documentation starts with an individual story, and with a personal dilemma. How can the victim be encouraged to recall the details without reliving her ordeal?
Sometimes it just needs a spark. Hong Duk Song, from Korea, was the first "comfort woman" to speak out. She read in newspapers that Japan was going to contribute to the UN peacekeeping force in Cambodia. Recalling her own rape by Japanese soldiers in World War II, she resolved that it would not happen to others. She lived alone and was poor. Women's advocates met her and listened to her story. "They all cried together the first time," recalled Indai Sajor. They then agreed that some influential women would speak out, and called a press conference. At this, other "comfort women" decided to speak out, even though they were over 60-years-old by now.
"It takes lots of courage to speak out," says Indai Sajor. "I was a political prisoner and I was tortured. It took me a long time to talk, but it is good to do it." Or is it? One participant disagreed. Five years ago, she said, society looked down on sex workers. But today, a former sex worker might have put it behind her. She has a family. She may receive counseling. But does she really need to tell her story?
How can women be sure that they are emotionally and physically protected if they speak out? They need to be reassured that they are choosing an outlet that will carry some weight. They also need to be given the chance to remain unidentified – and that their face is not seen. One former "comfort woman" from Taiwan was willing to speak out, but wanted to remain anonymous. Her face was covered while she spoke to 1,000 people. She had made the move from one level of advocacy to the next, without publicly disclosing her identity.
Working in NGOs: An NGO can provide individuals with structure, credibility, and even protection. In Laos, the Lao Women's Union (with 600,000 members) brings together government and private sector organizations. It is not independent from the government, but it has considerable power to negotiate with the government over a range of issues, including some that one would not immediately think of as linked to human rights. For example, the LWU is trying to persuade the National Statistic Center to disaggregate data when compiling the census, so as to clearly identify the "women's angle." This is far from the kind of confrontation that a Western NGO might engage in, but could have huge practical value for aid donors and for the development of women's rights in Laos.
In Cambodia, NGOs received a boost when the UN sent as large peacekeeping force to the country in 1992: Four human rights groups were created, and an NGO Forum acts as a coordinating body for 64 organizations and NGO working groups (on women, the environment etc).
Public Hearings: Public hearings may be painful for the individual concerned, but they help to put a human face on a violation and show that justice is still being denied. Public hearings are a signal of courage and survival, of resistance and mobilization, of solidarity and unity, of the shared nature of the struggles that women wage in all fronts. They give women and men a sense of justice, and determination that atrocities should not be repeated again.
During the 1993 Vienna World Conference on human rights, women organized a public tribunal, where women spoke out for the first time on their experience of female genital mutilation in Africa, rape in Bosnia, sexual slavery in the Second World War, and incest. (There was no testimony at the time about reproductive rights – how women are forced to have babies against their will, or denied the right not to have babies. That would come later, as women began to assert control over their bodies.)
Networking: Nancy Spence, from the Southeast Asia program of the Canadian International Development Association (CIDA), noted that violence against women is often dealt with by small organizations with tiny budgets. One way for them to learn, and build, is by working with others and building alliances. The Cambodia seminar was itself an example of networking – and getting these dynamic women together so that they could share their experiences and learn from others in the region was an important contribution. Indai Sajor of ASCENT would like to see another regional conference held on violence, but seminars at the regional level are expensive, and can only be held occasionally.
Many NGOs are slightly dazzled by the idea of networking, which they view as an end in itself. But networking also must define its goals and aim for practical results; otherwise, it will devour resources and waste time. Groups must ask what they have to offer, and what do they need? For example, the Women's Crisis Center in the Philippines has developed a model of feminist counseling for victims of violence that is starting to interest groups from other countries. ASCENT would like to help the two women who developed this model to travel abroad. In Malaysia a man has started a one-stop crisis center for assisting victims of violence (women, children, and men). He has also developed a rape kit for use in hospitals. Handbooks can be written and shared with friends abroad.
Of course it helps if you know your friends, and can put a face to the name – and here is where the Phnom Penh seminar will hopefully lay the ground for future networking between these women of Southeast Asia.
Governments and Their Critics Play Cat and Mouse on the Internet
From the Editorial Desk
As women's groups in Asia refine their advocacy and step up their networking, they are making increasing use of email and the Internet. The Advocacy Project is pleased to help (see the next article).
But the new information technology is also proving to be a mixed blessing for human rights campaigners in Southeast Asia. On the one hand, the Internet allows them the opportunity to communicate with each other and the outside world at very low cost (The recent Cambodian seminar was organized largely by email.); on the other hand, the Internet is also attracting unwanted attention from insecure and autocratic governments. Governments are increasingly aware that this is a powerful tool in the hands of their critics, and are taking steps to impose controls and curbs. Teresa Crawford consulted the World Wide Web for some recent examples of this cat and mouse game in cyberspace.
Malaysia
The Internet has helped to fan international outrage at the treatment and trial of Malaysia former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, who was ousted on September 2, 1998. A personal website was quickly set up, and within a month it had received 800,000 visits, and been linked to 58 Anwar-related websites.
Burma
The interactive listserv Burmanet allows Burmese exiles and opposition members to communicate and lobby against the military regime, and is credited with having helped to persuade the US to impose sanctions on the Junta. The Free Burma Coalition has been advocating the cause on their website. The Junta bans private modems, but has been unable to prevent the flow of information across Burma's borders. So, it has opened its own webpage.
Indonesia
East Timorese conduct their international campaign for the independence of East Timor via a website that is hosted by the University of Coimbra in Portugal. The pressure may be paying off: the Indonesian government recently announced that the island would be granted autonomy. The Internet also helped to alert overseas Chinese to the mass rape of ethnic Chinese in the Indonesian riots last May, which are reported in this series of On the Record.
On the other hand, an award-winning Timorese website was recently forced to close down temporarily after a hacking spree apparently orchestrated by the Indonesian government. The East Timor Project, an Internet-based information service, was hosted by Connect-Ireland, one of Ireland's two domain guardians. It has received two web awards and succeeded in getting the International Standards Organization (ISO) to recognize East Timor's right to its own Internet domain (.tp) even though East Timor is under Indonesian occupation and still part of Indonesia.
This act of virtual sovereignty has apparently angered the Indonesian authorities. Connect-Ireland has suffered several attacks from hackers (known as "E-Nazis") in recent years. But it was not until January 26, 1999, that they succeeded in breaking through Connect-Ireland's security, and caused the system to close down. Connect-Ireland has registered a strong protest with the Indonesian embassy in London. (Information courtesy of HURIDOCS)
China
Over 1.5 million Chinese are thought to use the Internet, and the numbers are growing fast. Shanghai alone has over 400 Internet cafes. The government wants to encourage new technology, but is finding that it brings problems as well: according to Interpress Service (IPS), 95 percent of Chinese management centers that have access to the Internet have been attacked by hackers. Banking, financial, and securities institutions are the main targets.
The main concern, however, is that the Internet opens the way to "subversion." The government controls access to the World Wide Web through the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, and has been trying to control the use of the Internet since 1996. In that year, the State Council issued rules that ban hacking, spreading computer viruses, and using the Internet to "threaten national security.'
Earlier this year, according to the Washington Post, a police directive was issued by the Chinese government ordering police stations to monitor bulletin board services and shut down those carrying seditious messages. In Shanghai, the "Computer Security Supervision Unit" of the Shanghai Police Department has trained 200 Chinese government employees to be on the lookout for hackers and to enforce the new regulations.
On January 20, 1999, after a brief 30-minute trial in December, Lin Hai, a computer engineer, was found guilty of "incitement to subvert the state" and sentenced to two years in jail for having distributed 30,000 email addresses to VIP Reference, an electronic pro-democracy magazine that is run by Chinese students in Washington, DC. VIP Reference receives about 500 messages a day, as well as several dozen threats. It has also been hit by email "bombings" which fill up the Inbox with huge files. The charge against Lin Hai referred to VIP Reference as a "hostile foreign organization."
This case has sent a chill through the human rights community. Human Rights Watch described the verdict as a clear violation of China's obligation to allow free expression, and called on Internet software providers like Microsoft to speak out in protest. Meanwhile, Lu Si-qing, director of the Hong Kong based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, noted that he could obtain more than 100,00 email addresses merely by keying in "email" on a search machine.
On February 1, 1999 "Everything under the Sun" a web page run by a Chinese computer software company, was closed down by the Chinese authorities, according to the Hong Kong based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China. The web page had drawn 60,000 visitors in December and January, and been increasingly critical of the government.
Some of this material has been drawn from HURIDOCS, a distribution list that serves to distribute information on technology issues and how they may affect human rights information workers. Email HURIDOCS. Archives of previous human rights documents are kept by Human Rights Net. For information on censorship and the Internet, consult the Global Internet Liberty Campaign.
New Discussion List Established for Southeast Asian Women
This email list grew out of the seminar in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. All of the participants agreed that information sharing was essential to their work and would help foster a spirit of solidarity amongst them. The list is a way to communicate needs and actions quickly and efficiently. Feel free to post information related to your campaigns, requests for solidarity work or just updates on how you are doing.
The Advocacy Project is currently hosting this list and a web page will soon be posted with highlights of the training, pictures, contact information and providing profiles of several of the participants. If anyone has information they would like posted, please forward it to The Advocacy Project.
How to use the list:
- To send messages to the list, type seawomen@lists.advocacynet.org in the TO: field
- To subscribe to the list, send a message to <majordomo@advocacynet.org> with SUBSCRIBE SEAWOMEN in the body
- To unsubscribe the list, send a message to
<majordomo@advocacynet.org> with UNSUBSCRIBE SEAWOMEN in the body - To find out who is on the list, send a message to
<majordomo@advocacynet.org> with WHO SEAWOMEN in the body - To ask questions about the list, send a message to<owner-seawomen@advocacynet.org>
In the next issue: Portraits of Courage
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- News Service
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- Global Issues
- On The Record Archive
- Youth Against AIDS
- Palestine - Civil Society Under Siege
- Bosnia - Postwar Refugee Return
- Ecuador – The Fight for the Amazon
- Kosovo – The Birth and Rebirth of Civil Society
- Nigeria – Girls for Sale
- Kosovo – Rebuilding After the War
- Cambodia - Civil Society and the Tribunal
- Central America - Life After Hurricane Mitch
- Guatemala – The Rio Negro Campaign
- Southeast Asia – Violence Against Women
- Issue 1: Series Launch
- Issue 2: Defining the Problem
- Issue 3: The Solutions
- Issue 4: Portraits of Courage
- Issue 5: Cambodia – In the Shadow of the Khmer Rouge
- Covering the UN
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- Afghanistan's Women & Girls
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