PRESS RELEASE

ASEAN and UNIFEM sign a Framework for Cooperation Agreement to Advance Gender Equality in ASEAN

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women’s East and Southeast Asia Regional Office signed a Framework for Cooperation Agreement on 8 June 2006.  This Agreement signals the commitment of both organisations to work for the active involvement of women in the social, economic and political spheres in accordance with the 1988 Declaration on the Advancement of Women in ASEAN. ASEAN and UNIFEM will jointly develop and carry out practical measures to implement ASEAN and UN instruments in order to eliminate violence and end discrimination against women in the ASEAN region.

Mr. Ong Keng Yong, Secretary-General of ASEAN, noted, “The agreement between ASEAN and UNIFEM is timely as ASEAN is moving towards closer regional integration to create an ASEAN Community that is open, dynamic and resilient. Addressing gender equality, gender justice and the empowerment of women is central to the process of building a community of caring societies.”

Dr. Jean D’Cunha, Regional Program Director, UNIFEM, East and Southeast Asia, added, “The Co-operation Agreement between ASEAN and UNIFEM is a crucial milestone towards realising our mission and mandate – enhancing gender equality and women’s empowerment – both as an end in itself and to achieve sustainable human development in the ASEAN region. It provides significant opportunities for regional dialogue, exchange of good practice and upscaling multi-stakeholder collaboration within and between ASEAN countries to effectively address gender concerns especially of a trans-national and cross border nature”.       

As part of technical assistance, UNIFEM will support ASEAN in convening a regional workshop on gender-sensitive and coordinated services to address violence against women, focusing on operationalising and managing one-stop crisis centres.  The workshop, to be hosted by Thailand in September 2006, will focus on promoting and enhancing multi-sectoral collaboration towards gender-sensitive and coordinated domestic violence service provision in ASEAN. 

UNIFEM and ASEAN will also collaborate on the High-Level Gender Mainstreaming Meeting to be held this year, bringing together the ministries responsible for women affairs, and the ministries of planning and finance, to better operationalise gender mainstreaming in the context of the Convention on All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action (BFPA), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as well as the national plans, policies and the budget of the respective ASEAN Member Countries.  

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Issued by:

The ASEAN Secretariat and UNIFEM, East and Southeast Asia

3 August 2006

For media inquiries please contact:

Elaine Tan, Human Development Unit, the ASEAN Secretariat, Tel + (62-21) 726 2991 ext. 233 or email: elaine@aseansec.org or Janet Wong, Programme Officer, UNIFEM, East and Southeast, Tel: (66-2) 288 2225 or email: janet.wong@unifem.org  

The Asia-Pacific NGO Forum was held at Mahidol University, Salaya campus in Thailand on 30 June to 2 July.  Five hundred participants representing various NGOs in the region congregated, to celebrate the

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