International Women's Day comes around on March 8th, and this year, it marks an particularly significant occasion. Thousands of women who work on women's rights from all over the world will be going to New York from 28 February 28 to 11 March this year. Millions other will be watching this space, connecting to the Internet to find out the discussions happening or exchanging emails with peers, colleagues and others on this event. Amongst them are Malaysian women's rights activists. What is this event?

2005 is the tenth year of the Beijing Platform for Action, the second appraisal and revision that happened since its adoption in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference of Women. The 49th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women will be seriously examining and discussing the efforts that governments have taken in their commitment to improve the status of women. The existing gaps, what else needs to be done, possible strategies and other surfacing issues will also be discussed at this high level meeting.

However, it is not only inter-governmental agencies and state parties that will be working towards equality and non-discrimination of women worldwide. Non-governmental organisations, civil society movements, individual activists and academics are equally committed in this matter. Holding side events to highlight urgent issues and to exchange information, knowledge and strategies, many exciting things are happening on the front of women's rights. With the different levels of work, people and efforts confluencing, the sharing of experiences and good practices in overcoming challenges to implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action will be an invaluable outcome.

So what is the Beijing Platform for Action, and why should we be concerned? After all, New York is a far way away, and what is being discussed there can be remote from our daily lives. Nevertheless, the issues that are raised and grappled with at this event significantly affects the heart of our opportunities, rights and freedoms, and we should attempt to take effort in investigating our own investments in this matter.

The Beijing Platform for Action, or BPFA, commits governments to improve the status of women in their respective countries, including Malaysia, in 12 critical areas of concern. With this commitment, State parties agree to make a concerted effort to understand the obstacles to women's equality and freedoms in their respective countries, and draw up national plans to implement the issues outlined under the BPA, in tune with the individual country's specific needs. This means that the Malaysian government as one of the parties involved, have made a promise to take a serious look at what is happening to women in the country, and take action to make the situation better, whether by law or policy.

The 12 critical areas of concern raised in the BFPA include women and poverty, education and training, health, violence, armed conflict, the economy, power and decision making, the media, the environment, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, human rights of women and issues related to the girl child. To take the example of violence against women, how has the status changed in the past ten years? For one, we now have the Domestic Violence Act, which came into force in 1994. Prior to this, women who have been battered or abused by their husbands can get no form of protection from the law. Now they can apply for an Interim Protection Order and seek other forms of redress. Furthermore, the police and health officials are being trained on the dynamics of this issue, and to recognise that domestic violence is a public matter and a crime. Government hospitals have also been mandated to form One Stop Crisis Centres that faciliates a multi-agency form of protection towards the need of survivors. Clearly, some important improvements are taking place.

Is this enough? We still read of cases where women are being violently abused, sometimes killed by their intimate partners. WAO have accompanied clients to hospitals, police stations and courts where the experience have been troubling. Not everyone is aware of their rights, and some government officials are still displaying grave ignorance about the rights of women to be free from violence. This indicates that more work needs to be done.

The revision process of BPFA is an important and strategic way to not forget the promises made to secure women's status of equality and non-discrimination. Here, we can learn from efforts and strategies made by countries all over the world who are committed to similar issues, and give an important reminder to ourselves that although some improvements have taken place, the work is far from done. We can also deepen our understanding and knowledge on the factors contributing to the unequal, discriminatory and sometimes exploitative treatment of women, and learn with each other on how to challenge them. To hold our government accountable to their commitment in progressing the status of women in this country, we can take action by engaging in this process by finding out more about what BPFA means, how this will affect us in a very real sense, keeping abreast with the on-going development and making little steps in making our concerns and perspectives heard. The Joint Action Group on Violence Against Women will be having a press meeting in reflecting its work for the past 20 years, as well as in our relationship to Beijing +10 on Monday, 7 March 2005. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for exciting news!

Jaclyn Kee
6 March 2005

Related Articles:

• UNDAW Review and Appraisal of the Beijing Plaform for Action
• Women's Media Pool Beijing +10
• Beijing Betrayed

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